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Mormon and Black: Grappling with a racist past
The Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 06/10/2008 | Peggy Fletcher Stack

Posted on 03/20/2009 1:00:38 PM PDT by Alex Murphy

The first time she was ever called the most offensive of racial slurs, Tamu Smith was in the Salt Lake LDS temple.

An elderly man spied Smith, a new bride, and asked aloud what a [racial epithet] was doing there. Instead of reprimanding him, temple workers defended him, saying he didn't know better.

Smith didn't leave the LDS Church over such hurtful language then, and she remains faithful, but frustrated, nearly 15 years later. She will join other Mormons this week to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the June 8, 1978, revelation that opened the church's priesthood to "all worthy men," including those of African descent, and marked a new era for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

President Spencer W. Kimball's revelation brought a string of firsts for the church: first black missionary; first black bishop; first black couple married in the temple; first black men ordained in Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, Jamaica, Nigeria; first black general authority. It also brought relief to many white Mormons mortified by charges of racism leveled at them and their church.

Notably, it also opened Africa to Mormon missionaries, a great boon to the church. Today, 255,050 Latter-day Saints hail from Nigeria in the west to Kenya and Ethiopia in the east to Zimbabwe and South Africa in the south.

More than 2,000 African men now serve as mission presidents, regional, stake, district and congregational leaders, counselors, as patriarchs and in temple presidencies. In some countries, there are even second-generation African Latter-day Saints.

"I love being part of this church," says Noelle Nkoy, who lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo for most of her childhood.

For Africans, it's a new day in the church. Its racist past is not taught and, by those who know, it's viewed as irrelevant.

African-Americans are joining in record numbers, too, especially in places such as Harlem. But for some, the challenge of being the only black face in the congregation can be disconcerting. They sometimes feel slighted or, worse, patronized by white Mormons. And when they discover the historic mistreatment of LDS blacks, some feel a sense of betrayal and many slip from the fold.

"I don't mind defending my faith to my black friends and family," Smith says, "but I do mind having to defend my race to my fellow Mormons."

The never-ending story: Smith knew nothing about the priesthood ban when she joined at age 11 with her grandparents, but she did sense antagonism from Pentecostal relatives who saw the LDS Church as racist. Still, she felt a strong spiritual connection to Mormonism and maintained her faith even after her grandparents dropped out.

Smith met her white husband, Keith Smith, in a Fresno, Calif., ward. It wasn't until they moved to Rexburg, Idaho, that she confronted serious racism among Mormons.

"Everything was white there. The snow was white. The culture was white. The food was white," Smith says. "If this church is so true, where are all the black people? I needed to find out if I was having a unique experience."

So she read the journals of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, who publicly opposed slavery and ordained at least one black man, Elijah Abel.

"Joseph seemed impartial, even ahead of his time. He had a kind heart toward blacks," she says. "But there was a different spirit in Brigham [Young's] journals."

Young brought prejudices common in America at the time into the Mormon faith, sociologist Armand Mauss wrote. No longer were men with even a drop of African blood allowed to be ordained to the priesthood, which otherwise was available to virtually all males starting at 12. Blacks could still be members, but couldn't be leaders, serve missions or be married in one of the faith's temples.

Tamu Smith discovered all this in a pamphlet produced by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. "It was a sad story, but it made me feel somewhat better," she says. "I wasn't alone."

Shifting answers: Mormons explained the ban with the same scriptures other Christian groups used to defend practices such as slavery, Mauss wrote.

The notion that "blacks are cursed" began with the biblical story of Noah's three sons, Shem, Japheth and Ham. Descendants of Shem, the oldest, were believed to be the preferred race the Semites or Jews and Arabs. Japheth, the next son, was the father of "other white or yellow races."

In the ninth chapter of Genesis, the Bible says that because Ham saw his father's naked body, he and his descendants were cursed to be the "servant of servants."

To this justification, Mormons added a unique twist: that blacks were somehow "less valiant" than other races in the spirit world before this life, so-called fence-sitters in the War in Heaven.

Such theories continue to circulate among some Latter-day Saints and find support in quasi-official publications such as Mormon Doctrine and the Mortal Messiah series by Bruce R. McConkie, an influential LDS apostle who died in 1985. Attempts to get the church to repudiate these notions have been rebuffed.

"This folklore is not part of and never was taught as doctrine by the church," LDS spokesman Mark Tuttle said this week, adding that the church has no policy against interracial marriage, nor does it teach that everyone in heaven will be white.

The official LDS position is that only God knows why it took so long to eliminate the ban, but that's a cop-out, says Darron Smith, a University of Utah doctoral student who is serving in the Utah Army National Guard at Fort Sill, Okla. "We don't know why the Lord did this? Bulls---. It's called racism."

He believes all Latter-day Saints deserve an apology.

