Jamie’s Blog

The first part of this book, in Personal insights From a Black Man in Zion, Marcus Martins states he was the first Black man to go on a full time mission after the ban was lifted. The foot notes read “Brother Elijah Able, a (member of the third quorum of the) seventy, was the first member with Black African ancestry to serve full-time missions for the Church in the nineteenth century”. If the Priesthood Ban was instituted in 1830, the first year the Church was established, then how did Brother Able become ordained an Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood and also Ordained to the Office of Seventy? Marcus never explained the why he was ordained. Or if it was a problem in the Church.These are some of the questions I wanted answered in this book.

As I read further, he did answer a question regarding the Priesthood Ban. But the answer was neither official nor unofficial. It was his own hypothesis. And how we should not question God.

In my mind this book should have had a different title. It probably wouldn’t sell as many copies but it would have a true title like: “Blacks & the Mormon Priesthood: Don’t Question God“or “Blacks & the Mormon Priesthood: The Ban is now in the past (stop bringing it up already. . . gosh!)“.

There was one, out of many, off topic remark was made in the book. But this one shocked me to read:

“So if someone can’t bear the thought of being with me in eternity, he or she is welcome to head or another kingdom. ¹ In my research I have read many racist remarks made by church leaders and this statement in up there with the best. How dare he say that about others? How dare he say that? Oh, if you want to know the title of the next sub-chapter in the book:

“Dealing with Statements from the Past.”

And now we have a hateful statement from the present.

I really need to let the people in on something about Jamie Trwth. I read my first real novel  at the age of 25. Learning the eloquence and flow (for lack of better words) of the English language didn’t come easy for me. Being Diagnosed with learning disabilities when I was young and adult Attention Deficit Disorder in later years. But I didn’t go to college and partake in writing classes. And I really have to say that if I was to ever hand in a paper of this sort to any one of my professors I would have failed the course no questions asked. This book is one of the worst reads². If you were thinking about purchasing this book on the publishers website please think again. They didn’t even have it listed nor do they have an ecommerce site of their own. You are taken to another site to search for and purchase this book.

And like I said in the first post. . . . I was really disappointed with this book. . . on so many levels.

For real answers to your questions about the “Black Mormon Priesthood Ban” check out Blacks in the Scriptures or John Delihn’s Mormon Stories Podcast Episode #26 Blacks and the LDS Priesthood

Jamie Trwth

1. Page 27 Setting the Record Straight: Blacks & The Mormon Priesthood. [↩]
2. beside the ‘Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple‘ Booklet [↩]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Black. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.