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| | #REDIRECT[[Repudiated ideas about race]] |
| {{Resource Title|Were some people "neutral" in the "war in heaven"?}}
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| {{RacePortal}}
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| <onlyinclude>
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| {{epigraph|December 25, 1869: I attended the School of the Prophets. Many questions were asked. President Young answered them. Lorenzo Young asked if the spirits of Negroes were neutral in heaven. He said someone said Joseph Smith said they were. President Young said no they were not. There were no neutral spirits in heaven at the time of the rebellion. All took sides. He said if anyone said that he heard the Prophet Joseph say that the spirits of the Blacks were neutral in heaven, he would not believe them, for he heard Joseph say to the contrary. All spirits are pure that come from the presence of God. The posterity of Cain are black because he commit[ted] murder. He killed Abel and God set a mark upon his posterity. But the spirits are pure that enter their tabernacles and there will be a chance for the redemption of all the children of Adam except the sons of perdition.<br><br>—Wilford Woodruff's Journal, entry dated Dec. 25, 1869.
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| {{parabreak}}
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| == ==
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| {{Criticism label}}
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| *Does Latter-day Saint scripture claim that those with lighter skin color "are favored because of what they did as spirits in a pre-earth life."
| | <!-- PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE --> |
| *Some Church leaders taught that people who were born with dark skin were "neutral" in the pre-existence.
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| *One critical website claims, "One apologist (a personal good friend of mine) told me in confidence that he personally thought that blacks were 'fence-sitters' in the pre-existence and were indeed cursed from Cain and that the prophets were correct about the doctrine and the reasons for it. They don't talk about it for the obvious public image problems that it would cause for the church in modern times. Perhaps that's true - we'll never really know. But this is further evidence that the church needs to make a more official statement on the reasons for the ban." <ref>MormonThink.com</ref>
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| <noinclude>{{CriticalSources}}</noinclude>
| | [[es:Las cuestiones raciales y el Mormonismo/Los negros y el sacerdocio/Ideas repudiadas/Neutral en la "guerra en el cielo"]] |
| | [[pt:Mormonismo e Assuntos Raciais/Negros e do sacerdócio/Idéias repudiou/Neutro em "guerra no céu"]] |
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| == ==
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| {{ChurchResponseBar
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| |link=http://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng
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| |title=Race and the Priesthood
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| |publication=Gospel Topics
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| |date=2013
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| |summary=Even after 1852, at least two black Mormons continued to hold the priesthood. When one of these men, Elijah Abel, petitioned to receive his temple endowment in 1879, his request was denied. Jane Manning James, a faithful black member who crossed the plains and lived in Salt Lake City until her death in 1908, similarly asked to enter the temple; she was allowed to perform baptisms for the dead for her ancestors but was not allowed to participate in other ordinances. The curse of Cain was often put forward as justification for the priesthood and temple restrictions. Around the turn of the century, another explanation gained currency: blacks were said to have been less than fully valiant in the premortal battle against Lucifer and, as a consequence, were restricted from priesthood and temple blessings.
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| <br>...<br>
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| Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form.
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| }}
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| == ==
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| {{Conclusion label}}
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| The idea that anyone who came to earth was "neutral" in the premortal existence is not a doctrine of the Church. Early Church leaders had a variety of opinions regarding the status of blacks in the pre-existence, and some of these were expressed in an attempt to explain the priesthood ban. The scriptures, however, do not explicitly state that the status or family into which we were born on earth had anything to do with our "degree of valiance" in our pre-mortal life.
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| Other religions would not have had reason for such a teaching because they do not believe in the pre-existence or the "war in heaven."
