Confronting and Dismantling Racism in the Latter-day Saint Community

Recent demonstrations, protests, and petitions in the past month calling for solutions to systemic racism after George Floyd’s and thousands of others’ violent deaths by law enforcement has brought about some serious discussions on race in America. Never in my lifetime has any cause or call to action been so widely spoken about and seriously discussed by politicians and Americans alike. For perhaps the first time in the country’s history, a large portion of white Americans are acknowledging, confronting, and pushing to change systems of oppression that cater to and benefit the white community while discriminating people of color. This discussion and awareness has even reached my own predominantly white Latter-day Saint community in the United States.

I’ve been encouraged by the reaction of many of my Latter-day Saint peers, sharing their own experiences and thoughts to stand up for our marginalized African American siblings. For example, my local congregation in Los Angeles hosted an online forum to discuss white privilege that gave us an inviting space to confront and talk about these issues. I’ve seen several grassroots petitions circulated on social media where members are taking action such as calling to rename the Church-owned Brigham Young University, to introduce explicit anti-racist curriculum at BYU, and to contextualize racist teachings found in the Book of Mormon.

On the other hand, I have been disappointed by many in my faith community who have failed to stand up against racial injustice in our country. I have seen several members publicly deny racial injustice, regurgitating racist arguments that place the blame of racial inequality on inherently lazy and violent African Americans and other marginalized racial minorities. I’ve seen many members attempt to dismiss black experiences and voices in order to preserve their privileged status as a guilt-free, color-blind white American. I’ve even seen some members share unfounded conspiracies claiming that left-leaning political groups are behind these protests so they can bring about socialism in the upcoming election, seeking to delegitimize real discrimination that occurs every day in America. It should be noted that these opinions are more widespread than just the Latter-day Saint community; however, these racist and bad faith arguments mingled with the doctrines of equality and agency that are at the heart of Latter-day Saint scripture and doctrine threaten to weaken or discredit the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' and its members' mission to advocate peace, harmony, and understanding in a diverse society.

Latter-day Saints are finally beginning to confront the racist doctrines taught by Brigham Young (his statue pictured above), among various other church leaders, and contemplating their current state in church doctrine and culture.

These racist and insensitive opinions that I have seen floated around by some of my Latter-day Saint peers do not come from out of thin air. While I would love to dismiss these white supremacist attitudes and beliefs as a small fringe of the Latter-day Saint community, the church’s history shows that racist attitudes and beliefs have always been in our collective consciousness, hanging around in modern times after having never been fully addressed or reconciled for nearly two centuries. I fear that our failure as a church to understand the difference between the opinions of God and men have seriously dampened our efforts to preach equality and acceptance among God’s children. It is our responsibility as Latter-day Saints to face our racist history and white privilege to make our church an accepting space for all people.

Before we can make progress in dismantling racist paradigms in Latter-day Saint culture and doctrine, however, both the church and its members must acknowledge our racist past and its enduring legacy on current Latter-day Saint culture, policy, and doctrine. It should be no secret that throughout the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint’s two hundred-year history high church officials, including several prophets, preached and advocated for racist beliefs, policies, and doctrines. The most infamous racist church policy is Brigham Young’s 1852 ban that denied African Americans the priesthood and full participation in church and temple worship services. Later church leaders upheld the ban until 1978 with many figures like Ezra Taft Benson, Mark E. Peterson, and J Reuben Clark, using their mantle of church leadership to ardently fight against the Civil Rights moment, preach against the “horror” of miscegenation and racial mixing, and label African Americans as the cursed seed of Cain and therefore less worthy and capable in God’s eyes than whites. (For more examples of racism in the church’s history, a good succinct summary can be found here.)

While these teachings were officially disavowed when the church in 1978 lifted the priesthood ban targeting African Americans, the church never issued an apology. Today, on the rare occasions that the priesthood ban is talked about in church settings, the focus is on God’s mercy and wisdom in revealing a new law to his leaders that allowed African Americans to receive His full gospel and not the pain and suffering endured by African American members. The church over the past decade has become more open talking about its racist past, such as when they held the Be One Celebration commemorating the 1978 revelation ending the priesthood ban or published a 2013 Gospel Topic article on their website entitled "Race and the Priesthood"; yet, the church has not taken responsibility for the hurt these racist teachings have caused and continue to cause members and non-members alike.

Current church president Russel M. Nelson speaking at the 2018 Be One Celebration.

