Simultaneous and Contradictory

There's been a firestorm in the LDS world today. A BYU professor made some truly unfortunate remarks in a Washington Post article about the fact that black men were not allowed to hold the priesthood from the time of Brigham Young until 1978 (by the way, black men were ordained into the priesthood before Brigham Young became president of the church). Click here for a good concise summary of the recent controversy, including the swift renunciation of the professor's comments by the LDS church.

I don't want to dwell on his comments in this post, but I do want to write about some of my experience with the issue.

My parents joined the LDS church when I was five, so I was essentially raised Mormon. When I was in the sixth grade, we were assigned to write a report about a religion, our own if we chose. It made sense for me to write about our family's faith.

For part of my report I interviewed my mother. After I asked her whether she was "bored reading alot [sic] of scriptures at one time" (biased questioning much?), I asked her if there was anything about the LDS church that she didn't like. Part of her answer addressed her dislike of the policy regarding blacks and the priesthood. I learned an early and valuable lesson about the possibility (and probability) of being ambivalent even if you believe the leaders of a faith are generally inspired. This lesson has sustained me in many areas of my life.

I was 14 in 1978 when the LDS church changed the policy and black men were welcomed into the priesthood. I remember my mother whooping through the house when she heard it about it on the national news. What a joyful turn of events!

I also remember my Sunday school teacher at the time. He was a black man. I remember being impressed at his capacity for faith given the circumstances of his restricted status. And I remember feeling truly happy that things would change for him.

I can still picture his face.