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| == ==
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| {{Response label}}
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| {{:Question: Was the idea that Blacks were neutral in the "war in heaven" ever official doctrine?}}
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| {{:Question: Did Church leaders ever teach that Blacks were neutral in the "war in heaven?"}}
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| ===Question: Did the Church repudiate the idea of neutrality in the "war in heaven?"<br>Answer: Yes.===
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| Some members and leaders explained the ban as congruent with the justice of God by suggesting that those who were denied the priesthood had done something in the pre-mortal life to deny themselves the priesthood. President Kimball was reported as repudiating this idea following the 1978 revelation:
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| :President Kimball "flatly [stated] that Mormonism no longer holds to...a theory" that Blacks had been denied the priesthood "because they somehow failed God during their pre-existence." <ref>Kimball, ''Lengthen Your Stride'', chapter 24, page 3; citing Richard Ostling, "Mormonism Enters a New Era," ''Time'' (7 August 1978): 55. Ostling told President Kimball's biographer and son that this was a paraphrase, but an accurate reporting of what he had been told (see footnote 13, citing interview on 10 May 2001).</ref>
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| The modern Church rejects this theory:
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| :Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form. <ref>"Race and the Priesthood," ''Gospel Topics'', lds.org. (2013) {{link|url=http://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood}}</ref>
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| Modern Church leaders teach that everyone who came to earth in this day was "valiant" in the premortal existence. Elder M. Russell Ballard, talking of today's youth, said in 2005:
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| :Remind them that they are here at this particular time in the history of the world, with the fulness of the gospel at their fingertips, because they made valiant choices in the premortal existence. <ref>M. Russell Ballard, "One More," ''Ensign'', May 2005, p. 69.</ref>
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| ===Question: A friend of mine told me that the Church refuted the "neutral in the pre-existence" teaching only to preserve their public image<br>Answer: This is utter nonsense===
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| For example, the claim on MormonThink:
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| <blockquote>
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| One apologist (a personal good friend of mine) told me in confidence that he personally thought that blacks were 'fence-sitters' in the pre-existence and were indeed cursed from Cain and that the prophets were correct about the doctrine and the reasons for it. They don't talk about it for the obvious public image problems that it would cause for the church in modern times. Perhaps that's true - we'll never really know. But this is further evidence that the church needs to make a more official statement on the reasons for the ban.
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| </blockquote>
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| The critics are simply trying to assert, based upon anonymous speculation, that Church members still believe this secretly. There exists a very clear a statement that it has been rejected by the Church.
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| <blockquote>
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| Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form. ("Race and the Priesthood," ''Gospel Topics'' on LDS.org {{link|url=https://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng}})
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| </blockquote>
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| The only people demanding a statement of reasons for a ban which was lifted over 30 years ago are ex-Mormons and critics.
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| What some unnamed "apologist" is alleged to have said is not "further evidence" of anything. ("a personal good friend of mine" is ''not'' a reference). The only thing that can be concluded is that some Church members used to believe in the "neutral in the pre-existence" idea as an explanation for the ban. The modern Church does not accept or believe that this explanation is valid.
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| None of the apologists that ''we'' know believe this.
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| {{:Source:Gospel Topics:Race and the Priesthood:2013:Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor}}
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| == ==
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| {{further information label}}
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| == ==
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| {{ChurchResponseBar
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| |link=https://archive.org/stream/improvementera2706unse#page/564/mode/2up
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| |title=The Negro and the Priesthood
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| |publication=Improvement Era
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| |author=Joseph Fielding Smith
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| |date=April 1924
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| |vol=27
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| |num=6
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| |start=565
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| |summary=We know of no scripture, ancient or modern, that declares that at the time of the rebellion in heaven that one-third of the hosts of heaven remained neutral. ... That one-third of the hosts of heaven remained neutral and therefore were cursed by having a black skin, could hardly be true, for the negro race has not constituted one-third of the inhabitants of the earth.
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| }}
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| </onlyinclude>
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| == ==
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| {{Endnotes label}}
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| <references/>
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| {{FurtherReading}}
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| [[fr:Blacks and the priesthood/Pre-existence]]
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| [[Category:MormonThink]] | | [[Category:MormonThink]] |