Either as a direct result of racist teachings and past doctrine or simply the racial insensitivities of white members, African Americans and other minorities regularly face discrimination and microaggressions in church spaces. For those unsure if racism still exists in Latter-day Saint congregations, read African American experiences. These two articles, experiences from African American women at BYU and in the church, are great places to start. Sistas in Zion has also been a great platform for me to hear African American Latter-day Saint perspectives and experiences. If we as a church are to be anti-racist, we must first acknowledge and address current issues of racism in our own church. If we are to be taken seriously in advocating for America and other nations to be actively anti-racist, we must first take the beam out of our eye.

I believe a large reason why we have not been addressing racial inequality in the Latter-day Saint community is our inability to admit our own mistakes as a church. Admitting church leaders past and present were not just negligent but fully supportive of racist teachings and policies may threaten to destroy our very claim to authority as a church. How can we claim to be the only true living church led by Christ on the Earth today if there is a disconnect between Christ’s teachings of equality and past church leaders’ racist teachings?

For any Latter-day Saints who feel uneasy criticizing church leaders past and present, let’s first look at the alternative line of action. If we don’t accept that church leaders mingled their own racist and worldly philosophies with Christ’s loving and accepting teachings, we accept by default that the priesthood ban and other racist and white supremacist teachings were indeed from God. We must then believe that either God has always been and will always be racist or that the God who is the “same yesterday, today, and forever” (1 Ne 10:18, The Book of Mormon) suddenly changed His doctrine of equality overnight. In this vein of thought, God turned his back on his previous teachings of equality and for 126 years taught that His white children were more worthy of His blessings compared to his black children, especially those of African descent.

Book of Abraham, Facsimile 3. Passages from Abraham, modern-day scripture translated by Joseph Smith, were used by Latter-day Saints to form and support racist explanations for the priesthood ban (Abraham 1:21-27, Pearl of Great Price).

To explain why God is racist or all of a sudden a changing being and a “respecter of persons” (Moroni 8:12, The Book of Mormon), we as a church must accept some of the many racist explanations for this more than century change in divine thinking. Maybe we’ll choose to believe that God sought to punish His black children because they are descendants of Cain (which runs directly counter to the second Article of Faith). Maybe we’ll choose to believe that God was protecting His African American children from potential punishment (as this BYU professor did publicly in 2012), suggesting that God thinks His black children are inherently less capable of being righteous compared to His white children. Either way, God turns out to be a white supremacist, loving and expecting more out of His white children than any of his other children.

Another option, which has seen a resurgence in my lifetime in church culture, is to blindly accept that the priesthood ban was just God’s will without any questions because God’s ways are higher than our own. That just doesn’t cut it for me. It’s extremely suspect and unlikely that God would seem to ditch thousands of years of His own teachings to mankind to further discriminate an already enslaved and disenfranchised portion of His children. I’m sure African American members and other racial minorities would need to know why God shafted their ancestors, and themselves, for centuries. Without this knowledge, members of color doubt God’s love for them solely because of their skin color.

Unfortunately, as a church culture, we are already trying to ignore or dismiss racist beliefs from our past church leaders. This has led to the further spread of racist ideas among church members and more discrimination against our members of color. Sure, by failing to speak out against the racist teachings of past and recent church leaders, local and worldwide, the majority of white privileged church members get to avoid a hard conversation about our history and identity; however, a lot of people suffer from this spiritual drama in silence, not feeling accepted by other members or by the racist God they are taught to believe in. The time is now to apologize and accept responsibility for not just past discrimination and heartache suffered by African Americans inside the church but current discrimination and racial injustice.

The church has some made some efforts to fight for racial equality, namely President Nelson (pictured above with NAACP leaders) and the church's recent partnership with the NAACP, but we need to do a lot more.

But how do we go about doing that? First, the church must apologize and admit its wrongdoing. The church must then do what its current prophet Russel M. Nelson admonished the world to do: “Any of us who has prejudice toward another race needs to repent!” (you can read the full statement written jointly by President Nelson and several NAACP leaders here). A short statement from the prophet signed by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve stating that past leaders were wrong, that God is not a racist, and that the church is committed to actively make internal changes would go a long way to comfort members who have faced racial prejudice in the church. Such a statement would show how serious the church is in repairing damages done to the African American community and creating an accepting environment for people of color in the church.. (Individual members have started their own apology that you can check out here if interested).

Second, the church needs to have a standard curriculum for teaching the church’s racist past and current anti-racist beliefs. We need to regularly talk about race in our local church meetings around the world with members of all ages to dislodge and eradicate racist teachings still being taught. Silence from church leadership on race has caused confusion and the perpetuation of racist ideologies and explanations. For instance, I was taught as a youth in the 2000s and early 2010s that the priesthood ban was enacted because African Americans were the seed of Cain. Going even further, racist jokes told by youth and some church leaders were a regular part of my Young Men’s experience. Standard curriculum and discussions on the ward and stake level would help to educate members on racism and microaggressions while giving others resources to stop racist teachings and acts when they occur (because they frequently do and will continue to exist in the church until we actively change it).

