Please see this recent article by Marvin Perkins of Blacks in the Scriptures on significant changes to the headings and footnotes in LDS Scriptures:
http://www.blacklds.org/changes-to-lds-scripture-headings-footnotes
Part 3
http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2009/05/12-questions-for-marvin-perkins-part-three/
Baptisms Result From Understanding Scriptures on Black Issues
16 July 2008 As part of the Black in America series airing on 23-24 July, CNN has launched an online series titled I Am which seeks to break through stereotypes by highlighting individuals who have ignored racial barriers and injustices. Marvin Perkins, an African American member of the Church, participated in this series. Full Story
1 July 2008 Gladys Knight’s son Jimmy III died in his sleep nine years ago at age 36. She recently told the Ottawa Citizen newspaper: “He brought me to my church and I just grew immensely from his example. I am happy in my spirit for where I know for sure he is. That (death) is something we all have to go through, it’s not our time and place to dictate when, where or what, it’s not our business. It belongs to the Lord and that’s how I’ve dealt with it. I know I’ll see him again.” Knight joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1997. Full StoryThe Provo Daily Herald reviews “Blacks in the Scriptures,” a DVD produced by Darius Gray and Marvin Perkins to educate Mormons and non-Mormons alike on some of the difficult questions related to race, the priesthood, and Church history:
Perkins, 44, thinks the DVD has value for people who are not LDS but have questions about the faith. The four-part presentation contained on the film’s two discs, he said, is “for everybody, whites, blacks, Polynesians, Latinos, Asians — everybody, both inside and outside the church.”
The most important audience, however, is Latter-day Saints. “Our desire is to cleanse the inner vessel first,” he said, referring to a metaphor used by the warrior Moroni in the LDS scriptural volume the Book of Mormon. “We’re keeping thousands of people out of the church each year because the members don’t know the answers.”
Read Black-and-white Issue by Cody Clark.
