Tag: race

Late But Welcome: “Race and Priesthood” Essay

By Armand Mauss Armand Mauss is the author of All Abraham’s Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage and The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation.   The “Race and the Priesthood,” Gospel Topics essay has been a long time in coming. Like the others recently posted on the Church website, …

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The Continuing Effects of the Priesthood Ban

By Mica McGriggs Mica McGriggs is a PhD candidate in counseling psychology at BYU. Her academic research is primarily in the area of multicultural sensitivity in psychology.   I don’t remember the first time I learned about the priesthood ban, but I do have several vivid memories of my encounters with the issue. At my …

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Keeping the Promises

  The story of the relationship between Mormonism and Africans is a story of promises—promises made and promises failed. Through the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, whether as translator or composer, assured the world that all humanity is “alike unto God, both black and white, bond and free, male and female.” This assurance comes to …

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Rorschach Test

By Miguel Barker-Valdez   I am a walking Rorschach test. As a physician’s assistant in an orthopedic surgery clinic, patients have referred to me as “the well-dressed Mexican,” the surgeon’s “little Japanese friend,” and most recently, “the man from East India.” Facebook has pegged me as “77% Brazilian, 13% Japanese.” My father called my brother (Paul) …

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