The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continues to deal with its past racial teachings. For 126 years, African American men were denied priesthood ordination, while both men and woman of African descent were…
Take me back
before the broken tablets,
back to the secrets of winds
unfurled, constellations rising
We talk often
of the Son’s surrender
His long suffering, His forever
atoning—the shards
Sometimes in a long white
gown, often in tattered brown
wool, always with two wings
of a great eagle on Her back, Asherah
She brought her family to this god
forsaken place at His request.
She will petition until He reconsiders
and crops cover the reproach
One by one within a month, four siblings bring their grievances before
Father, ruler of our domain. The laws of the home are too strict, they
complain, no gum in the house—let alone sex or booze. No shoes on
the living room’s cream carpet. A three-hour dose of church Sunday
What’s yours is yours
and I am
{Cool Charcoal Slate}
Verlyne: We saw a documentary a few weeks ago and you were featured in it, with Darius Gray. I don’t know when it was done, but it was on Blacks and the priesthood.
Greg: Thank you.
Egide: I want to thank you for all the work that you have done to clarify all of the history. That’s just amazing, the things we are learning now.
Dialogue 51.3 (Fall 2018): 209–211
Jackson explains “The Church refused to grant the Black body whole recognition and divinity. To Nephi, I was not fair and delightsome. To Joseph, I was a violator of the most sacred principles of society, chastity, and virtue. To Brigham, I was Cain’s curse. To McConkie, I was an unfaithful spirit, a “fence-sitter.” To you, I am colorless, my Blackness swallowed in that whiteness reclaimed, “a child of God.”
Dialogue 51.3 (Fall 2018): 201–208
“What can we do to help and make a difference in the fight for racial and social justice?” McCoy responds to the BYU students who asked these questions which he brought up in an annual MLK March on Life held by BYU was ‘stop tiptoeing around the subjects of race, inequality, and inclusion. Many well intentioned white people in this country do not understand how the deeply rooted systems of racism and inequality function.’ He encouraged people to step up and do their own part for obtaining social justice for all.