Posts Tagged ‘ racism ’

I enjoyed my experiment with Mormonism and sexism so much that I decided to do the same with Mormonism and racism. The results were remarkably similar. One thing making this video got me thinking about was the light of Christ. In LDS scripture, the light of Christ is characterized not only as the force that [...]

As  child, I always wondered what the bumpy image on the hymn book was.  I had never seen the tabernacle, and had no idea the image was organ pipes.  As I would make rubbings of the image with a crayon or press it with silly putty, I envisioned it being some sort of temple ruin [...]

A recent Huffington Post article discussed the difficulty the Mormon church has in making an official apology for the Priesthood Ban, and according to the article, the reason is not racism.  This will come as no surprise to most Mormons who are not racist but hesitate to completely throw revered prophets and church leaders under [...]

Following up with the conversation on whether the timing of the 1978 revelation was correct, Brad Kramer and Marguerite Driessen disagreed on the necessity of whether the LDS Church should repent for the previous restrictions on black church members.  You might be surprised at their stances.  Here’s more of their conversation on whether an institution [...]

As we come upon the 34th anniversary of the lifting of the priesthood/temple ban, I thought it would be interesting to discuss whether 1978 was the “right year”.  The priesthood and temple ban was lifted in a 1978 revelation given to President Spencer W. Kimball and the Twelve Apostles.  With Civil Rights being a big [...]

How do we deal with scriptures that offend our modern sensibilities? Even if we can be wrong, why defer to the past?

With Randy Bott’s comments in the Washington Post a few weeks ago, the subject of the Priesthood Ban has become a hot topic of late.  Jeff Spector feels that racism is the wrong word to describe the Priesthood Ban.  He says, “To me, there is a difference between been a racist and being prejudiced.”  I [...]

I recently chortled my way through an article that listed 9 controversial Rick Santorum quotes.  About halfway through I paused and thought, “Hey, some of these aren’t that far off things I believe might have been said in various church publications on LDS.org.”  Let’s see if I’m right. Feminism & Family Values Santorum on birth control.  [...]

In a previous post, I documented Early Black Mormons, and gave a brief history of some of them.  William McCary is a little-known black Mormon from the early days of the church.  He was ordained an Elder by Apostle Orson Hyde in October 1846 and was known as the “black prophet.”  McCary claimed to be part-Indian, [...]

Newell Bringhurst’s book Saints, Slaves, and Blacks: The Changing Place of Black People Within Mormonism is a fascinating look at the church’s relationship to black people from 1830 to 1980.  I wanted to share some impressions from the first few chapters. Some people have incorrectly asserted that early Mormons were abolitionists.  Abolitionists were seen as radicals back [...]

I’m not sure why President Benson is so popular lately.  I wanted to follow up on Will’s post, Were President Benson’s Words Prophetic? In Sunday’s Salt Lake Tribune, FBI files shed light on Ezra Taft Benson, Ike and the Birch Society.  In July, I promised to talk about President Benson’s politics, and I guess the timing is [...]