Such outspokenness two years ago led to Brigham Young University's decision not to renew his assistant-lecturer contract.

"Part of what hasn't happened in 30 years is open dialogue," Smith said. "People aren't as forthcoming because they're scared of repercussions, of being disciplined for speaking their experience. . . . Are you supposed to suppress your feelings for the good of the church or embrace controversy? Controversy presents opportunities for growth."

He's committed to his Mormon faith and simply wants "the church to be what it says it is" and to reach what he trusts is its full potential.

Signs of hope: Black Mormons hope the more people know about the church's racist past, the more progress toward healing they'll see. Better information is what Darius Gray and Margaret Blair Young hope they've provided in their groundbreaking documentary, "Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons."

Gray, the author and businessman who led Genesis, a support group for black Mormons, from 1997 to 2003, and Young, his co-author on a trilogy tracing the history of LDS blacks, have previewed the documentary at film festivals. It will be available for general release later this summer, and includes never-released footage of interviews shot in 1968 and rare archival photographs as well as interviews with members, social scientists, clergy and historians.

"This is not a sanitized nor a bitter piece. We are neither proselytizing nor bashing," Gray says. "It's a chance for black Mormons to share their joys, excitement, sadness and struggles."

Gray, Young and many others were pleased by Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland's recent statements about blacks in the church.

Racist folklore must "never be perpetuated," Holland told filmmaker Helen Whitney in her PBS documentary about the Mormons. "However well-intended the explanations were, I think almost all of them were inadequate and/or wrong."

They were also gratified to hear the late President Gordon B. Hinckley condemn racism in strong language during the church's annual General Conference in 2006.

"I am told that racial slurs and denigrating remarks are sometimes heard among us," Hinckley said during the all-male priesthood session. "I remind you that no man who makes disparaging remarks concerning those of another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ. Nor can he consider himself to be in harmony with the teachings of the Church of Christ. How can any man holding the Melchizedek Priesthood arrogantly assume that he is eligible for the priesthood whereas another who lives a righteous life but whose skin is of a different color is ineligible?"

Hinckley's words were welcome, but they weren't enough for many.

"For racism to stop, we need to hear it condemned at Conference as often as pornography or abuse are," Tamu Smith says. "The brethren don't want to open up old wounds, but those wounds have never healed."


TOPICS: Apologetics; History; Other Christian; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: 1stamendment; bigots; blacklds; lds; ldschurch; mormon; religiousfreedom
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"...there was a different spirit in Brigham [Young's] journals." Young brought prejudices common in America at the time into the Mormon faith, sociologist Armand Mauss wrote. No longer were men with even a drop of African blood allowed to be ordained to the priesthood, which otherwise was available to virtually all males starting at 12. Blacks could still be members, but couldn't be leaders, serve missions or be married in one of the faith's temples.
1 posted on 03/20/2009 1:00:38 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
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To: Alex Murphy

I am a black woman married to a white man for the last 20 years. I am sorry, but could not join a “church” that had such racist origins.


2 posted on 03/20/2009 1:02:50 PM PDT by brwnsuga (Proud, Black, Sexy Conservative!!! I am no LEMMING!)
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To: Alex Murphy
320 replies HERE
3 posted on 03/20/2009 1:07:44 PM PDT by greyfoxx39 (Recession-Your neighbor loses his job, Depression-you lost your job, Recovery-Obama loses HIS job.)
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To: brwnsuga
This country once enslaved people of color....is that enough to say you wouldn't be an American now, given the choice? The state of West Virginia keeps electing a Democrat, Byrd, a former Klansman as its senior Senator. Is that enough to say you wouldn't be a West Virginian?

To me, it is a matter of today and now. If they, the Morman Church, still espouse or exhibit this, then it is a different story.

4 posted on 03/20/2009 1:07:48 PM PDT by Gaffer
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To: brwnsuga

That would rule out a lot of churches. People and institutions can change.


5 posted on 03/20/2009 1:12:31 PM PDT by IYAS9YAS (Obama - what you get when you mix Affirmative Action with the Peter Principle.)
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To: Alex Murphy

“I am told that racial slurs and denigrating remarks are sometimes heard among us,” Hinckley said during the all-male priesthood session. “I remind you that no man who makes disparaging remarks concerning those of another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ. Nor can he consider himself to be in harmony with the teachings of the Church of Christ. How can any man holding the Melchizedek Priesthood arrogantly assume that he is eligible for the priesthood whereas another who lives a righteous life but whose skin is of a different color is ineligible?”


6 posted on 03/20/2009 1:13:24 PM PDT by Old Mountain man (Blessed be the Peacemaker.)
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To: Alex Murphy

Almost every American denomination split between north and south during the 1850s. Southerners insisted on defending slavery, while many northerners wanted to denounce it.

Interestingly, one can find a great deal of support in the Bible for the institution of slavery, but none at all for racism. In the ancient world, the two had nothing at all to do with each other.