Third, local leaders need to be given regular training on recognizing and dealing with their own racial insensitivity and white privilege. Local church leaders hold a lot of clout in Latter-day Saint culture and doctrine. Weekly interaction with local church leaders largely determines members’ experiences in the church. From Sunday School teachers to youth leaders, to bishops and to stake presidents, church leaders need to be prepared to serve and work with members of all backgrounds. Bishops and stake presidents, who are believed to act on the behalf of God in determining the personal worthiness of members, especially need to be trained on these matters to ensure they act in accordance with the church’s beliefs on racial equality. Actively training local leaders in these matters will help prevent further discriminations and microaggressions from local church authority figures.

Fourth, the church needs to discipline racist behavior. Simply add the following questions in temple interviews: Do you espouse, support, or preach any racist or white supremacist ideas, opinions, or beliefs inside or outside of church? Do you believe in racial equality and strive to treat all of God’s children equally? People who are actively racist and teach racist doctrine should not be given any platform to spread these beliefs to members, let alone with church permission or knowledge. These individuals are not worthy to make covenants with God and are in need of repentance. If church members are barred from temple worship for just drinking coffee, shouldn’t we make sure no proponents of racial discrimination or white supremacy enter into our holy places of worship?

The church has plenty of racial and ethnic diversity in its advertising, showcased above in its previous I'm a Mormon campaign. Maybe we should strive to achieve this level of diversity with our church leaders as well.

Fifth, and perhaps most importantly, the church needs to involve black and other minority voices when making decisions and creating church materials. This should first start on the churchwide level. I suggest the church institute a New Auxiliary Board called the Diversity and Inclusion General Board. This board would be given the task of counseling other auxiliary boards and the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve on how the church can include various viewpoints and opinions from minorities when creating church materials and making decisions on church policy and doctrine. Similar boards and councils would be welcome additions on the area, stake, and ward level as well if possible.

Over the past few decades, leadership abroad has become more diverse but our general leadership in America and Salt Lake City still consists mostly of white, upper-class, older, males. We need to have a regular body of church leadership where the leaders of our church can hear experiences and opinions from African Americans, Latinx Americans, Native American, and LGBTQ+ members and people from various socioeconomic statuses, sexual orientations and identities, ages, and physical abilities. President Nelson himself said that “good inspiration is based upon good information” (Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives, April 2018 General Conference). Our white, male, upper-class, American leaders desperately need new and accurate experiences and opinions from diverse voices to make needed changes to church policy and doctrine. A Diversity and Inclusion General Board would make inclusion and diversity a central tenant of church doctrine and a component of all church decisions.

The makeup of the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and General Authorities as of April 2020.

I know that it will be hard for the church and its members to admit that half of our modern-day prophets actively supported or condoned racism in a church that values Christlike leaders and divine revelation. The whole country is experiencing firsthand how hard it is to dismantle racial systematic inequality and how much sacrifice and action the task at hand requires. We as Latter-day Saints must likewise do our part to fight for racial equality in and outside our congregations. We have to sift through our beliefs to find what really is congruent with the gospel of Jesus Christ and what is the result of cultural and traditional practices that have become mingled with Christ’s doctrine.

I’ve suggested a few things I think we as a church should be doing but it doesn’t stop there. If you have ideas on how your local congregation can confront racial inequality, please speak with other members you know. Make suggestions to your ward council, class presidencies, bishoprics, stake presidencies, and area leaders. Maybe even write a heartfelt letter to the church office in Salt Lake! This is a moment where we need all of the Latter-day Saints to be united and committed to real, lasting change. If you feel alone in wanting to enact change, know there are many that share your concerns and stand with you. If other members in your local congregation do not want to implement change, dare to stand alone and find strength with others that share your beliefs and opinions.

For those who are still squeamish about acting because Latter-day Saints have historically waited around for the prophet to seek revelation from God to make changes, I conclude with this humble appeal: we are the Lord's hands. We have the power as church members to bring about much-needed change and to right the wrongs of past church leaders and members and even repent for mistakes and racist wrongdoings we may have participated in ourselves. We have been silent for far too long. We must not allow the voice of the oppressed continue to go underheard. I pray that all Latter-day Saints can apply the teachings of Christ to actively fight against racism and be a force in making our "hope for a better world" (Ether 12:4, The Book of Mormon) into a reality for all of God's children in and outside of our faith community.

As always I'm open to answering questions about my opinions and beliefs but I will NOT tolerate any personal attacks targeted at me or others.