Rejecting Racism in Any Form: Latter-day Saint Rhetoric, Religion, and Repatriation
From the abstract.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued an online statement in February 2012 rejecting all racism, in any form. The statement followed nearly two centuries of tortured struggles with racism promulgated by church leaders, instituted in everyday practices, and integrated into Latter-day Saint scriptures. While rhetoric renouncing racism from the LDS Church is a welcome step, religions need to compliment language undoing racism with concrete actions. This article examines ways that the LDS Church may work towards actually ending various forms of racism. It focuses attention on the role of settler colonial grave robbery, the loot from which was used in the production of Mormon scriptures advocating white privilege. These acts of violence against Native people continue into the present, as illustrated by the recent occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge by Mormon militiamen, extensive trade networks in antiquities in Mormon communities, unethical uses of Native American DNA, and ongoing efforts by Utah legislators to undermine tribal sovereignty. Current rhetoric condemning racism appears to serve as a mask for the continued imbalance of power in a land-rich institution in which the highest positions of authority remain exclusively in the hands of white men. Reciprocal acts of repatriation, initiated but never finished by early LDS Church leaders, need to be re-activated if Mormons are to effectively repudiate racism in its many forms.
This line especially jumps out:
"Current rhetoric condemning racism appears to serve as a mask for the continued imbalance of power in a land-rich institution in which the highest positions of authority remain exclusively in the hands of white men."
No kidding.
Or this interesting observation.
The Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham both owe their origins to the practice of grave-robbery, an offense not just today but also at the time of their production. Joseph Smith and other European treasure seekers in the nineteenth century did not accord the graves of American Indians and Egyptians the same amount of respect they expected for those of their own relatives. During Joseph Smith’s early employment as a treasure seeker, he would conjure the dead who appeared to him in the form of treasure guardians and angels. He recorded his own struggles with temptations from “the adversary” to use a set of gold plates he found for “riches.” He also engaged in much of this work under the cover of darkness, so as to hide it from others. Even if he did not recognize his disturbances of the remains and treasures of the dead as wrong, he clearly identified gaining wealth from those items taken from graves as immoral and was concerned about how others might respond if they observed his actions
I never thought of it that way but the Mormon church's two primary ancient scripture are a direct result of robbing graves. (Well at least one is for sure.)
Growing up in the LDS church I was exposed to constant reminders about the hardships that my pioneer ancestors endured as they were driven across the plains. When I lived in Utah, the 24th of July was a bigger holiday than the 4th. Never mentioned was the fact that when there "pioneers" entered the Uintah Basin, it was already occupied by a thriving native population who lived off the land and fisheries in the basin, whose lands were occupied, fisheries destroyed and game hunted by the white settlers. Who then drove the native populations on to reservations where they starved and died. Isn't it ironic how the Book of Mormon led to the destruction native American lives and life styles? But it gets worse. 100 years later we actually go and remove some of the children of the what is left of these tribes in an attempt to change their culture, religion and even their skin color into the very culture responsible for their destruction a 100 years ago and we do this in the name of God. The hardships our Mormon pioneers endured pale in comparison to what those same pioneers inflicted on a people our own religion identifies as His chosen children. Laben wants his head back.
From Murphy's paper.
Unrecognized biases in these spaces emanate from this structural and systemic framework, ignoring present-day Native American perspectives, beliefs, and cultural practices. Charles Wilkinson describes the colonial domination in southern Utah in the 1960s in ways that echo the experiences of the authors in the region during subsequent decades. “The church exerted sweeping political power. Virtually every public official in San Juan County and across southern Utah was Mormon. Mormons controlled state government. Mormons ran the schools, the county commission, the courts, the police, the welfare agencies, everything.”
There is a lot more interesting stuff in the article.
But it was racism and then they had to add treason to it when they got to Utah. If you look deep into the hearts of Mormons now, you know that they will always put church above country and Mormons above other people. They have to lie and cheat to win, but that fits when the whole movement was started by a liar and cheater. Garbage in, garbage out.