Early
Mormonism had many failings when it came to race issues, and I will not make
any excuses for that. For more, see Russell M. Stevenson’s excellent book, For
the Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism, 1830-2013
and the Gospel Topics Essay “Race
and the Priesthood.”
Early
Christianity, too, had its problems, however. As Richard M. Grant noted on the
issue of slavery:
In regard to slavery too no basic questions
were raised. It might be that in writing to Philemon on behalf of the runaway
slave Onesimus the apostle Paul was suggesting that he be emancipated, but in 1
Corinthians 7:20 Paul definitely urged slaves to make Christian use of their
condition, not to seek for freedom. Slaves and freemen alike were to remain in
the state in which they were called; they had mutual responsibilities, but the emphasis
was laid on the slaves’ obedience (Col. 3:22-5; Eph. 6:5-8; 1 Pet. 2:18-20; 1 Tim.
6:1-2; Tit. 2:9-10; Did. 4:10-11).
Ignatius of Antioch had to urge Polycarp not to look down on slaves, while
reminding him that they were not to be ‘puffed up’ or try to obtain
emancipation at the expense of the church (Ignatius, Polyc. 4, 3). Clement of Rome wrote not of emancipation but of
self-sale: many Christians, he said, had fed others with the price they
obtained for themselves (1 Clem. 55, 2).
As the eschatological impetus began to wane,
ex-slaves came to the fore in some Christian communities, notably at Rome, as
was the case in the empire generally. The prophet Hermas and the bishop
Callistus had once been slaves; Hippolytus looked down on the bishop (Ref. 9, 12, 1). According to
Athenagoras, Christians owned slaves, ‘some more, some fewer’, and none brought
accusations against their masters (Leg.
35, 1). One the other hand, at Lyons about 177 some slaves did make such
accusations (Eusebius, H.E. 5, 1, 14),
and Tertullian called the slaves of Christians their enemies ‘from their very
nature’ (Apol. 7, 3).
The emancipation of slaves is recommended in
later church orders (Const. Apost. 4,
9, 2), but only in regard to those slaves in time of persecution. The idea that
slavery is immortal because all men are equal before God is expressed only in
the Gnostic Acts of Thomas (Acta Thomae 82-3). (Robert M. Grant, Augustus to Constantine: The Thrust of the
Christian Movement into the Roman World [New York: Harper and Row, 1970], 300-1)
