Main Page: Latter-day Saint Racial History
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The Church of Jesus Christ and Black People 2016-2017

Ground was broken for the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple on February 12, 2016. Around this time, the World Report released another video on the Church's growth in Africa.

The Force is Eternally Strong With This Family

On May 30, 2016, McKenzie Romero reported in the Deseret News, "It's a love story that reaches to a galaxy far, far away.

"From their first date, Julianne Payne - now Julianne Sine - was up front about her young daughter, Addie. Likewise, Victor Sine was up front about being an unabashed nerd. Within weeks and then months, a love quietly blossomed between the three of them.

"But when photos of the trio dressed as Finn, Rey and the droid BB-8 from the movie 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' hit the Internet earlier this year, the love story grew to include thousands of people who shared their pictures and began cheering the newly engaged couple toward their marriage and the goal of adopting 1-year-old Addie.

"Victor and Julianne Sine were married Saturday in the Newport Beach Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and adoption proceedings for baby Addie will begin this week. While their wedding reception was not Star Wars themed, it did include a lightsaber sendoff and a photo posted for their fans online with the message, 'The Force is eternally strong with this family.'

"Falling in love

"After connecting on Tinder and meeting for their first date last August, the Sines had no question they would see each other again. The same was true for the next date, and the one after that. After a few weeks, Victor was introduced to Addie and to Julianne Sine's parents.

'After every date... as he was walking me to my car it was like, "OK, what are you doing next week?"' she said. 'We never stopped seeing each other.'

"As they continued to date, coordinating their schedules to travel between his home in Salt Lake City and her home in Midway, the couple's activities became increasingly nerdy. Toward the end of the year they completed a weeklong marathon watching films from the Star Wars franchise as they prepared for the release of 'The Force Awakens' in December.

'I didn't realize how much of a nerd he was until about two months into us dating. It should have been obvious,' Julianne Sine said, laughing, as they recalled photos on Victor Sine's Tinder profile showing him dressed as the character Green Lantern.

"Victor Sine, a veteran comic con attendee and cosplayer, noted that they resembled two new characters, Finn and Rey, who had appeared in the trailers and began suggesting they dress up to match them at Salt Lake Comic Con's FanX event scheduled a few months later.

"Though hesitant at first, after seeing the film, Julianne Sine caught her boyfriend's enthusiasm.

'We went and saw "Star Wars" and I was like, "Oh, that's Rey and Finn? I totally get it now,"' she said, diving right away into preparing her costume. 'I realized, oh my gosh, I was born for this stuff.'

"Just before the convention, the couple got engaged, and got the idea to put the finishing touch on their costume: A dress and cap for baby Addie resembling the orange and white droid, BB-8, from the movie.

"Going viral

"By the end of the first day at FanX, strangers asking to take pictures of the couple and 'Baby 8' began informing them they were 'going viral.' However, unable to find anything about their photos online, Victor and Julianne Sine were skeptical.

"But the day after the three-day convention ended, there was no longer a question that their pictures were making waves online. As posts were shared thousands of times across several sites - Reddit, Imgur, Tumblr Facebook, Twitter and more - requests started rolling in by the hour for interviews and television appearances.

'There were over like 300,000 views and likes and re-blogs,' Victor Sine said.

"Together they created a Facebook page and a Twitter account titled 'The real Finn and Rey,' spent about three weeks responding to requests for interviews and more pictures. With their soon-to-be wedding photographer, Robert Lance, they set out to the Little Sahara sand dunes for a photo shoot recreating the fictional planet of Jakku where their characters first meet and including a breathtaking picture of Victor Sine dipping his costumed bride-to-be for a kiss atop a dune.

"And the Internet exploded again.

'How personal people were with us, who didn't know us, was shocking,' Victor Sine said. 'At first I thought it was just about cosplay, but they authentically and sincerely love us as people.... It makes us feel like we have a big friend group and a big family group.'

"The couple appeared in costume again May 11 for a press conference with Salt Lake Comic Con, where fans lined up to say hi and take photos.

'It's touching, really,' Julianne Sine said. 'Those are our people, for sure.'

"Adoption and faith

"With wedding planning underway, the couple began looking at the cost of having Victor Sine adopt baby Addie. As they discussed the kindness of countless strangers online, Julianne Sine began to wonder whether their fans would be willing to help them become a family.

'When we went viral, we thought, all these people are so excited about our adoption, what if they were able to help?' she said, recalling a few people who reached out and offered help even before their GoFundMe campaign was launched. 'It totally took off in the first few weeks.... It was almost like that was the reason it was meant for us to go viral.'

"Victor Sine said he has especially enjoyed seeing people's happy reactions as they have donated.

'They love that we're a whole family now, and that they were part of making that happen,' he said.

"As of Sunday, the campaign had raised just short of $5,500, half of the listed goal.

