Dear Gramps,

I was just doing some reading about Blacks and the priesthood and I came across the case of Elijah Abel. What can you tell me about him and was he an exception to the rule? If so, why?

Curtis, from Rexburg, Idaho

Dear Curtis,

Not only was the ordination of Elijah Abel an exception, it was a mistake. President Harold B. Lee, in a talk at Brigham Young University in 1961, explained the matter in some detail, as follows—

“Some are heralding the fact that there was one of colored blood, Elijah Abel, who was ordained a Seventy in the early days. They go to the Church chronology and find the date of this ordination, and hold that up as saying that we departed from what was started way back, but they forget that also in Church history is another interesting observation. President Joseph F. Smith is quoted in a statement under date of August 26, 1908, when he referred to Elijah Abel who was ordained a Seventy in the days of the Prophet and to whom was issued a Seventy’s certificate. This ordination, when found out, was declared null and void by the Prophet himself and so likewise by the next three presidents who succeeded the Prophet Joseph. Somehow because of a little lapse, or a little failure to do research properly, some people reach a conclusion that they had wanted to reach and to make it appear as though something had been done way back from which we had departed and which now ought to be set in order” (Harold B. Lee April 19, 1961, BYU Speeches of the Year, 1961, p.7).

Gramps