With most of today's media bandwidth seemingly taken up by Mitt Romney and Joanna Brooks (go Mormon Girl
!), the continued effort by African-American Latter-day Saints to gain membership momentum despite our church's racially fraught history hasn't gotten enough attention (in my opinion). Two members of the church, Marvin Perkins and Darius Gray, who are also members of the church's Genesis Group, are trying to change that.As background, from the 1830s to the mid-1800s, the church liberally extended priesthood to all worthy males without regard to race or color. Then around the mid-1800s, the church instituted a policy of restricting black male members from holding the priesthood (and serving missions or participating in temple work) that would last until 1978, when the practice was abolished. During this time, in an attempt to justify the new restrictive policy, many inaccurate teachings grew within the church regarding skin color, race and equality. In 1978, the church announced that a clarifying revelation had been received and the priesthood was once again made available to all worthy male members of the church.
Though the practice of restriction had been discontinued, the myriad of issues created by the policy, including the inaccurate teachings, misunderstandings, thoughts and some behaviors which grew from the policy, still exists among the membership nearly 34 years later for the simple fact that they have not been addressed and corrected. Therefore, issues of equality and race related to the church continue to surface.
As already mentioned, Perkins and Gray are trying to provide some much-needed clarity now that the topic is being made prominent on the national stage with Mitt Romney's campaign for the Republican nomination. In 2007, they teamed up to create a four-part DVD set to tackle many of the most vexing race questions in the church (read T&S's 12 questions for Perkins here). In the DVDs the two deal straightforwardly with the myths surrounding scriptural references to skin color and curses and past practices related to equality and the priesthood.
In addition, Darius Gray has recently co-produced/directed a documentary with Margaret Blair Young titled Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons. The documentary recently aired on the Documentary Channel and will also be shown tonight at Brigham Young University in the Harold B. Lee Library auditorium as part of Black History month.
Be sure to come back tomorrow, as Brothers Perkins and Gray will be giving away a Blacks in the Scriptures DVD set to one of our readers.
6 comments:
Awesome. About dang time!
Marvin Perkins is my Uncle! There is alot of friction between blacks and whites in the church. I've been a member all my life, when to BYU-I so I know the whole bit. The best thing you guys can do is educate yourselves and stop being so ignorant. There is alot of racism STILL in the church. I wish white members would stop asking me which country was I from, (born and raised in NY mind you), Can they touch my hair. You married a white guy, I bet your kids would be so cute. Is your hair real? etc. really though???! One of the main reasons why I will NEVER life in Utah or Idaho.
Donna. Do you find members in Utah/Idaho more ignorant than members in other states and that's why you would never live there? Just curious since you call them out directly.
Also, any ideas on how MMM can do a better job educating our readers on continued racism in the church? Feel free to email us directly if you don't feel comfortable posting another comment.
I don't mean ALL people from UT/ID are ignorant. I know plenty of good people from those areas that are not. My experience however, was the majority of those living there are pretty ignorant. They have not been exposed to much diversity. For example:I recieved my endowment in the Idaho Falls, temple. The temple matron started crying, and I was like ummm???? Then she preceeded to tell me she served her misson and Africa, and I quote "everytime I see little black faces, I get so emotional" WHAT THE $%^%$ REALLLY THOUGH?!?! Who says crap like that? I mean dang, didn't you guys get the Cosby show in the
80s? Blacks have been in the US for 400+ years now. Its not just in the west though. Anytime you have whites as a majority some of the old timers have a problem. When I lived in TN, there was a boom in missionary work among the spanish speaking groups. Alot of them were migrant workers who didn't know alot of English. During Relief Society, a sister was mentioning how they were going to start a spanish class so we could better communicate. And older sister disgusted claimed. "I'm not learning that language, they need to learn English" Really though?????? My last example is a recent experience I've had in the temple. I was going to meet a friend who was going through for the first time. We live in a very affluent stake. We're talking heavy hitters, wall streeters etc. So her relief society was also present to support her. I walked into the chapel, no one acknowledged my presence or said hello to me. (I'm talking a good 15 minutes) Not until, the stake president came up and spoke to me, and mentioned my husband was in the bishopric. Then they knew I wasn't some "hood rat" or something. I dunno. I guess my point is, just becuase someone isn't the same color is you, doesn't make as much money as you, doesn't speak the same language as you, or whatever, doesn't mean you have the right to treat them anything less than a Child of God. I get so annoyed, because we as members of the church know beter.
Donna,
Not all your experiences are purely race related. My wife and I were in a stake in a European country where most of the wards were in or near the capital. Our ward was in a small provincial town. Taking our kids to various stake activities, my wife always felt ignored. That is, until I became bishop. Other members who in the past had ignored her now came up to her and talked to her as if they were BFF.
Actually all my experiences ARE race related. I don't know how I could have made that any more clear. Your experiences were cultural. I'm sorry that happened to your wife, but until you've walked a mile in my shoes don't tell me what my experiences are.
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