"From their first few weeks dating, it had been clear that, should the relationship progress, the couple wanted Victor Sine to adopt the bubbly infant.

'It came to the point that I fell in love with Addie as her father,' Victor Sine said.

"At a hearing in April, Addie's biological father, who had not been involved in raising her, voluntarily relinquished his parental rights. Now, with Julianne and Victor married, their attorney will begin filing adoption paperwork this week while the couple honeymoons in Puerto Rico. While the process could take up to a year, they hope to fast track the adoption to be completed by summer's end.

"Describing their marriage in the Newport Beach Temple, Julianne Sine says their love story - including its nerdy twist - has solidified her faith in God. She was raised in the LDS church but spent several years inactive, she said, and was just returning to the faith when she met her now-husband.

'Since I started going back to church and met Victor, everything has fallen into place,' she said. 'The more I go to church, the more my faith grows, the more awesome things happen to us.... Now there's really no room for doubt.'

"In addition to the happy moments, faith has played a vital role in dealing with the challenges they have faced, Victor Sine said.

'Things have been hard too, things have been stressful, and no one is exempt from trials in this life, but I think our faith has helped,' he said.

"Victor Sine said, 'It's so encouraging, and we know that things will be hard, but together, as long as we anchor ourselves in our faith -'

'- And in our marriage,' his wife interjected.

'We know that it will work out,' he finished."

Commenter "Friend-of-the-Good" wrote, "The force is strong with Victor Sine! I saw it when he was 12, a new Deacon. When his mom was late in getting him to church, he walked a few miles on his own to get there on time. He always brought his scriptures. He was honest and true. A finer Jedi, I know not. A great man, he is. A happy couple, they will be. Finest blessings, for them, I wish...."

Freedmen's Bureau Project Completed

On June 20, the Church Newsroom issued a press release: 'Now that the names are indexed, we will focus our efforts on teaching African Americans how to search the new digital records to discover and reunite with their families,' said Thom Reed, marketing manager of FamilySearch, the largest genealogy organization in the world, which is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch has announced completion of the Freedmen’s Bureau Project, indexing the names of millions of African Americans collected directly following emancipation.

"The unprecedented indexing effort will allow African Americans to digitally search for their ancestors who were previously lost to history. The project was completed almost a year to the day after it was announced in a nationwide news conference at the California African American Museum on the 150th anniversary of Juneteenth, the celebration of Emancipation Day.

​"Over the past year, about 19,000 volunteers participated in the project across the U.S. and Canada to extract nearly 1.8 million names of former slaves and immigrants from Civil War-era records.

"Key to the project’s success were the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society’s (AAHGS) nationwide chapters, the Smithsonian and local Mormon congregations who partnered in over 100 indexing events to bring the project to a successful conclusion.

"FamilySearch also partnered with HISTORY® in May to give the project a final push through a social media campaign to coincide with the premiere of the television series 'Roots.'

'In addition to our valuable partners, the project was embraced by dedicated genealogists, religious groups, universities and even was the focus of Eagle Scout projects,' added Reed. 'We all sensed an urgency to bring this important chapter in history to life and shine a light on this courageous generation of African Americans.'

"William Durant from the AAHGS Metro Atlanta Chapter said, 'Indexing Freedmen's Bureau records puts you "up close and personal" with ancestors and their struggles to begin life anew after slavery. It helps prepare you for your own research and saves time because you become familiar with the records, their format and wording, and [you] already know where to look for names.'

"The project’s completion coincides with the September 2016 opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C. A symbolic handover of the records will take place later this year. At that time, all of the records will also be available to the public to search online at no cost.

'The genealogical community is fully embracing these records,' said Hollis Gentry, genealogy specialist at NMAAHC. 'You’ll find African American genealogists are quite excited about the Freedmen’s Bureau Project. It offers a tremendous potential for them to find their ancestors in this large group of federal records that may bridge the gap between freedom and slavery in the records.'

'The Freedmen's Bureau Project will change the very fabric of genealogy for African Americans,' said Sherri Camp, president of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society.

"The Freedmen’s Bureau, organized under an 1865 Congressional order at the conclusion of the Civil War, offered assistance to freed slaves. Handwritten records of these transactions include records such as marriage registers, hospital or patient registers, educational efforts, census lists, labor contracts and indenture or apprenticeship papers and others. The records were compiled in 15 states and the District of Columbia.

"Although the project is completed, it will be few more months before all of the records will be available to the public because they still need to go through an arbitration process.

'To ensure the accuracy of the indexed information, two volunteers index each document. Any differences between the entries of these two volunteers is reviewed by a third, experienced volunteer called an arbitrator,' explained Michael Judson of FamilySearch. 'The arbitrator chooses the correct indexed data or adds their own information when neither appears to be correct.'

