The Church has just published a new statement on "Race and the Priesthood" here. It is part of the new section on lds.org--Gospel Topics--here. The historical subject articles are written by historians who specialize in the specific topic. (There will continue to be more additions, but take a browse. Look at the First Vision Accounts here.)
Though a couple weeks earlier would have been lovely so we could discuss along with Gospel Doctrine lesson 42, alas. I will be mentioning it at the beginning of my class tomorrow.
This is a significant addition to the new introduction to Official Declaration 2 that we've discussed here. Watch some of the additional videos offered also here and President N. Eldon Tanner reading the official declaration for the first time in General Conference here.
The statement outlines the history of the priesthood ban and importantly repudiates the folklore that tried to explain the ban--"Over time, Church leaders and members advanced many theories to explain the priesthood and temple restrictions. None of these explanations is accepted today as official doctrine of the Church." And later: "Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form." No curse of Cain, no descendants of Ham, no fence-sitters in premortal life, anything that would continue to perpetuate any of these ideas should be abolished.
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