Friday, April 26, 2024

Jacob Vidrine on Brigham Young and His Comment on there being no “neutrals” in the Pre-Existence in the Salt Lake School of the Prophets

  

Some have taken the above comment to mean that President Young rejected the notion of a curse in the pre-existence being the reason some are born black. But if that were the case, why did he encourage Orson Hyde to teach it in the Council of Fifty? Additionally, President Young himself made comments stating that blacks received the curse for “their own transgression”:

 

“Again to the subject before us, as to the men bearing rule, not one of the children of old Cain have one particle of right to bear rule in the government affairs from the first to last; they have no business there. This privilege was taken from them by their own transgressions, and I cannot help it; and should you or I bear rule, we ought to do it with dignity and honor before God. (Complete Discourses of Brigham Young <5 February 1852> page 469, emphasis added) (Jacob Vidrine, “New Light on the Origin of the Priesthood Ban,” One Eternal Round: A magazine Dedicated to Mormon History and Theology, no. 15 [August 15, 2020]: 26-27)

 

The following is from Speech of Elder Orson Hyde Delivered Before The High Priests Quorum in Nauvoo, April 27th, 1845 page 30 (as quoted in ibid., 24-25)

 

“At the time the devil was cast out of heaven, there were some spirits that did not know who had the authority, whether God or the devil. They consequently did not take a very active part on either side, but rather thought the devil had been abused, and considered he had rather the best claim to the government. These spirits were not considered bad enough to be cast down in hell, and never have bodies; neither were they considered worthy of an honorable body on this earth; but it came to pass that Ham, the son of Noah, saw the nakedness of his father while he lay drunk in his tent, and he with ‘wicked joy,’ ran like Rigdon, and made the wonderful disclosure to his brethren: while Shem and Japheth took a garment, with pity and compassion, laid ut upon their shoulders—went backwards and covered their father, and saw not his nakedness. The joy of the first was to expose; that of the second was to cover the unseemliness of their father. The conduct of the former brought the curse of slavery upon him, while that of the latter secured blessings, jurisdiction, power and dominion. Here was the beginning of blessing and cursing in the family of Noah, and here also is the cause of both. Canaan, the son of Ham, received the curse: for Noah wished to place the curse as remote from himself as possible.  He therefore placed it upon his Grandson instead of his son. Now, it would seem cruel to force pure celestial spirits into the world through the lineage of Canaan that had been cursed. This would be ill appropriate, putting the precious and the vile together. But those spirits in heaven that rather lent an influence to the devil, thinking he had a little the best right to govern, but did not take a very active part any way, were required to come into the world and take bodies in the accursed lineage of Canaan; and hence the negro or African race. Now, therefore, all those who are halting concerning who has the right to govern had better look at the face of their brethren that have gone before them, and take warning in time lest they learn obedience by the things which they suffer. ‘Choose ye this day whom you will serve.’ These things are among the mysteries of the kingdom, and I have told them, not by constraint or by commandment, but by permission.”