"Project organizers report that even more records have been discovered as a result of the original indexing project. The additional records will be available for indexing on DiscoverFreedmen.org. Once completed, they too will be added to the collection at the Smithsonian and will be available online.

'One of our key beliefs is that our families can be linked forever and that knowing the sacrifices, the joys and the paths our ancestors trod helps us to know who we are and what we can accomplish,' said Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who spoke a year ago at a news conference in Los Angeles to launch the Freedmen’s Bureau Project."

Choosing to Stay

In an August 28 article for The Atlantic, Janan Graham-Russell wrote, "​It’s been six years since I became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Each year has been a lesson in faith and doubt, stretching and engaging what it means to be black, a woman, and Mormon. The decision to join on my own was not an easy one. As the child of a Protestant mother and a father who converted to Islam in his teens, I was doing something unheard of in my family by becoming a Mormon. And as a black woman, I had a heightened awareness of what it means to potentially be the only black person in any given congregation in the United States.

"As a child, I watched as preachers in my congregation espoused their deepest beliefs about God. They spoke to the horrors faced by black people in the United States in their dealings in life and death. There was intense power in their sermons, one that was complemented by the soft presence of a 'Black Jesus,' a savior who understood the plight of African Americans in word and form. He represented the long tradition of resistance within the black church to white-supremacist theology: Racialized violence in the United States was often supported by white Christians who recognized whiteness as good and blackness as evil. Within the walls of my congregation, blackness was not discounted, but embraced in all its various forms from the pulpit to the pews. Islam also informed my faith; I witnessed the immense devotion in my father’s prayers and the care with which he kept his Koran. These two traditions of my childhood shared a reverence for and recognition of a version of God who is not racist.

"The yearning for a church home faded as I grew older. As the years went by, I sought solace everywhere except inside the walls of a chapel or mosque. There was something about my earliest years that left me feeling disconnected from the religion of my parents and the faith I had inherited. But the summer before I graduated from college, I found that something was missing within me, spiritually; I sought faith among new religious groups, hoping I would find meaning in my own journey.

"When I came across Mormonism, it was largely unfamiliar. In contrast to the faith of my childhood, certain aspects of the theology and structure resonated deeply with me. Vivid descriptions of eternal hellfire for those who sinned were replaced by an overwhelming sense of the capacity to grow on earth and throughout eternity. I was fond of the communal focus of the congregations, which created a place for each and every person. I was aware that black members had been banned from joining the priesthood or from performing specific rituals, from the mid-19th century until 1978. But my doubts about the restrictions were overpowered by a belief in the LDS Church’s active expression of faith in every part of life and the capacity for good in its members.

"It was not until I joined that I began to understand and experience the implications of the priesthood and temple restrictions in the lives of black Mormons. Some have left; and the lack of consistent dialogue within the Church about the bans has created confusion about the restriction’s origins and the official LDS position on racial issues. The seeming reluctance by some Mormon leaders to speak about the violence faced by its black members in the United States has brought many black Mormons to points of frustration.

"But I have chosen to stay. I have found a renewed relationship with the notions of blackness I was taught as a child, and I have rediscovered God at the margin of Mormonism - far from the experience of the white men who have historically led the Church. My faith offers both solace and struggle: I have found solidarity among the often-weary voices of African American Mormons, who must work to affirm their spiritual and physical lives in a Church where those lives didn’t always matter....

"​The African American experience in the LDS Church is one filled with its share of joy. Devan Mitchell, an African American Mormon living in Renton, Washington, told me about an experience with another black convert after the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile [by police] in July. 'I found her in the chapel and we held each other and cried,' Mitchell said. 'As a result of this expression of our pain, something wonderful happened. The members of our ward came together, they embraced us as well, and they prayed with us, they mourned with us.'

"This kind of resilience is often found in the communities built by black Mormons, which recognize a God who never cursed people of black African descent. 'What we want to instill in our children is a sense of pride of who they are,' said Natalie Sheppard, featured in Nobody Knows. '[It’s not only] being a child of God but being a black child of God in a beautiful garden, that if he had wanted to make everyone the same, he would have done that. But instead he made us all different for a reason. Part of that reason to me is so we can teach each other.'

"African American Mormons are shaping and affirming their presence in the LDS Church by telling their own stories, and African American Mormon women in particular - once overlooked in discussions about the effects of the restrictions - are making their presence known inside and outside of Mormon culture.

"A portrait of a young black woman hangs outside a sealing room within the temple recently built in Payson, Utah. Once described as Jane Elizabeth Manning James, the nameless woman remains as 'anyone whose heart is broken and whose spirit is contrite.' It is a reminder of the presence of African Americans in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, here in the chapels and along the pews with our fellow Saints, waiting to be let in."

