[…] years many RLDS Church members have been proud of the fact that the church has been ordaining blacks into the priesthood since early in its history. Sometimes they have made unfavorable comparisons between RLDS […]
[…] of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Loving v. Virginia (1967), and the 1978 revelation concerning Blacks and the priesthood. While my message this evening will primarily focus on the symbolism of Dr. […]
[…] the use of group labels (e.g., Nephite, Lamanite). The relevant issue is the problem of dark skin—” black” and “white.” The terms “black” and “white” are used, Nibley argues, as marks of a general […]
[…] may be contributing to its perpetuation. The author and producer of Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons, Darius Gray, an African American Mormon since 1964, told me that current Church leaders have […]
[…] ideas (many of which are beautiful and full of the respect for abundant life), why was anti- black white supremacy so vital? (and, of course, their positions on people of African descent different dramatically […]
Various blogs are discussing this new book from Terryl and Fiona Givens: The God Who Weeps has been hailed as one of “most welcome serious theological engagement with some of the more resonant ideas Mormonism has promulgated in its 180 year history.”
Other blog reactions:
“…I will just say that this is the single best book of Mormon Studies that I have ever read” – Julie M. Smith at Times and Seasons
[…] on his way to the Fourth Ward meeting house all I could see from our parlor window was the tip of his black hat.” Click to see all the 2012 Christmas countdown features.
[…] some of my daughter’s books. Instead, he has a picture of the Duluth lynchings of 1920. Three black men accused of rape, later exonerated, reveal that the accuser has been the real monster. “Humans […]
Dear Friend of Dialogue:
The past year has been an outstanding one for Dialogue. I hope you have found articles that speak to you. I must admit that I often turn first to the book reviews—it is a way for me to obtain thoughtful insight into the best of the new Mormon-themed books that are published each year….
Dialogue is more than just a print journal. If you haven’t visited our website lately, please do. You can find all the past Dialogue articles there, as well as pieces on selected Mormon current affairs. You might want to take a moment to click on the “Contact Us” link and skim the biographies and photos of our Board of Directors to see who’s working behind the scenes.
By Blair Hodges
Cross-posted at By Common Consent
What if Joseph Smith’s vision of God really does have something important to say to all Christians today?“
— Stephen H. Webb
The recent “Mormon moment” exasperated theologian Stephen Webb. It wasn’t that Mitt Romney’s presidential run lent undue legitimacy to the LDS Church, or that Webb thought the media went too soft on the religious background of the Republican nominee. Although he is not a Mormon himself, Webb was unnerved by shallow discussions about Mormon underwear and other apparent trivialities. According to Webb, such conversations fail to pay due attention to Mormon metaphysics—the way Mormons understand the nature of matter, humans, God, and existence. His new book, Mormon Christianity, explores the development and coherence of this core belief taught by Joseph Smith: “There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes…” (D&C 131:7). Mormons make no ultimate distinction between spirit and matter, the natural and supernatural, which largely sets them apart from the broader Christian tradition. ”The Mormon imagination is solidly grounded in material reality,” writes Webb, “but it takes the physical world to new and unheard-of heights” (10). Webb believes Christian lungs can benefit from the rarefied air of these heights.