Some members of the LDS Church have so internalized their victimhood that they can’t see how others have been oppressed – Salt Lake Tribune

Why do so many people think we Mormons are racists? As it turns out, it is not because of Brigham Young.

Brad Wilcox, a religion professor at Brigham Young University and one of Mormonisms most unfortunate pseudo celebrities, had a lamentable performance on the fireside circuit recently. In attempting to clarify why the all-male priesthood of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not bestowed on black men until 1978, Wilcox offered a couple of rhetorical questions: Brigham Young was a jerk? Members of the Church were prejudiced?

Well, perhaps. But as if the answer to these queries mattered, he went on to suggest, Maybe were asking the wrong question. Maybe instead of saying, Why did the Blacks have to wait until 1978, maybe what we should be asking is, Why did the whites, and other races, have to wait until 1829 one thousand, eight hundred, twenty-nine years they waited.

Apparently within the long history of race relations, the extended delay for those of African descent is not such a big deal. The real travesty, as Wilcox sees it, is the eighteen centuries whites had to wait. He might have pointed out that these long-oppressed whites were never excluded from the priesthood while others enjoyed the privilege.

Wilcox has since apologized for his misstep, though his apology rings hollow as additional videos surfaced in which he made nearly identical comments. This was not a careless, inadvertent mistake, but a rehearsed talking point in his stump speech.

Ironically, in his rush to defend Brigham Young and the churchs 19th century take on race, Wilcox inadvertently revealed that he (and we) have a far bigger problem. Color-blindness and tone-deafness have conspired to produce an almost inexplicable racial ignorance within the 21st century church. And yes, professor, asking why some blacks were ordained to the priesthood when the United States was still a slave-holding society and why the practice was abandoned until well after the Civil Rights movement is an appropriate question.

If this mistake were limited to Wilcox, it could be readily dismissed. But this error, although coming from someone who misappropriates the very history he purports to have mastered, does not make Wilcox unique. Racial ignorance among Mormons stems not from our history, but from our inability to learn from that history. For all the resources the church has invested in preserving and teaching history, we sadly dont seem to get it. We cling to persecution theology as the central tenet of our historical legacy and ongoing reality.

In the face of rising anti-Semitism, racially motivated redistricting, and voter suppression laws, prominent members of the church, both in government and at BYU, would have the world believe they represent a class of victims.

For example, before becoming one of Donald Trumps most dutiful disciples, Sen. Mike Lee criticized his partys presidential nominee in 2016 saying Trump had made some statements that some have identified correctly as religiously intolerant. He said Trump was wildly unpopular in my state, in part because my state consists of people who are members of a religious minority church a people who were ordered exterminated by the governor of Missouri in 1838.

Kathleen Flake, a professor of Mormon studies at the University of Virginia, told me Mormons were remarkably oppressed by both state and federal governments. But she says by only focusing on oppression experienced by Mormons and other Protestants we can easily neglect the ongoing oppression other religious groups face.

Most religious communities have been threatened or mistreated, she said, but Lee uses a narrow sliver of the Protestant story to tell the story of all America and then suggests that any other story is un-American. It is not a narrative true historians recognize, she said.

For Lee, Trumps heroism as an adversary of woke extremism outweighs any concern the senator may have had about the presidents intolerance toward Muslims or anyone else. Thus, the historical context of Mormon persecution went from being Lees reason to oppose Trump to his reason to support him.

Like Wilcox, Lee has not misspoken. Rather, he has betrayed an insensitivity to the suffering of others. Racism and religious bigotry are two sides of the same ugly coin. By refusing to acknowledge these twin forces, people like Wilcox and Lee belie true Christian empathy. They have so internalized the persecution narrative that they are incapable of seeing that the oppressed have become the oppressors. Thus, they refuse to let the dialogue be about anyone but themselves.

These lightweights masquerading as scholars and statesmen misrepresent and cheapen a belief system that for some of us is more than a system. On the tapestry of faith they have left a stain that the rising generation will purge in due course. In the meantime, the damage and disappointment are real, and the stakes could not be higher.

Addison Graham is a sophomore at Brigham Young University majoring in American studies and Spanish. He is currently studying abroad in Spain.

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Some members of the LDS Church have so internalized their victimhood that they can't see how others have been oppressed - Salt Lake Tribune