Thread by @BenjaminEPark

Okay, it's been a while, so here's a #MormonAmerica thread on the LDS Church being forced to reckon with racial ideas, doctrine, and folklore that persisted long after 1978. The story includes recent converts, scholars, leaked media, BYU, and, of course, Mitt Romney. /1

When LDS President Spencer Kimball announced a revelation in 1978 that ended a restriction for all members with African descent from priesthood ordination and temple ordinances, many leaders hope they could just turn the page without more discussion. /2

The most famous formulation of this was Apostle Bruce R. McConkie's speech later that year that urged people to "forget everything I have said" on the topic. "It is a new day and a new arrangement." Nothing before 1978, he claimed, mattered anymore. /3 speeches.byu.edu/talks/bruce-r-…

The problem, however, was that many of the anti-black ideas that initiated, entrenched, and perpetuated Mormonism's racial restriction still hung around. Even McConkie's own compendium MORMON DOCTRINE continued to teach that those with African ancestry were descendants of Ham. /4

Flash forward to the early-90s: a Black Baptist couple, David and Betty Jackson, converted to Mormonism, but grew upset when confronted with these racist ideas. They wrote a long letter to leadership pleading for them to repudiate these teachings and remove McConkie's book. /5

Jackson even drafted an "Official Declaration #3" that Gordon Hinckley could read in General Conference. /6

(This is from the great MORMON CHURCH & BLACKS volume (@IllinoisPress), edited by Matt Harris and Newell Bringhurst.)

LDS leaders did not respond directly, but instead sent a letter to the Jackson's bishop. Undeterred, the Jacksons got in touch with Elder Marlin Jensen, a popular and influential leader in Utah. Jensen recognized the problem and decided to work with them. /7

They formed a committee with Jensen, the Jacksons, someone from LDS Public Affairs, and scholar Armand Mauss, who had written a lot on the topic. Mauss was commissioned to write a 5-page memo outlining the issues to church leaders. /8

Mauss, the author of the classic ALL ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN, argued that the church should 1) issue a statement clearly renouncing these past teachings, and 2) remove books like MORMON DOCTRINE out of circulation. /9 amazon.com/All-Abrahams-C…

The committee hoped their work would result in an official repudiation of these anti-black ideas, perhaps as early as June 1998, the 20th anniversary of the restriction's end. (Story detailed in Mauss's @UofUPress memoir.) /10 uofupress.lib.utah.edu/shifting-borde…

However, hope was dashed when news of the committee's work leaked in May. A big LA Times story titled "Mormons May Disavow Old View on Black" caught the church off-guard. It is unclear how far discussions had gone, but they now screeched to a stop. /11 latimes.com/archives/la-xp…

Gordon Hinckley issued a statement that said such plans were "erroneous," and that "the 1978 official declaration continues to speak for itself." He still believed in "moving forward" rather than dealing with the issues of the past. /12

Plenty happened in intervening years--incl Hinckley's 2006 chastisement of members in General Conference for racist views-- but let's skip forward to 2012. Romney was running for president & the Mormon Moment was in full bloom. Then this bombshell: /13 washingtonpost.com/politics/the-g…

The WaPo reporter, in investigating his story on Mormonism & race, happened to interview Randy Bott, a very popular BYU religion professor. Bott then repeated the same racist ideas that were in McConkie's books and that the Jacksons urged Hinckley to publicly renounce. /14

The story threw LDS leaders into a tizzy. They released 2 statements by the end of the week. The first specifically denounced Bott's opinions & said the ideas that had justified their racial restriction were based on speculation and not authoritative. /15 newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/racial…

The 2nd statement was more foundational. While it still did not identify racism as the origins of the restriction, it condemned "any and all past racism by individuals both inside and outside the Church." This was close to what the Jacksons requested. /16 newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/race-c…

The WaPo reporter asked Don Harwell, president of the Black LDS Genesis Group, to respond to Bott's remarks. Harwell (pictured in first tweet) called them "vile." The Jacksons likely agreed. If they had gotten their wish, the whole Bott crisis might have been averted. /fin

And here's the TikTok version of this thread: tiktok.com/@benjaminepark…