An alternative explanation popped into my head while I was musing on this topic over the weekend.
Could it be possible that the
world was not ready for blacks to hold the priesthood? Could it be that the reason for the delay--the "not yet" to McKay--was at least in part because a racially divided America would not accept a race-neutral LDS church? Could it be that God thought it best not to have his organization be the one to lead out by changing its doctrine first, thus inserting itself publicly into the coming national dialogue on the topic?
We know that political and legal considerations played a role in the discontinuation of polygamy, why not for the priesthood ban? McKay became president in 1951, at the leading edge of two decades of racial unrest. Could not the Lord have withheld as a means of protecting his church from its host country who at one time went to war over this same issue?
What evidence do I have to support such a hypothesis? I have no more than that which has been put forward for any of the other theories. But this one at least has the advantage of taking a kinder (and in my opinion, more consistent) approach to the men God chose to lead his church. And it reflects better on the body of the membership who, in truth, are God's people.
I don't necessarily subscribe to this theory. I just put it forth to illustrate that there could be a dozen explanations for the ban (or a combination of the same). I don't know why we must necessarily adopt the one that opens the biggest chasm between God, his prophet, and his people.
Just a thought.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SteelBlue
After 3 >15 page threads on the topic I'm more than weary. All of the points you listed have been thoroughly addressed, and I'm not going to waste any more time (today at least) typing the same thing again and again. However, I found your point number 4 here to be humorous. Why? Well, it appears that this was one of the greatest worries of the brethren as they were working this whole thing out. McKay commissioned a committee from the 12 to study the matter and they apparently came to the conclusion that there was no scriptural evidence for the ban but that the membership was not ready for a change (McKay book chapter 4).
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I'm gonna be fascinated to read that book. I'd really like to see the internals of a study commissioned by the 12 to find out: are LDS folks too racist for black elders? What was it, a phone survey?