Black Lives Matter

W. Paul Reeve wrote in a September 25 Deseret News editorial, "I have grown dismayed as I have watched racial violence continue in incident after incident. One response from the black community has been to organize the Black Lives Matter movement. The reply from some Americans is to assert that All Lives Matter. It is a stunning retort that wholly misses the point of the Black Lives Matter movement and demonstrates an inability for some Americans to attempt to stand in someone else’s shoes. Mormons in particular need look no further than the 1830s and their own troubled sojourn in Missouri to find ample reason to take a stand against racial injustice....

"​No one was brought to justice for the Missouri expulsion. Mormon leader Joseph Smith asked his followers to write redress petitions to the United States Congress asking for federal intervention and compensation for the loss of life and property which Mormons had endured in Missouri. Professor Clark V. Johnson from BYU collected more than 800 of these affidavits and the Religious Studies Center at BYU published them in 1992. As I read these redress petitions in today’s context, I hear Mormons from the 1830s and 40s declaring, in petition after petition, 'Mormon lives matter.'

"If you were a Mormon in Missouri in 1838, facing a state sanctioned extermination order, how would it feel if the retort you received was 'All Missouri Lives Matter'? Mormons who were unarmed and whose hands were in the air were shot down in Missouri. They wrote petitions, more than 800 strong, pleading for justice and arguing that Mormon Lives Matter. Their pleas remain unanswered.

"Today black Americans may indeed feel there is an extermination order against them and their lives don’t matter to others. When a black person ends up dead for a minor traffic violation or because his car broke down on the way home from college, telling black Americans that 'All Lives Matter' is an insult. Imagine trying to convince white Mormons Philinda Myrick and Amanda Smith in 1838 that all Missouri lives mattered when it was their husbands and sons who were shot down for being Mormon.

"The Black Lives Matter movement simply means that Black Lives Matter too. Black Lives Also Matter in a time when the justice system seems to imply otherwise.

"Today I mourn with those who mourn, not in spite of my white Mormon ancestry, but because of it."

The Policy on Gay Couples and the Priesthood Ban

On November 3, 2016, Clair Barrus wrote in a blog post, "I’ve heard people wonder what relationship there might be between the Church’s policy banning gay couples including their children from the church, and Brigham Young’s ban against blacks holding the priesthood, including access to the temple. I thought I’d look into this to see what parallels might exist....

"The concept of African Americans as a cursed linage continued in Mormon thought and practice for the next 125 years, affecting black members’ hopes for exaltation. Perhaps with some irony, it was Spencer W. Kimball who reversed Young’s priesthood ban. He is responsible for laying the foundation for the modern church’s approach towards homosexuality and gay marriage.

"The Modern Church and Homosexuality

"​A chapter from his book 'The Miracle of Forgiveness' is the earliest and most comprehensive treatment on homosexuality by an apostle, and the foundation from which Mormon thought, policy and political action on homosexuality grew for the past 45 years. Adjectives scattered throughout the chapter describe homosexuality as if it were a cursed state of being; a 'repugnant,' 'embarrassing,' 'ugly,' 'deviation' by 'shameful,' 'vile,' 'degenerate' 'weaklings.' He compares it to incest and bestiality, rejecting homosexuality as biologically influenced, saying that the idea of God making people this way was a lie from Satan, and that it was curable. He felt homosexual feelings could be changed to heterosexual desire through sincere repentance and normal social interaction.

"Gay Mormons hope to marry and form legitimized, life-long companionships within the church. From a doctrinal standpoint, however, gay marriage is seen by the church as a curse upon the institution of marriage. Rhetoric by church leaders discussing the 'sanctity' or holiness of marriage being attacked or threated by gay marriage, implies that gay marriage would de-sanctify the institution of marriage.

"Brigham’s adoption of 19th century fear-based pseudo-science that mixed-race individuals would introduce wide-spread infertility has parallels to questionable ideas advanced in statements by modern-day apostles. Speaking of homosexuality, Apostle Kimball wrote 'If the abominable practice became universal it would depopulate the earth in a single generation. It would nullify God’s great program for his spirit children.' In 1984, Apostle Dallin Oaks wrote 'One generation of homosexual "marriages" would depopulate a nation, and, if sufficiently wide spread, would extinguish its people. Our marriage laws should not abet national suicide.' General Authorities such as Spencer W. Kimball, James E. Faust and Boyd K. Packer have rejected a biological component to homosexually through public teaching that God would never allow an individual to be born gay because it would stand counter to the plan of salvation.

"Comparison

"Have homosexual Mormons have taken the place of dark-skinned, cursed people as defined in earlier LDS theology, particularly when it comes to marriage? What are the parallels between the two? Is 'Gay' the new 'Black?'

