"Black and Immigrant" Panel Discussion at BYU

Brigham Young University held this event on February 6, 2020.  

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the audience questions, coming largely from Brigham Young University students one would suppose, included: 

• “What is the percentage of African Americans on food stamps?”
• “Why do African Americans hate the police?”
• “Why don’t we have any white people on stage?”

One student on the panel to whom the questions were addressed is an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

Another Black student responded to the incident by saying that she no longer has the emotional stamina to deal with the “ignorant, racist, privileged folks” on campus.

If you are a white BYU student or a non-first-generation Latter-day Saint, you must know that you are privileged and that that privilege does, indeed, make you an easy candidate to have lived a sheltered, privileged life that would make it easy for you to be ignorant and to say and do things that you don't even recognize are racist.  

If you are a parent, please teach your children that statements and attitudes like this are hurtful and hateful and racist. Just because you're not aware of your ignorant or racist attitudes does not excuse them, nor does it not make your attitudes and actions and sayings ignorant and racist. 

If you don't understand why these questions are inappropriate, you are, assuredly, in need of self-reflection and education.  One suggestion would be to cross the tracks and engage in a conversation with a clerk at a store.  Another would be to take public transportation and talk to people of different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds from your own.  Learn what it's like to be the only person of your race in a room, in a building, in a ward.  Not everyone embraces your cultural values, not everyone has matching furniture and dishes, not everyone can buy new clothes and throw out old ones at will, not everyone has had a safe group of friends nor a home in a desirable neighorhood, nor a loving family nor preferred foods.  Not everyone has had good healthcare to have nice teeth, health-looking bodies and freedom from consequences of inherited or stress or poverty-related mental or physical defects.  On the other hand, you may find that the African-American person has had a loyal, sustaining family network that has weathered storms and provided strength that you've never known.  Perhaps their family has sacrificed in ways to provide opportunities for their children or siblings that you and your family cannot imagine. 

I guess I'm surprised because I served a mission and work with a lot of BYU people who seemed to know about compassion and love and not being insensitive.  How does this continue to go on?  

Some ideas for appropriate questions in such a panel discussion would include: 

• "What is something I can do better as a privileged white BYU student to ensure that I'm a better member of our shared community?"
• "In what ways do your Black and Immigrant characteristics provide you insights into your course of study?"  "What are those of us who aren't Black and Immigrants not aware of?" 
• "How will the world be different as more Black and Immigrant students come to and leave BYU?" 

Gift of Tongues

The fast and testimony meeting I attended two Sundays ago deserves mentioning.  Almost everyone who stood shared his or her experience with this year's Gospel Doctrine class course of study: the Book of Mormon. 

One woman explained that she was reading the book in Portuguese, the language she is currently learning.  She'd been reading the book from its beginning, and when she started to read the book of Mosiah, she was surprised at how difficult the reading became.  She realized that the vocabulary and syntax suddenly increased in sophistication, suggesting to her that a single author was certainly not an acceptable explanation for Book of Mormon authorship.

Others spoke about the increased spiritual guidance and sensitivity they'd found.  All witnessed their assurance that the book was inspired by God.

What stood out to me, however, was how articulate every speaker was--without exception.  They spoke by the Holy Ghost.  This seemed to me to be a clear manifestation of the of Gift of Tongues.

Mark 16 teaches that speaking in tongues is one of the spiritual gifts given to followers of Jesus Christ. Doctrine and Covenants 46 teaches that gifts of the Spirit--of which variations of the gift of tongues are one category--are gifts from God for the benefit of His children.

Sacrament Meetings Have Got to Improve

Having been blessed with such an abundance of truth and knowledge of God's care, I have frequently been saddened that Latter-day Saint gatherings are not more worshipful. Should we not have the most inspired worship service?  Should our praise not sound the most joyful?  Wouldn't it make sense that our people were the finest lay scriptorians of any denomination?  Would we not always be mindful that each of our meetings may be the first, last or only place that a troubled soul or some other seeker goes in search for respite or guidance?  So wouldn't we always make sure that our sermons and lessons contain a nourishing balance of milk and meat--and certainly always something nourishing, rather than the sugary punch and brownies that so often get presented as the main entree during sacrament meeting. 

