All Are Alike Unto God: Analyzing a Condemnation of Racism from the LDS Church

 

The Juneteenth Flag, celebrating the day the last slaves were freed in Galveston, Texas

Did y'all see this video? I want to dissect and contextualize it for those who are unfamiliar with all the moving parts inside this one video. It's a composite of various contemporary statements from church leaders and church sponsored events from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The purpose of the video is to condemn racism and prejudice, both within the global Church and in societies throughout the world.

 

Because not everyone in the pews is as chronically online as I am, I want to help people who watch this video to understand what they're seeing.

The opening scene and thumb nail is from the meeting between church leadership and the NAACP.

The name of the video and much of the text comes from a verse in The Book of Mormon that forms the backbone of the contemporary LDS embrace of anti-racism.

For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.

2 Nephi 26:33

The woman who reads a portion of that verse was part of the Be One celebration, where the Church commemorated the 40th anniversary of the end of the priesthood restriction in 1978.

The voice over that opens the video comes from President Russell M. Nelson, the current prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It relies on his talk from General Conference in October 2020, "Let God Prevail." This talk, along with this statement, were part of the Church's response to the murder of George Floyd and the resulting protests in America in 2020.

The next church leader who appears in the video after President Nelson is Ulisses Soares. He is an apostle in the Church from Brazil, a country whose population is almost entirely mixed race and was profoundly impacted by the church's racial restriction. His words also come from General Conference.

The church leader that follows is Tracy Browning, the first African American woman to serve in the senior-most presidencies of the Church. She currently serves in the general presidency of the Primary, which has stewardship over children under age 12.

Following her is Dallin H. Oaks, arguably the most conservative member among the apostles, and definitely within the First Presidency. His remarks are from from a devotional at Brigham Young University in October 2020. He is also currently slated to become the next president of the Church after President Nelson passes away because of seniority. So his words reflect what his position would be if/when he becomes the next president of the Church.

The speaker following him is Dieter F. Uchtdorf, an apostle from Germany who is one of the most progressive members of that body. He was in the First Presidency when his remarks were given in 2017, which was before the George Floyd protests.

There are video clips throughout that represent the fully integrated church, members of all races and colors in every setting: in missionary service and at temples, at church meetings, and in homes of Latter-day Saints all over the world. I remembered seeing the last set of clips, but couldn't immediately place them. They're all here and were part of a collection of videos that recorded lived experiences of black members of the Church with the priesthood restriction.

So this is our spread of what we've got here. What does all of this mean from a video the Church is producing today? The obvious one is Juneteenth. The second one is the currently political climate in the United States, especially as it relates to immigration.

There is a conservative, white supremacist faction within the Church that is destroying families, inside and outside of the Church, through support of the Trump administration. This video represents a condemnation of those members. It's also a tool to be used at church for such a condemnation.

How does it do?

I can tell you, as a practicing Latter-day Saint, there isn't any wiggle room to misunderstand the message here. In our community, we say that through two or three witnesses are all things established. This was way more than that, across the ideological spectrum of our leadership. This video is deeply rooted in the responses to the George Floyd protests, marking a deliberate reiteration of the condemnations of racism that came out of that moment. 

Why?

Because our current political environment is the product of that moment.

This video also refers back to correction on racism that predates that summer of 2020, establishing moral credibility for the LDS Church as an institution to speak on this issue because we've been working at this for longer than that. We've been working at this consistently, without giving up, since 1978. 

We know racism when we see it, and we see it all around us in this moment, including from our own. Our own have need to repent of the racism and prejudice that are ruling our hearts in this moment.

That's what this video says. That's what it represents.

One need not look any further than Mike Lee to see why they would put a video like this out right now. White supremacy has no place in our community. We must root it out in individuals and the institution. 

That last part is what I find most encouraging.

Up until now, racism within the Church has largely been treated as a personal failure on the part of individual members. To recognize and confront this as an institutional failure isn't exactly unexplored territory for us as a people. But it's definitely a shift to saying the quiet part out loud.

I want to take apart the final message of the video, because I think it reveals who the intended audience of the video is. It talks about personal differences "fading into insignificance" as we become more like Christ. I know how this reads. It reads like an endorsement of an "I don't see color" approach to pluralism. Believe me. I see it and I cringed at it. I want to be embraced for my differences at Church, not have them ignored and have to pretend like they don't exist or matter.

But for someone who believes in white supremacy, nationalistic fervor, or who supports the violent oppression of other people for political gain...  Is the challenge to let those things fade into insignificance for THAT person truly misplaced? Or is it exactly the invitation they need? 

The idea of living in a global society truly and genuinely terrifies some people. The promise of that fear fading into insignificance is a powerful one for someone like that. It's a challenge to rise to the occasion of this moment for the good our church community. It puts the onus of becoming unbothered by that fear on the person who feels it. Not on me to create conditions where they can ignore that fear while still quietly maintaining it. I think that's what this video represents.

To eradicate racism in our community is an individual and institutional responsibility. It takes all of us working on it together to create the change we believe in. For once, church leadership is acknowledging there are problems even their power can't solve. Not by themselves. If we want to root racism out of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it's going to take all of us working together. That's what the message of this video represents to me. 

I'd love to have them say it without it being Juneteenth, but I love that they're saying it at all.