Posted by:
Brother Of Jerry
(
)
Date: February 08, 2019 02:45AM
This is a topic on which I can speak with first hand experience. I was a missionary in central and northern Brazil in the late 1960s.
When I was growing up, there was a Puerto Rican convert in my branch who certainly looked like he had some African ancestry, but he got a patriarchal blessing that said he was of some tribe or other, and that was good enough for the locals and the MP. He was given the priesthood, as was his son.
The Mormon Church started in the southern "tail" of Brazil, which was populated primarily by Europeans. I believe it started in the 1930s, maybe the 1920s. The farther north you go in the country, the more African ancestry you find. São Paulo had a fair number of caucasians, and quite a few asian immigrants, primarily Japanese and Korean. Rio de Janeiro had just barely enough "white" residents to support missionaries, and the state of Salvador da Bahia, which had been the center of the slave trade, and the original capital of Brazil, was very predominantly mixed or pure African ancestry. There were no LDS missionaries there when I was there, and I doubt there were any until 1978 when the priesthood policy changed.
There were missionaries in NE Brazil. It was heavily mixed race as well, but not quite as much as Bahia.
Here's what was unique about being a missionary in Brazil, pre-1978.
1) We had seven lessons rather than the standard six most of the rest of the missions used. There was a special lesson on African lineage and the priesthood ban. New members were going to find out sooner or later, almost certainly sooner, so it had to be broached right from the get-go.
2) Back then we still primarily baptized full families. When we met a potential investigator family, we did a visual inspection for black ancestry, and if possible (and it was often possible) we'd chat the family up and ask them about their family history, and ask if they had any family photo albums. We'd look at pictures of however far back they had, or until we found a negroid ancestor. Yes, we were brazen enough to feign interest in their family to see family photos (to be honest, the stories often were interesting)
If we discovered a "priesthood problem", we would give them our card and invite them to church, and not give them the discussions unless they really insisted. Usually, that'd be the end of it. They wouldn't show up at church
3) Sometimes a family with African ancestry could not be discouraged from joining. In that case, it was required that they be interviewed by the mission president, to make darn sure they understood how their ancestry would affect their membership. This could take anywhere from one to three months to arrange. The northeast of Brazil was over a thousand miles from the mission home, so the MP was only there for quarterly conferences. Or maybe it was semi-annual. I no longer remember. I think it was hoped that the delay would itself give them time to change their minds and back out.
4) So, some people with African ancestry joined. They couldn't hold the priesthood. In a few cases, the father could but sons could not, because the African ancestry was through the mother. I never saw that personally, and it sounds like it would be enormously awkward.
5) What about people who join, get ordained, start doing their genealogy, and discover African ancestry? This was not uncommon. They were not unordained. They were simply asked to not "exercise" their priesthood. They were given callings in ward or stake MIA or SS, where priesthood was not required (but a penis was required). Some very faithful and devoted members were in that situation.
6) Patriarchal blessings in Brazil did not trump family photos or ancestry records. If you discovered you had African ancestry, it did not matter if you had a PB or what it said. Reality trumped the PB. Put another way, Mormon racism was stronger than Mormon "patriarchs are inspired" mythology.
7) I had very recently left LDS Inc in the mid 1970s when the first Brazilian temple was announced. My very first thought was the brown stuff was going to hit the fan now. Either the priesthood ban had to change, or this would rip the church to shreds in Brazil. If the leadership had to start saying OK, you, you and you can go to the temple and be sealed, and you and you can't because of that photo of your grandmother, things would not go well.
Now Brazil has surpassed Mexico as the country with the second highest number of Mormons after the US. The priesthood policy change was championed by James E Faust, who was in the FP, and also was the GA in charge of missions in South America. The policy change was announced after construction was nearly complete, and 2 months (iirc) before they started training temple workers for the São Paulo Temple. IMHO, there were plenty of pressures on the LDS Church to change the policy, but the Brazil temple was the 800 pound gorilla. That gave them a hard deadline, and very unpleasant results if they didn't change.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/2019 02:53AM by Brother Of Jerry.