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FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The origin of the priesthood ban is one of the most difficult questions to answer. Its origins are not clear, and this affected both how members and leaders have seen the ban, and the steps necessary to rescind it. The Church has never provided an official reason for the ban.
Members have generally taken one of three perspectives:
The difficulty in deciding between these options arises because:
a) there is no contemporary account of a revelation underlying the ban; but
b) many early members nevertheless believed that there had been such a revelation; and
c) priesthood ordination of African blacks was a rare event, which became even more rare with time.
The history behind the practice in the modern Church of withholding the priesthood based on race is described well by Lester Bush in a 1984 book.[1] A good timeline can be found at FairMormon's BlackLDS site: FAIR link.
FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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