We haven't really discussed the ban....

[fusnik11]

on blacks and their ability to hold the priesthood.

Interestingly enough one of the most refreshing things about the prophet was his ability to see past skin color.

-He allowed Elijah Abel to stay with his family

-He was intimately associated with Elijah Abel

-Elijah Abel was one of the men at the death bed of his father

-Stated, 'Go to Cincinnati and find an educated negro, who rides in his carriage, and you will see a man who has rise by the powers of his own mind to his exalted state of respectability.'

-Appointed Abel as an undertaker in Nauvoo

-Allowed Abel to have the priesthood, advance to the office of a Seventy, (different than our seventies today) and allowed him to serve two full time missions. (Abel served three, the last he fell ill, and right before his mission was denied the rights to enter the temple but was called to serve a mission)

Now, an honest question, is it acceptable to say that Brigham and his fellow apostles were completely wrong in the way they treated subsequent blacks? Does this prove that apostles and the prophet can lead the church astray in certain aspects? Does it cement the apostles, who commented numerous times, on the 'fence sitting negro,' as ignorant or as racists?