"Spencer W. Kimball (with subsequent church leaders) and Brigham Young drew on popular ideas of their time about homosexuals, gay marriage, blacks and interracial marriage. Both incorporated pseudo-science and attitudes from their cultures (for example, both had concerns about inability to procreate, and how that could destroy the population). Both generated new LDS doctrinal concepts with lasting impact (such as the priesthood ban, and the Proclamation on the Family). As scientific understanding, cultural prejudices, and civil rights evolved, later leaders continued to feel  bound to precedents set by earlier leaders. Eventually the priesthood ban was reversed.

"Black members of the church endured discriminatory practices and a difficult atmosphere. Gay Mormons have also experience[d] discrimination and a difficult environment. For example, studies indicate life as a single, active, gay Mormon has the lowest levels of happiness when compared to all other gay groups (inactive, excommunicated, married, or even having lupus, ...).

"According to Brigham Young, church-sanctioned interracial marriage would have effectively terminated the priesthood of the Latter-day Saint church, so he terminated the priesthood for blacks. Like Young, the modern church has taken steps to ensure that no homosexual marriage can take place in the church, and the policy is designed to prevent any gay couple from becoming or remaining church members and tainting the institution of marriage within Mormonism. Blacks were barred from the priesthood because of interracial marriage, while same-sex married couples are barred from membership.

"Interracial marriage was seen as bringing a curse upon the church membership. Today, same-sex marriage is seen as bringing a curse upon marriage in the church. Interracial couples and their children were seen as unacceptable in the church, and Brigham said the couples and children were to be killed. Today, homosexually married couples are to be excommunicated and their children not allowed to be baptized or blessed.

"According to Young’s earlier 1847 statement, interracial couples, just like homosexuals today, could access lower aspects of the temple upon the condition of celibacy, but not temple marriage, or higher ordinances. Later, Brigham Young completely restricted blacks from the temple, preventing interracial couples from temple marriage. Today’s policy prevents homosexual couples from temple marriage, holding the priesthood, and even membership in the church. However single gay Mormons can hold the priesthood, while blacks could not.

"Black members had no defined way to achieve exaltation. Today, homosexuals have no defined way to achieve exaltation unless entering into an averse, mixed-attraction marriage so they can be married in the temple.

"In summary, there appears to be a correlation between how homosexuals have been viewed in the modern church, and how blacks were perceived by Brigham Young, with marriage being the focal point."

The Black Student Experience at BYU

The same day, BYU sophomore Johnisha Demease-Williams published a video she and her associates had made asking BYU students, black and white, about their perception of racial issues on campus and how minority students were affected.

On February 10, 2017, she followed up with a longer video for Black History Month that went more in-depth and exclusively interviewed black students.

On April 13, Brandon Klatskin interviewed three black BYU students about their views of the Black Lives Matter movement and how they felt it was received at BYU.

3 Mormons

On June 2, 2017, the group then known as "3 Mormons" (later "Saints Unscripted") consisting of Kwaku and Ian published a video on "Blacks and the Priesthood".

The Church of Jesus Christ Denounces White Supremacy

On August 12, 2017, James A. Fields Jr. slammed a car into a group of counter-protesters at a "Unite the Right" white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, injuring several and killing Heather Heyer. The following day the Church released a statement: "It is with great sadness and deep concern that we view the violence, conflict, and tragedy of recent days in Charlottesville, Virginia. People of any faith, or of no faith at all, should be troubled by the increase of intolerance in both words and actions that we see everywhere.

"More than a decade ago, the late Church President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) addressed the topic of racism when speaking to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He powerfully and clearly taught this principle: '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.' For members of the Church, we reaffirm that teaching today and the Savior’s admonition to love our neighbor.

"Our prayers are with those who are suffering because of this intolerance and hatred. We pray for peace and for understanding. Above all, we pray that we may treat one another with greater kindness, compassion, and goodness."

Prominent alt-right blogger Ayla Stewart, who had been scheduled to speak at the rally before violence broke out, praised the statement.

On August 15 the Church issued a follow-up statement: "​It has been called to our attention that there are some among the various pro-white and white supremacy communities who assert that the Church is neutral toward or in support of their views. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the New Testament, Jesus said: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ (Matthew 22:37–39). The Book of Mormon teaches ‘all are alike unto God’ (2 Nephi 26:33).

"White supremacist attitudes are morally wrong and sinful, and we condemn them. Church members who promote or pursue a 'white culture' or white supremacy agenda are not in harmony with the teachings of the Church."

Tamu Smith told the Salt Lake Tribune in tears, "I am overwhelmed. For the first time, it brings us out of the margins. For those who have wanted to speak up, this gives them permission. We don't have to stand alone - the church is now standing with us."

Devan Mitchell wrote, "This is what I wanted. Clear, concise and firmly plants white supremacy in the realm of apostasy. I've been waiting my whole life for something this strong. I hope it's followed up on in Conference."

Following this statement, Ayla Stewart disaffiliated herself from the Church.

