Juliann & Scott Gordon's "blacklds.org"

[_beastie]

Beastie, you must be clairvoyant. You made the above statement how long ago????

Nah, no clairvoyance. Juliann has been using this line at MAD for quite a while now. If I recall correctly, her reasoning is something along the line that people who bring up the LDS church's racist past are just trying to stir things up and prevent racial healing, hence, are the real racists.

[_Mister Scratch]

[...]
Another element that seems to have been revised is this, from the "about us" section:

This site started as an idea shared by Scott Gordon, Renee Olson, and Juliann Reynolds. Of course many more contributed ideas and suggestions.

For those who are curious, Scott and Juliann are white, while Renee is black.

Huh. Very interesting.

I know that my memory can't always be trusted, but from what I recall, this has been in the "about us" section (at least the last sentence) for a very long time (at least well over a year).

Really? Here is a portion from my OP, some material which I cut-and-pasted quite some time ago:

Some have asked why someone who is obviously white would put together this Web site. Encouragement from Renee Olson and Marvin Perkins, along with a feeling that somebody needed to do it, motivated him in this endeavor. He is careful to pay attention to suggestions given to him by his advisors.

(The "he/him" being referred to is Scott Gordon.)

For the life of me, I could not locate this passage anywhere on the current iteration of the site. This could just be a result of my own boneheadedness, however, this statement from "Scotty Dog" Gordon runs contrary to the spirit of this "new and improved" welcome message. I.e., from a Mopologetics perspective, they have moved away from "This is something that needs to be done" in order to embrace a sense of "those evil ministries are telling lies, and they're racist, and white!" In other words, they are ascribing their efforts to wholly different motives, it seems to me. (Though again, I readily admit that I may be missing something here.)

[_Doctor Steuss]

Really? Here is a portion from my OP, some material which I cut-and-pasted quite some time ago:

It’s most likely that my memory is off.

At the risk of exposing my flawed memory further, I recall there being a picture of Bro. Gordon with a comment along the lines of "Marvin (or Renee[?]) wanted people to know what I look like" or something like that.

????
(Please, oh please let my memory be vindicated)

[_Doctor Steuss]

Mr. S,

Some have asked why someone who is obviously white would put together this Web site. Encouragement from Renee Olson and Marvin Perkins, along with a feeling that somebody needed to do it, motivated him in this endeavor. He is careful to pay attention to suggestions given to him by his advisors.

http://www.blacklds.org/gordon

Looks like just this once, my memory may be working... maybe.

[_Mister Scratch]

Mr. S,

Some have asked why someone who is obviously white would put together this Web site. Encouragement from Renee Olson and Marvin Perkins, along with a feeling that somebody needed to do it, motivated him in this endeavor. He is careful to pay attention to suggestions given to him by his advisors.

http://www.blacklds.org/gordon

Looks like just this once, my memory may be working... maybe.

Lol. No, no, Steuss. In my experience, your memory is remarkably sharp and accurate. In any case, thanks for tracking this down! Still, it raises the question: does not S. Gordon's mention of his whiteness here seem to conflict with this (new?) Mission Statement, and the way in conflates racism with being white?

[_TrashcanMan79]

At the risk of exposing my flawed memory further, I recall there being a picture of Bro. Gordon with a comment along the lines of "Marvin (or Renee[?]) wanted people to know what I look like" or something like that.

????
(Please, oh please let my memory be vindicated)

I'm not about to search that site for it, but for what it's worth, I remember seeing this as well.

But my word has never vindicated anyone.

[_Boaz & Lidia]

I feel for these African American folks being used by the lily white Mormons to perpetuate their lies.

[_Sam Harris]

Kind of funny, though, that they had to find canned testimonies.

Yes, it would have been much more authentic if they could have had someone like GIMR, who could have discussed both the good and the bad when it comes to being black and LDS. I suspect the raw answers would ultimately have suited the best interest of black LDS members, without flecks of PR aaround the edges.

Juliann had me. I gave the good and the bad. She didn't want that, remember. :-) People like Scott and Juliann really don't want to face what it's like to be black and LDS. They don't want to face that fact that the church hasn't really come all that far on this issue.

The fact of the matter is that the church is a generation behind when it comes to race issues. The fact of the matter is that the church still sees black people as some sort of oddity. The fact of the matter is that the church still assumes that culturally I'm closer to an African man than I am a White American male, which is not true. I speak the same language as a White American Male. We eat similar foods, were born in the same country, stand a chance of liking the same music, books (and this can be with African men too, but they also have literature and art I've probably never heard of). I can't stand Fufu...I'm sorry. I've been blessed to have a stepmother who was from Uganda, and African neighbors who have taught me about their culture, and it is vastly different than mine. The Washington Post once did a wonderful article on how Africans and African Americans are really distant cousins at best...

The LDS church is just doing PR work on this issue. When I went on FAIR and tried to talk about this Juilann had an apoplectic fit that anyone DARED to cross her carefully laid plans of how things were supposed to look.

Let me tell you something: all of the black LDS women I know are not dating white men. The one black LDS woman I know who is married married an Asian man. The white men we came across would not touch us. In a ward of 500 that I was baptized into, there were 5 black women. We either didn't date or dated outside the church. Beautiful, accomplished women. How glad I am to be away from all that! To be made to feel less than for being a black woman! Humph.

[_Sam Harris]

I feel for these African American folks being used by the lily white Mormons to perpetuate their lies.

To be honest, I don't. Because they are putting themselves in this situation. This is the information age, and I know of many black LDS who have read the same things I have.

I sat with black LDS friends and tried to rationalize away the "pure white and delightsome" scriptures...if they want to live like that, let them.

[_Mister Scratch]

Kind of funny, though, that they had to find canned testimonies.

Yes, it would have been much more authentic if they could have had someone like GIMR, who could have discussed both the good and the bad when it comes to being black and LDS. I suspect the raw answers would ultimately have suited the best interest of black LDS members, without flecks of PR aaround the edges.

Juliann had me. I gave the good and the bad. She didn't want that, remember. :-) People like Scott and Juliann really don't want to face what it's like to be black and LDS. They don't want to face that fact that the church hasn't really come all that far on this issue.

I agree wholeheartedly with this, and find it rather disgusting that S. Gordon and juliann are now using this issue as a means of "sticking it to" the "anti-cult" ministries. I mean, is this really about healing old wounds, or is it about scoring points against the "antis"?