A startup humanitarian company develops and installs playground equipment in rural Ghanaian schools so the schools and villages can have some light. BYU media just did a press release, here is the link:
http://byunews.byu.edu/release.aspx?story=archive08/Jun/Ghana
Unity and Gratitude Emphasized at 30th Anniversary of Priesthood Revelation
SALT LAKE CITY 9 June 2008 Close to 3,000 people packed the Salt Lake Tabernacle last night to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ action in June 1978 to extend its lay priesthood to men of all races.
Church leaders and members, including many who are African American, spoke to those attending the gathering. The celebration also featured musical selections from a choir led by Mormon Tabernacle Choir music director, Mack Wilberg, and soloist Alex Boye.
Mormons to mark 30 years of blacks in priesthood
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gizVEnP-UIf95V2CcjYOUMrJlQ-AD915CFHO0
Questions Raised in the Public Square by Dana Lynn King in Meridian
http://www.ldsmag.com/ideas/080609dvd.html
Latter-day Saints examine racial history by Dana Lynn King in St Louis Dispatch
http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/civil-religion/race/2008/06/latter-day-saints-examine-racial-history/
Salt Lake Tribune articles about blacks and the Church for the 30th anniversary:
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9497769 (Mormon and Black)
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9525797 (Why did it take so long?)
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9497773 (Black voices)
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9497771 (Vanna Cox)
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9497768 (Darius Gray)
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9497767 (Amram Musungu)
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9497770 (Jesse Stott)
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9497772 (Edmon Washington)
African Americans are joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called “the Mormon church”) in greater numbers. A recent article in the North County Times examines the increase of blacks in congregations in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, and San Antonio.
Excerpts follow:
“I was approached by two younger African-American Mormon missionaries, and it made me think about the church in a different way,” she said. “So many people have asked me why I joined a racist religion, which makes me sad that people would think this faith teaches hate.”
Carson and other blacks who have left churches long associated with their communities, such as the Baptist and the African Methodist Episcopal congregations, say they often find cultural resistance from their families and friends who may be skeptical of how the Mormon church can minister to a black American.
…
The growth of Mormonism among blacks is commonly tied to two events.
In 1978, the church abolished a long-standing practice that kept black men from seeking priesthoods and black women from participating in temple ceremonies. In 2006, Mormon president Gordon B. Hinckley publicly declared the faith open to all people.
“I am told that racial slurs and denigrating remarks are sometimes heard among us,” he said. “I remind you that no man who makes disparaging remarks concerning those of another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ.”
…
Ahmad Corbitt, the stake president of Mormon churches in southern New Jersey, is black. The congregations he oversees are predominantly white, and he said there is a lot the church can do to reach out to other blacks. He converted in 1980 and has nine other siblings, all of whom also became members of the Mormon church.
“The church decries racism and teaches equality among all citizens, and the average African-American member in our church wants to be here and feels a bond to what the church stands for,” he said.
Source: A new beginning: Blacks giving the Mormon Church a second look by John Dorman, North County Times
A recent MormonTimes.com article highlights Nobody Knows, the new documentary about the history of blacks in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
“It’s an interesting piece … in that it’s not a church-proselyting piece, it is not a church-bashing piece,” said Darius Aidan Gray, co-producer of the film. “We have attempted to be as objective as possible in letting the people tell their own stories, and I think we have succeeded in that.”
Gray and co-producer Margaret Blair Young have known and worked with each other for the past 10 years on various projects, including a trilogy of novels called “Standing on the Promises,” which tells the history of black Mormon pioneers, some of whom are also highlighted in the documentary.
Source: Members’ stories at heart of film on black Mormons by Jenny Larson, MormonTimes.com
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has an article on the 30th anniversary of the revelation on the priesthood. Excerpts follow:
For more than a century, such scriptures were interpreted by Mormon leaders as a rationale to ban people of African descent from holding the priesthood. With each generation, the teaching became more ingrained.
But by the 1970s, in the wake of the civil rights movement, members of the church began to question the ban. That triggered a series of meeting and debates about the issue. And in 1978, the top leaders of the church said a revelation from God would, from now on, allow blacks to join the priesthood.
In 2006, church President Gordon Hinckley, who died earlier this year, gave a speech about racism. He confronted Mormons with their own prejudices, calling them “unacceptable.”
“There is no basis for racial hatred among the priesthood,” he said.
Some Mormons feel the church has not gone far enough. They say that while the 1978 revelation was a good step, the church needs to repudiate its history, explain the roots of its racist teachings and do more to teach the next generation about the church’s history.
“The 1978 revelation changed what was being done, but the problem is that there was no education to follow,” said Marvin Perkins, a Mormon and co-author of the book “Blacks in the Scriptures.” “We tore down the wall, but we didn’t clean up streets afterward.”
Margaret Young, 53, a professor at Brigham Young University, agreed.
“We have a long ways to go to disabuse people of the things that were taught in my generation,” she said. “People my age were all taught the curse idea. The restriction was lifted, but no one repudiated the ideas themselves.”
Some black Mormons say the church is doing fine when it comes to race and integration.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find an organization more earnest in its outreach and more inclusive and effective at integrating people of African descent into its membership and leadership,” said Ahmad Corbitt, who is African-American and director of the church’s New York Office of Public and International Affairs.
Source: Black Mormons straddle two worlds on 30th anniversary by Tim Townsend
BlackLDS.org has just added a new section for photos. The first set of pictures are of Church members and the Mormon temple in Ghana, Africa.
View the photos here: BlackLDS.org Photos
The Daily Herald is running photos from the Ogden, Utah, screening of Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons. Included with the photos is an article from the Associated Press, “Documentary chronicles history of blacks in LDS church”:
Wrapped in soulful, black spirituals, the 72-minute film takes viewers on a journey from the days of Mormon pioneers to the 1960s civil rights era, when some university athletics teams refused to compete against BYU because of the way blacks were treated by the church. It ends with current black church members sharing their own stories — good and bad.
“We’re not hiding anything, we’re not sugarcoating anything,” [Margaret] Young said. “We’re telling a very difficult history, but the people who are telling it have come through it.”
The 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.
A new poll done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows that three percent of American Latter-day Saints (Mormons) are Black. The poll showed higher percentages for Jehovah Witnesses, Evangelicals, and Orthodox Christians and lower percentages for Catholics and Mainline Protestants. You can look at the entire survey here: Pew Forum Research Poll
This survey marks substantial progress. Darius Gray notes that estimates in 1965 of Black Latter-day Saints were only about 300 to 400 people. The current 3% estimate would mean roughly 200,000 people in the USA. Looking at the Deseret News Church Almanac, Darius Gray concludes that about 750,000 Latter-day Saints worldwide have Black African roots.
We would like to see the percentage of Black Latter-day Saints increase. More importantly, we hope that all people would have a better understanding of the Mormon faith and the contribution of Black members. We also hope that Latter-day Saints would continue to improve in their understanding and appreciation of various ethnic groups and religions.
For a scholarly study of these issues, we recommend the book “All Abraham’s Children” by Armand Mauss. To read an article where Dr. Mauss summarizes some of his analysis, go to http://www.blacklds.org/mauss.
This Sunday, March 23, 2008 from 5-6 pm MST.