I attend church in downtown Salt Lake City, in what I would be prone to think of as flagship wards of the church.

Over the last six months, in particular, I have attended some particularly uninspiring Latter-day Saint meetings, including several sacrament meetings and firesides where the most senior church leaders have been present.  I would like to assume that they have been as mortified as me by the low quality or off-base tenor of so many addresses. On some, but not all, of these occasions has the senior church leader taken the opportunity to try to salvage the meeting by sharing a message before or after the meeting closes.  

During two meetings that I remember specifically, with the exception of the opening, sacramental and closing prayers and the sacrament hymn, the name of Jesus was never mentioned.  (I guess the speakers also perfunctorily closed in the name of Jesus.)  One of the Sundays I particularly remember because a practicing Protestant friend from New York City attended with me. One of the hymn's only reference to Jesus was "and Jesus listening can hear the songs I cannot sing."  The speakers spoke about themselves and their respect for their each other in their callings as auxiliary leaders.  No scriptures were ever read, no meaningful witness was ever borne. My friend's response to my apology for the meeting was, "Don't worry about it.  If I ever come again, I'll do what the woman sitting next to me did: I'll bring my phone and read on it the whole time."

Two days ago I attended sacrament meeting, and the first speaker took the topic of "return to civility."  She briefly cited President Ballard (who was sitting on the stand), but the rest of her remarks failed to even mingle scripture with the good but not eternal philosophies she recited.  The next speaker spoke mainly about his great love for his wife and children, again never referencing any further eternal truths. 

The organist played "In Remembrance of Thy Suffering" at a tempo that resembled a waltz, with apparently no attention to the text she was accompanying, and the music leader showed no effort or sense of need to reign in the tempo in order to provide a more reverent and worshipful setup for partaking of the emblems of the Lord's sacrifice. 

By all observations of the smiles on the stand, everyone was quite satisfied and oblivious to how frightful this experience was playing out for some in the congregation.  How easy to leave feeling unfed, frustrated and alone that no one in charge cared more about what happened.  Sadly, this was not a unique sacrament meeting. 

Historian Jana Riess' observations of Latter-day Saint culture and practice often sting because of their accuracy.  I reiterate four of her five points about why Latter-day Saint worship services fall short--why some of us leave church on Sundays knowing full well we would have at least been assured of multiple scriptures being read and expounded on, or the name of Jesus referenced with more frequency had we attended mass or to a major Protestant denomination's service, instead, during the time of sacrament meeting. 

• We think we’re there primarily to learn about God, not to worship God. It’s no accident that we call our Sunday gatherings “sacrament meetings” rather than worship services. We do lots of good things in those meetings, like taking communion every week . . . But if you take a straw poll of Mormons and ask them why they’re there, “worship God” is not going to show up in your top five. At best, we relegate worship to the temple . . . and at worst, we don’t think about worship at all. Yet the scriptures name worship as our primary reason for gathering each week. 

• Our music is confining and often funereal. For a supposedly joyful people, Mormons are missing a crucial element of joy that should accompany our worship services. We sing three hymns per service, sometimes four, and they are often lovely. Beyond that we do not venture. We neglect the vast richness of the world’s musical heritage, especially the gorgeous offerings of sacred music through the ages. . . . I feel a terrible sadness about the disconnect that exists in Mormonism between the exalted beauty of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which touches thousands of hearts with its renditions of music both sacred and secular, and the anemic, impoverished approach to music that typically exists at the ward level, where whole classes of instruments, styles, and composers are simply barred from the door. 

• Our talks are often substandard. 