On August 16, 3 Mormons released a follow-up to their earlier video, answering criticisms that had been raised in the comments.

On August 17, Zandra Vranes wrote in a Deseret News op-ed, "​Tuesday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement, the first in its history to specifically condemn white supremacy, and boldly declared that it is 'morally wrong and sinful.' When I read those words joy filled my soul. Until that moment, I don’t think I truly realized how desperately I’d been longing for words from church leaders that spoke to the pain that its members of color face every day. I pray that yesterday is just the beginning of what is yet to come.

"The last time the N-word was hurled at me was in April 2017. And yes, it was the full word. Sadly, I was angrier that the guy reset my clock than I was at being called a racial slur. Trust me, every black person distinctly remembers the last time they were called the N-word. Now, thanks to some saint with a slick tongue, it’s a frighteningly fresh wound from 2017. Oh, and if you’re wondering why I referred to him as a 'saint,' well that’s the part of the verbal victimization that devastated me, he was a member of my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"Racism is a sin. An LDS Church definition of sin is 'to willfully disobey God’s commandments or to fail to act righteously despite a knowledge of the truth.' It seems pretty straightforward, right? Except for that key word, 'knowledge.' The fact is, there’s a facet of Latter-day Saints that don’t actually 'know' what racism is or 'know' that it’s a bigger deal to the church than say swearing. And quite frankly, how would they know? If you go to lds.org and type in racism, there are resources, but refine the search to general conference, you’ll get a whopping result of... one. Do the same thing for pornography and you’ll get talks for days. That’s exactly how LDS folks know porn’s a problem and how to face it, we learn and teach about it within the church.

"Yet racism, a sin that’s occurring within the walls of our chapels, temples and at church-sponsored events, even perpetrated by our own against our own, *crickets.* No, members aren’t running around the chapel in KKK hoods, but that’s not the only way racism rears its head, it’s not always overt. Sometimes it looks like being quick to blame the Spanish-speaking ward every time something comes up missing or breaks in a building that multiple congregations share. It might be a mission president allowing the brown missionary to stand outside at the request of the investigator, while the white missionaries go inside and teach them the gospel, instead of telling them that in order to join this church they’d need to stop harboring prejudice.

"When we don’t understand the very real damage that even the smallest act of racism does to those it is inflicted upon, we sit silently. Which means we’ve convinced ourselves that we don’t need to speak up against it, because discomfort is too high a price to pay to keep our Christian covenant to comfort those who stand in need of comfort.

"Nine months ago I found myself sitting in a hospital room with a teenage girl I didn’t know. She had gone to school a few days earlier where someone casually mentioned that she was black and didn’t deserve to live. So she went home that day and attempted to end her life. Thankfully she failed, but could not be released from the hospital because she would not agree that if released she would not attempt to end her life again.

"By chance I met a friend of her family, who, desperate to help, asked me to contact the family. We don’t live in the same state, so I had to travel a distance to make the visit. During those hours of my road trip I thought of all the ways I could share with her that God loved her and wanted her to live. When we finally came face-to-face, the weight of how unqualified I was for this life or death situation left me at a loss for words. After I mumbled my name, and sat there stupidly, she finally asked me why I was there.

'I think ’cause you’re black and I’m black, security just assumed we were related and sent me in here.' She laughed, and it broke the ice.

"I began to tell her the things that I had rehearsed on the car ride, that God loved her, and how the gospel teaches us that we are of infinite worth, that Jesus knew what she was feeling, how the church gives us a family, a divine support system, etc, etc, etc. She quietly listened to it all and when I finally paused she said, 'the person that made me wanna do it, (he or she) goes to our church too and. …' She trailed off. 'And everything I’m telling you you’ve heard before, and so has (he or she), but it didn’t stop (them) from doing what (they) did, right?' I finished for her. She nodded, and I sighed.

"There were no conference talks for me to reference, no section of For the Strength of the Youth for me to read her, no LDS Pinterest quotes I could whip out that fit this dilemma, so I bagged it all and for the next six hours we got real. We swapped stories of hurts inflicted on us by people that claimed that they believed that 'all are alike unto God,' and of the many folks who had counseled us to 'just ignore it,' or 'be the bigger person.' I sat and listened to every experience and validated every feeling she had, and it wasn’t hard for me to do, because many people I knew had faced them too.

"Next year, June 8, 2018, will mark the 40th anniversary of the restoration of the priesthood to black Latter-day Saints. We as a church have been like the children of Israel, after decades of crying, 'Let my people go!' June 8, 1978, was our parting of the Red Sea, but like the Israelites we have spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness, justifying the ban, petrified to be open about the racial history of our church, and pretending that without specific corrections and current teachings, 1978 just made all the racism in the church disappear.

"Today a friend confided in me that she’s afraid to get happy about the statement because what if that is it, but I feel restored with hope anew that after 40 years, just as the children of Israel, we shall wander no more."

