Thursday, April 18, 2024

J. Reuben Clark, Jr. Journal for August 18, 1939: The Importance of Patriarchal Blessings in Determining One's Lineage During the Priesthood/Temple Restriction

  

[August 18, 1939]

 

Negroes entering the Temples: A case had been referred to us in which a woman whose father and mother had been through the Temple was applying to go through the Temple herself. She was from the Southern States Mission, and the Church records showed that opposite her name someone had placed the endorsement, “negro blood.” Brother McKay talked with me yesterday or the day before about it, and I suggested that he get her patriarchal blessing and see what the patriarch said her lineage was. Brother McKay did that, and found the blessing had been given by Elder George F. Richards, that he had told her she was of the lineage of Israel through Joseph and Ephraim. We decided that under those circumstances she could not be denied admission to the Temple. Brother McKay tried to get in touch with Brother Callis, but was not able to find him at the time. (J. Reuben Clark, Jr., Journal, August 18, 1939, in The Diaries of J. Reuben Clark, 1933-1961, Abridged, Digital Edition [Salt Lake City: 2015])