Black and Mormon
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The year 2003 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the lifting of the ban excluding black members from the priesthood of the Mormon church. The articles collected in Newell G. Bringhurst and Darron T. Smith’s Black and Mormon look at the mechanisms used to keep blacks from full participation, the motives behind the ban, and the kind of changes that have--and have not--taken place within the church since the revelation responsible for its end.
This challenging collection is required reading for anyone concerned with the history of racism, discrimination, and the Latter-day Saints.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1978, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reversed a longstanding ban by granting the lay priesthood to all worthy men, regardless of race. In this book, eight scholars weigh in on the history of the ban, the present role of African-Americans in Mormon life and the residue of earlier racism. The editors claim that despite the 1978 revelation, the Church has done little to distance itself from damaging folk doctrines of the past, and "needs to forthrightly confront its past history of racial exclusion and discrimination." The book's best essays are Alma Allred's fascinating analysis of racial themes in LDS scripture; Armand Mauss's summary of post-1978 developments; and Ken Driggs's on-the-ground report of a successful, racially mixed Mormon congregation in Atlanta. Like other scholarly anthologies on narrow topics, this collection contains some repetition of ideas, case reports and anecdotes, but it is one of the most far-reaching studies of black Mormons to date.