Second-class saints : Black Mormons and the struggle for racial equality /

Second-class saints : Black Mormons and the struggle for racial equality /

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Harris, Matthew L., author.
Imprint:	New York : Oxford University Press, [2024]
Description:	xv, 460 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	African American Latter Day Saints. Race relations -- Religious aspects -- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- History. Race -- Religious aspects -- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- History. Priesthood -- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- History. African American Latter Day Saints Priesthood -- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Race relations -- Religious aspects -- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Race -- Religious aspects -- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints History
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/13498175

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780197695715 019769571X 9780197695739 9780197695746 9780197695722
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	"This book provides a detailed look at how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lifted its longstanding ban barring Black men from the priesthood and Black families from access to Mormon temples. Adapting a Protestant teaching that Black people bore a divine curse, and reinforced by a unique Latter-day teaching that Black people were "less valiant" in a pre-earth existence, these twin teachings became the fulcrum that underpinned the church's priesthood and temple ban. The book discusses how the ban began in 1852 under the church's second prophet-president, Brigham Young, and ended in 1978 under the church's twelve prophet-president, Spencer W. Kimball. The book further highlights how the ban collided with efforts to globalize the church following the Second World War, why it forced LDS church leaders to resist the civil rights movement, why it prompted dozens of universities to boycott BYU athletic competitions, and finally, why it led federal authorities to investigate BYU for alleged violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The book also details how perceived threats from the Jimmy Carter administration to revoke the church's tax exemption status provoked a swift backlash from critics who claimed that the church lifted the ban out of political expedience. The final third of the book probes how public pressure led church leaders to repudiate Mormon racial teachings in a seminal essay called "Race and the Priesthood.""--
Other form:	Online version: Harris, Matthew L. Second-class saints New York : Oxford University Press, [2024] 9780197695739

Description
Summary:	An in-depth account--grounded in new archival discoveries--of the most consequential development in Mormon history since the end of polygamy<br> <br> On June 9, 1978, the phones at the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) were ringing nonstop. Word began to spread that a momentous change in church policy had been announced and everyone wanted to know: was it true? The answer would have profound implications for the church and American society more broadly.<br> <br> On that historic day, LDS church president Spencer W. Kimball announced a revelation lifting the church's 126-year-old ban barring Black people from the priesthood and Mormon temples. It was the most significant change in LDS doctrine since the end of polygamy almost 100 years earlier.<br> <br> Drawing on never-before-seen private papers of LDS apostles and church presidents, including Spencer W. Kimball, Matthew L. Harris probes the plot twists and turns, the near-misses and paths not taken, of this incredible story. While the notion that Kimball received a revelation might imply a sudden command from God, Harris shows that a variety of factors motivated Kimball and other church leaders to reconsider the ban, including the civil rights movement, which placed LDS racial policies and practices under a glaring spotlight, perceptions of racism that dogged the church and its leaders, and Kimball's own growing sense that the ban was morally wrong.<br> <br> Harris also shows that the lifting of the ban was hardly a panacea. The church's failure to confront and condemn its racial theology in the decades after the 1978 revelation stifled their efforts to reach Black communities and made Black members the target of racism in LDS meetinghouses. Vigilant members pestered church leaders to repudiate their anti-Black theology, forcing them to live up to the creed in Mormon scripture that "all are alike unto God." Deeply informed, engagingly written, and grounded in deep archival research, Harris provides a compelling and detailed account of how Mormon leaders lifted the priesthood and temple ban, then came to reckon with the church's controversial racial heritage.
Physical Description:	xv, 460 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:	9780197695715 019769571X 9780197695739 9780197695746 9780197695722