Book of Mormon Racism

On September 7, Russell Marks wrote in the Australian publication Arena, "For some reason, though, nobody’s talking about the way Uganda is portrayed in The Book of Mormon. I hadn’t heard a single word about it in the six years I’d known of the musical - not from friends, and not from the ether. I’ve checked this since with friends who haven’t seen it: they knew about the religion stuff, but they had no idea Uganda was even an element until I told them. Many reviews barely acknowledge the Africa thing. Surely this needs explaining. The Book of Mormon has reached stratospheric levels of success. It’s gone well beyond the cult success of South Park. It’s won all the accolades. It’s wooed most of the critics. Why is nobody talking about Uganda?

"In Australia, Parker and Stone have been interviewed by the ABC, The Sydney Morning Herald, the Herald Sun and a range of other outlets. Not once have they ever been asked about their treatment of Uganda. The interviewers, and most reviewers, stay obediently on topic: The Book of Mormon is an atheist’s love letter to religion, says Stone. The New York Post, The New York Times, Jon Stewart, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal… practically every reviewer in every major outlet is silent about Uganda. Why?

"The obvious answer is that Parker et al.’s ‘Uganda’ is part of the joke on the Mormons. Here’s what critics seem to have accepted about the treatment of Uganda, in the rare instances that they’ve mentioned it at all: the ridiculous representation of ‘Africa’ is how the stupid, ignorant, buffoonish Mormons see Africa. As a place of no discernable culture, where there are men who rape babies because they believe that will cure their AIDS. Where there are nubile African women who prance around in nighties and keep smiling when white men mispronounce their name as ‘Necrophilia’. Where there are men mutilating women’s genitals (the joke, apparently, is funny because Uganda actually has a pretty low rate of genital mutilation compared with other countries in the region). Where there is a General Buttfuckingnakedandsatan, obviously styled off the real-life Joshua Blahyi aka General Butt Naked. The joke here is that he was a warlord in Libya, not Uganda. Libya, Uganda; tomato, tomato. Wow, those Mormons sure were ignorant.

"The first laugh comes at the very first mention of Uganda - as if the stupid ignorant white Mormons could imagine that anyone would want to go there, especially when we know Elder Price really wanted to go to Orlando. Then we laugh as a Ugandan village appears, complete with ramshackle huts and dead buffalo being dragged around, which is of course how stupid ignorant white Mormon missionaries would see a Ugandan village. And then we laugh at the way stupid ignorant white Mormon missionaries would laugh at black people who pronounce ‘Salt Lake City’ as ‘Saaalt Lay-kaa SEE-tee’ and black people who describe typing on a typewriter as ‘texting’ and black people who have funny names and black people and black people and black people. Hilariously, the Devil and most of the ‘cast’ of Mormon Hell are played by black people! The jokes are evidently so clever that the white writers telling them only need the black people on stage as props: they translate immediately to the overwhelmingly white (given the specific cultural milieu of musical theatre and the exorbitant ticket prices) audience, which laughs on cue every time. The whole spectacle also works, it appears, as a brilliant parody of those early minstrel shows that mostly had white actors mimicking black people in blackface, but that sometimes had black actors mimicking black people. The mimicry in The Book of Mormon must be exceptional, because they really get inside the heads of those ignorant white Mormon missionaries and their self-evident racism.

​"This joke, I suppose, is not only on the Mormons: it’s also on all the other ignorant white people who think about ‘Africa’ like this. Perhaps the cleverest thing about The Book of Mormon is the way it manages to keep actually-racist white people out of the theatres while using black actors who have no creative control to tell jokes written by non-racist white people about Africans that would be blatantly racist if there were actually-racist white people in the audience and if Parker and Stone had intended to be racist instead of satirical. This is quite a complicated manoeuvre, and it obviously takes quite a high level of sophistication to grasp it fully. Sophisticated critics clearly ‘get it’. The ‘parody’ of Africa is ‘far too close for comfort’, wrote Peter Craven in The Saturday Paper, but ‘the chief comfort of The Book of Mormon is that its fundamental structures, the foundation upon which it rests, is unspeakable bad taste’. Less sophisticated people might interpret that as another way of saying that racism is actually OK if you intend it in bad taste, but such an interpretation would presumably only betray their lack of sophistication....

"​And yet for all this zinging sophistication, we still don’t really have an adequate response to someone who asks why any discussion of Uganda has been edited out of the public conversation about The Book of Mormon. It’s certainly possible to imagine a similar depiction of ‘Africa’ written by black writers for black audiences, as a postcolonial inversion that satirises white imaginaries of ‘the dark continent’. But this depiction was written by white men for overwhelmingly white (or at least non-black) audiences. The LDS didn’t fully open its institution to Africans—or African Americans—until 1978, a fact that’s referenced in the musical (inside a joke). Yes, the on-stage Uganda is no doubt meant to be the Uganda that the missionaries see. But it also happens to be the one we see. Would there be even five people in every audience who know the church’s troubled racial history? And are middle-class whites in musical theatre audiences in New York and London and Melbourne and Sydney and Stockholm really all that familiar with postcolonial theory?

