Representations of the Holy

October 21, 2012 by Margaret Blair Young

Continued from Page 2

In the same year of Brown v. Board, Mormon apostle Mark E. Petersen spoke at Brigham Young University, discussing segregation aggressively. This was around the time I was conceived. I would grow up in the white privilege he advocated:

I think I have read enough to give you an idea of what the Negro is after. He is not just seeking the opportunity of sitting down in a cafe where white people sit. He isn't just trying to ride on the same streetcar or the same Pullman car with white people. From this and other interviews I have read, it appears that the Negro seeks absorption with the white race. He will not be satisfied until he achieves it by intermarriage. That is his objective and we must face it. We must not allow our feelings to carry us away, nor must we feel so sorry for Negroes that we will open our arms and embrace them with everything we have. Remember the little statement that they used to say about sin, "First we pity, then endure, then embrace." (Petersen, Aug. 27, 1954)

I was twenty-three when the priesthood revelation was made public—that the LDS priesthood would now be available to "all worthy males." The restriction was over.

But that revelation, now called Official Declaration 2, said nothing about abandoning the ideas of curses or other speculations about why blacks had been denied the priesthood. Recent statements by the LDS Church newsroom have proclaimed that we condemn all racism, including that in our own past. But will we abandon the vestiges of racism if we don't recognize them for what they are? There are many Mormons who still believe in the Curse of Cain but don't consider themselves racist.

We are yet on a journey to wholeness. I take comfort from Dr. Murray's book, which is a poignant memoir and a series of sermons:

The valley of deep shadows will never disappear, so we must walk the walk and talk the talk in companionship with the One who commits to being with us always, enjoining us to fear no evil. And coming to life as a student, we never really graduate, for we receive the cap and gown only when we reach the end of this road. (86)

This stained glass depiction of Christ was given to the Sixteenth Street Birmingham Church by the country of Wales. One hand pushes back past oppression, while the other is open to the future and forgiveness. And Jesus is black.

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