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Originally Posted by Tex
It's a "whopper" and "self-serving" logic that leaves me with questionable intellectual honesty, eh? Gee, that's not overwrought drama language. How could I possibly have misjudged you.
I believe there are many hard-to-understand doctrines/events in scripture and church history whose full purpose and meaning can only be discovered by revelation. You're welcome to disagree with that hypothesis--I won't accuse you of whopping, self-serving, intellectual dishonesty--but I think there's solid support for it in scripture.
The priesthood ban is just one of these. You can be the most brilliant man to ever walk the earth, with all the learning and research tools that the 21st century has to offer, and still not discover the purposes of God.
Remember, the ban was rescinded by revelation. It wasn't a bunch of scholars who got together and persuaded Kimball and Co. that it needed to be removed. Instead, it came by pleading and petition of many prophets throughout several decades (assuming the DOM book is to be believed).
If you think you can figure it out, more power to you. If somehow that puts your mind at ease and makes your testimony easier to bear, more power to you. I think it's a misplaced notion. But I won't actually say so until I start hearing folks saying they think the church ought to accommodate that misplaced notion, to the extent of getting quite nasty.
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Ironically, a little more research would shed some more light on this topic. The DOM bio is a great start, but you most definitely fudging on the facts when you say that there was "pleading by many prophets over several decades".
Such research would lead you to discover that the church came very close recently to issuing a formal apology. You may also discover that top church leaders are much less likely (if ever) to say ("God must have had his reasons"). Now we are getting quotes like this:
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Elder Child said he doesn't recall that his missionaries encountered "any problem with someone asking" about why the priesthood ban existed or the folklore that was used to explain why it endured for almost 150 years within the church.
"When you think about it, that's just what it is — folklore. It's never really been official doctrine. I know there have been some misconceptions and some statements made by people in the past, but as Elder (Bruce R.) McConkie said, we've received new and additional light and knowledge through revelation, and even the folklore is obsolete now because of the fact that we have the revelation."
He said he doesn't know of specific efforts to remove erroneous material from LDS publications. Church spokesman Mark Tuttle said the church "can't remove it from our history books, and that's mostly where it is." "We have to keep in mind that it's folklore and not doctrine," Elder Child said. "It's never been recorded as such. Many opinions, personal opinions, were spoken. I'm just so grateful for this revelation," he said, adding he can recall exactly where he was and what he was doing when he heard the news 30 years ago.
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http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1...232679,00.html
Notice the conspicuous absence of "We don't know why God did it".
And yet Tex sits around waiting for a revelation from God that would overturn the folklore.