"The sixty-something (white) woman sitting next to me could tell I wasn’t in raptures. At intermission she asked me why. ‘I don’t know - doesn’t it seem like we’re being asked to laugh at black people?’ I asked. ‘Oh, no, it’s poking fun at everyone equally’, she replied, and turned away from the conversation....

"It’s not just that the Ugandan setting isn’t marketed. At no point in The Book of Mormon is the audience asked to identify with any of its African characters - they always remain mere props for the white buddy story at the show’s centre. The black support cast slips easily into the background. Is it possible that the Ugandans, and hence the racism, become practically invisible to white (or at least non-black) observers? Invisible and in the background is a familiar position for black people in white Australia (and white America and white Britain and white Sweden), with notable exceptions in areas such as criminal justice. The fact that a racist reading of Mormon is even possible should at least cause critics to pause. But critics have tied themselves up in such knots that they’re more terrified of being accused of not getting the joke than they are of being accused of racism - which, in the end, is just one more sacred cow in our nice, white little world in which nothing is sacred anyway.

"So terrified of not getting the joke are Mormon’s critics that we need to wonder whether they’ve really done their job at all. In his defence of The Book of Mormon from a lukewarm reception among British critics, The Guardian’s Oliver Burkeman sidesteps any concern about the depiction of Africa by pointing out that the stage show is largely a brilliant parody of The Lion King. With its anthropomorphic animals and its missing humans, The Lion King is certainly guilty of romanticising Africa. Its heritage is in the Lost World fantasies of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Rudyard Kipling rather than the anti-colonial critiques of Frantz Fanon. It’s ripe for satire. But at least hakuna matata is an actual Swahili phrase. The Book of Mormon has its black cast repeat the words ‘hasa diga eebowai’, which apparently translates as ‘fuck you, God’ - except that the idiom is entirely made up. The clever satire here, apparently, is that ‘hasa diga eebowai’ sounds vaguely ‘African’ to ignorant white Mormon missionaries and other ignorant white Hicksville racists, and the parody is that the black cast performs a Lion King–style musical number with a made-up ‘African’-sounding phrase that expresses what middle-class whites would be thinking if they had to live in much of Uganda. Whether it is really a parody of Disney’s romanticisation of Africa to put in its place a phrase that sounds to white ears like it could be a real thing because it sounds vaguely ‘African’ is a question that’s beyond the scope of critical inquiry, it seems....

"Looked at more closely, it’s not immediately clear which elements of The Book of Mormon really work as satire. Let’s take the elements of its definition. ‘The use of humour, irony, exaggeration or ridicule’ - tick - ‘to expose and criticise people’s stupidity or vices’ - tick - ‘particularly in the context of contemporary politics or other topical issues’. It’s on this final element that satire often succeeds or fails. What is the point that The Book of Mormon is making about its Ugandans? That they’re ignorant, diseased and/or violent… in the context of a world in which Uganda lost badly out of European colonialism and kept losing under American globalisation? In which Uganda has become a gigantic dumping ground for Western consumer excess, hence that discarded typewriter Nabulungi finds?...

"Those dozens - hundreds? - of white male critics who have tripped over themselves to praise The Book of Mormon would presumably still say I’ve missed the point. I’m trapped in the earnestness of political correctness, and Parker et al. totally reject that mindset. And they’re entirely free to do so. But the cultural success of The Book of Mormon in places like New York and Melbourne and London and Stockholm would still need explaining - as would the deafening cultural silence about its portrayal of Uganda.​...

"Black voices are oddly absent from the public conversation about Mormon. ‘Rachel’ has a review on the Nigerian blog Viva-Naija, and this is her take: ‘I was ready to walk out of the theatre 20 minutes into the production. The onslaught of racism was so glaring and relentless that it made for very uncomfortable watching… In the eyes of the missionaries, the colonisers and the good people of the West, we are all clitori-chopping, baby-fucking, disease-infested savages to whom they have brought light and progress’. Clearly Rachel didn’t get the joke either, and there’s really no adequate response to her accusations. Either she just should get it because Parker et al. are actually brilliant satirists and her sense of humour just isn’t sophisticated enough, or the joke’s not actually for her. Parker et al. would then say that’s not really their problem, that they’re equal-opportunity offenders. But what about the rest of us, the critics and interviewers and audiences who have made The Book of Mormon one of the most successful musicals this century?"

​Next: The Church of Jesus Christ and Black People 2018
​Main Page: Latter-day Saint Racial History