• Nobody seems prepared to envision this differently. This . . . is our most pressing problem: where there is no vision, the people perish. . . . We need men and women who are theologically trained, who understand what a worship service is intended to accomplish, and who can comb the scriptures and our own history for examples of how to make Sundays more fulfilling. Only when that leadership is in place can we make the necessary changes in the details, like improving member talks and allowing for music that enhances worship.

          (original and complete pieces from Jana Riess can be found here.)

Fundamentals of My Spiritual Beliefs

I am a believer in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the restored church that Jesus established.  That restoration includes the restoration of the priestly authority (the "priesthood") by which 1) biblical prophets guided God's people spiritually and temporally, 2) certain Levites were authorized to officiate in tabernacle and temple ordinances in Old Testament times and 3) Jesus Christ and those he appointed healed people and commanded the elements, as recorded in the New Testament. 

The restoration also includes restored truths, many of which are clarified truths taught in the Old and New Testaments.  Some of those truths are contained in the Book of Mormon, a book of ancient scripture translated by church founder Joseph Smith. The book asserts that it contains the "fullness of the gospel."  From my repeated readings of that book, I understand that "fullness" to entail the book's frequent reiteration of the "doctrines" of Christ being comprised of faith, repentance, baptism and receipt of the Holy Ghost.  I understand that, to non-religious or non-Judeo-Christian individuals, that language may not have any points of connection.  Said another way, those "doctrines" are keys to peaceful and meaningful living.  They are the framework given my our Maker for balance, perceptive and harmony with Him, with one's self, in the social sphere in which one lives. 

It also stands out to me--as it has to millions of other readers--that the Book of Mormon's "fullness" also exists in its repeated references and teaches about a "plan" that describes different aspects of our eternal existence.  We lived as spirits before our birth, our physical bodies house our spirits during our life here on earth, and our spirits continue after death and will one day be reunited with our resurrected bodies.  The doctrines/keys mentioned earlier guide the process--which is often a struggle--of living as dual spiritual-physical beings.  The experiences of earth life run a gamut of stimulating and joyful to paralyzing and devastating.  Understanding that life has purpose and that Creator of each life is eagerly interested in guiding that purpose has brought my mind and soul significant satisfaction. 

The Book of Mormon distills, crystallizes, clarifies and expounds on the grace of Jesus Christ--usually referring to it as "the atonement of Christ"--as the operating factor in this plan and why the doctrines/keys are operable.  Perhaps the atonement and grace are to the plan of our happiness what the law of universal gravitation is to physics? 

Like the tiny points of light with which the stars illuminate the night sky, countless sparks of clarity and truth that have assured and guided me as I've read the Book of Mormon and the Bible have consistently propelled my relationship with other believers as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

In This Blog's Beginning

The purpose of this blog is to draw attention to opportunities that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have to improve our personal and collective worship of God the Father.

My good friend Kandace S. suggested this blog's title over a decade ago. As a Latter-day Saint organist who has spent time on the organ benches of various Roman Catholic and Protestant churches in addition to those of my own church, my perch has given me a broad range of first-hand perspectives about 1) both the cultural and canonized theologies of different faiths and 2) the virtues and vices of their respective worship practices.  (I include my own faith's cultural versus canonized theologies and the virtues and vices of my church among those.)  "Off the Mormon bench" entails waking up and doing something more, magnifying one's calling as a latter-day witness of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel and realizing that we each have a role in helping God's work move forward.  Off the bench is also a reference to private religious observance. We don't meet the measure of our call if we live as cultural Mormons, sitting comfortably in our pews, mindlessly putting our time and being ambivalent about the mediocrity of so much that goes on during our meetings; rather, we are called to rise up and grow into the high title that we've taken on ourselves, that of Latter-day Saint. 

The 1828 Webster Dictionary that documented the American English of church founder Joseph Smith's era defines a saint as follows: 

"A person sanctified; a holy or godly person; one eminent for piety and virtue. It is particularly applied to the apostles and other holy persons mentioned in Scripture. A hypocrite may imitate a saint." 

Holiness may be an attribute that we likely lack if we recognize it in ourselves rather than earnestly and unceasingly seek for it.