7 posted on 03/20/2009 1:14:45 PM PDT by Sherman Logan (Everyone has a right to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.)
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To: brwnsuga
I am a black woman married to a white man for the last 20 years. I am sorry, but could not join a “church” that had such racist origins.

I'm not trying to be a jerk but seriously, what religion doesn't have racist origins? I mean, even a tribe 5,000 years ago probably were racist against other tribes or whatever.

8 posted on 03/20/2009 1:17:09 PM PDT by exist
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To: Old Mountain man
Those are good remarks made by President Gordon B. Hinckley. I noticed they were made in 2006, twenty-eight years after the 1978 revelation and eleven years after the SBC statement, though.
9 posted on 03/20/2009 1:18:22 PM PDT by Alex Murphy ( "Every country has the government it deserves" - Joseph Marie de Maistre)
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To: IYAS9YAS

“That would rule out a lot of churches. People and institutions can change.”

Most of them. I can find good ‘Christian’ slave owners attending just about any Christian Church in the 1850’s.
Have they all apologized?


10 posted on 03/20/2009 1:18:49 PM PDT by AuntB (The right to vote in America: Blacks 1870; Women 1920; Native Americans 1925; Foreigners 2008)
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To: exist; brwnsuga
I'm not trying to be a jerk but seriously

You're doing a great job for not even trying.

11 posted on 03/20/2009 1:19:46 PM PDT by colorcountry (A faith without truth is not true faith.)
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To: exist

There’s a difference between tribalism and racism. The ancient Israelites believed their tribe was God’s chosen people. They had no greater antipathy to tribes that looked very different from them than to those that looked almost the same. Even this rather mild tribalism was utterly rejected by the New Testament, and BTW, by the Koran.

The idea that man is divided into three to five great “races,” with vast differences between the races (with some being closer to the animals) and great commonality within them, actually dates back only to early modern times and has little or no history prior to that.


12 posted on 03/20/2009 1:22:27 PM PDT by Sherman Logan (Everyone has a right to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.)
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To: Alex Murphy

The difference is, I can take you to lots of segregated SBC churches in the South and you cannot take me to one segregated LDS chapel in the world.


13 posted on 03/20/2009 1:25:22 PM PDT by Old Mountain man (Blessed be the Peacemaker.)
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To: Old Mountain man
I can take you to lots of segregated SBC churches in the South and you cannot take me to one segregated LDS chapel in the world.

I could take you to lots of all-white ones. Does that count?

14 posted on 03/20/2009 1:26:27 PM PDT by Alex Murphy ( "Every country has the government it deserves" - Joseph Marie de Maistre)
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To: Alex Murphy

No, because all are welcome. I can guarantee you that is not true in the SBC. I am an expert, a former Baptist and under the terms of debate on these issues, that qualifies me as THE expert on the subject.


15 posted on 03/20/2009 1:28:18 PM PDT by Old Mountain man (Blessed be the Peacemaker.)
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To: Old Mountain man
I can take you to lots of segregated SBC churches in the South and you cannot take me to one segregated LDS chapel in the world.

What does that mean? Does it mean that no black people attend that particular congregation? Because I can sure take you to PLENTY of LDS Churches with not one single black person in the congregation.

16 posted on 03/20/2009 1:29:21 PM PDT by colorcountry (A faith without truth is not true faith.)
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To: Old Mountain man; colorcountry; SENTINEL
I am an expert, a former Baptist and under the terms of debate on these issues, that qualifies me as THE expert on the subject.

colorcountry and SENTINEL will be thrilled to hear that those same terms qualifies them as THE experts on the subject of all things Mormon.

17 posted on 03/20/2009 1:35:12 PM PDT by Alex Murphy ( "Every country has the government it deserves" - Joseph Marie de Maistre)
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To: Alex Murphy

I am an expert on all things Mormonism.

I say their teachings are racist, sexist, sex-crazed, prideful and will lead them to hell.

Next!


18 posted on 03/20/2009 1:36:55 PM PDT by colorcountry (A faith without truth is not true faith.)
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To: Alex Murphy

That has been what every one of you anti-Mormons has claimed. What’s new?


19 posted on 03/20/2009 1:41:29 PM PDT by Old Mountain man (Blessed be the Peacemaker.)
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To: Alex Murphy

Sadly, while Christians were at the forefront of the abolition movement, other Christians were brought along kicking and screaming.

It is a sad fact that not everyone awakens to evil right away when that evil is embedded in the culture, even when opposition to that same evil is also embedded in the very same culture. It takes time, even generations, to work all that through.

Its human nature. It takes time for some evils to be overturned, even among otherwise good and virtuous people. Christ has a way of undermining evil, but not all of it will be worked out in any one generation, not even among Christians.


20 posted on 03/20/2009 1:50:57 PM PDT by marron
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