{"id":10212,"date":"2006-03-31T11:03:29","date_gmt":"2006-03-31T16:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=10212"},"modified":"2013-05-10T15:08:21","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T19:08:21","slug":"march-31-2006-african-american-mormons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2006\/03\/31\/march-31-2006-african-american-mormons\/10212\/","title":{"rendered":" African-American Mormons"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>BOB ABERNETHY<\/strong>, anchor: Now, a report on African-Americans joining  the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints &#8212;  the Mormons. There  are still only a few thousand black Mormons out of  about five and a half  million Mormons throughout the U.S. But the  number is significant,  because for many years Mormon leaders taught  that blacks had been cursed  by God. Therefore the church had barred  them from the priesthood &#8212;  full membership in the church. Deborah  Potter has our story.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DEBORAH POTTER<\/strong>, correspondent: It&#8217;s Sunday morning in North  Philadelphia, and  Nicole Giles is about to be confirmed. Nicole grew up  a Baptist, but  she&#8217;s decided to join the Church of Jesus Christ of  Latter-day Saints &#8212;  the Mormons.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NICOLE GILES<\/strong> (Mormon Convert): I needed this. And they  came into  my life when I was going through a really hard time. And,  you know, I&#8217;m  just thankful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: Thomas Russell is visiting the church for the first time. A Mormon missionary convinced him to give it a try.<\/p>\n<p><strong>THOMAS RUSSELL<\/strong>: It wasn&#8217;t too much of what he said. It was the power that I felt in his light that convinced me to come.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2006\/03\/post01-blackmormons.jpg\" alt=\"A Mormon church service in Philadelphia\" width=\"270\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-10214\" \/><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: This staid service is not the style of worship  many  African Americans are used to. But this brand-new church on North  Broad  Street draws them in.<\/p>\n<p>Brother <strong>IYOWUNA COOKEY<\/strong> (Church of Jesus Christ of  Latter-day  Saints, Philadelphia): If you are visiting us for the very  first time  today, you should feel very welcomed here, and we hope that  we&#8217;ll be  seeing a lot more of you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: Black membership in the LDS church is growing  here in  Philadelphia&#8217;s toughest neighborhoods and in cities around the  country.  There&#8217;s no official estimate of converts by race, but in a  church of  about 12 million members worldwide, African Americans remain a  distinct  minority.<\/p>\n<p>Elder <strong>STOTT<\/strong> (Missionary, Church of Jesus Christ of   Latter-day-Saints): My name is Elder Stott and this is Elder Nelson.   We&#8217;re missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: Many Mormons spend two years as missionaries,  preaching  the word according to the Bible and the Book of Mormon, which  they  believe was revealed to their church&#8217;s founder, Joseph Smith,  after God  and Jesus Christ appeared to him in upstate New York in 1820.<\/p>\n<p>Elder <strong>STOTT<\/strong>: And if God chose and called Joseph Smith  to be a  prophet, a prophet like Moses, Abraham, and those guys, then  this  message is unique. This message is awesome.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2006\/03\/post02-blackmormons.jpg\" alt=\"Young Mormon missionaries\" width=\"270\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-10215\" \/><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: Mormon outreach in black communities was  almost  nonexistent until 1978, when then-president Spencer Kimball  reported a  revelation saying blacks could become priests. In a church  with no  professional clergy, all LDS males become eligible for the  priesthood at  around age 12. Denying that right to blacks meant they  could not  perform rituals or hold leadership positions.<\/p>\n<p>Today, the church is expanding in black neighborhoods, including Harlem   in New York, where it opened a new chapel late last year. A few blacks   now hold high positions in the church. Ahmad Corbitt is a stake   president in New Jersey, roughly the equivalent of a Catholic bishop   presiding over a small diocese.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AHMAD CORBITT<\/strong> (Stake President, Church of Jesus Christ  of  Latter-day Saints, New Jersey): I think the appeal is the power of  the  gospel on our families &#8212; a very practical appeal &#8212; teachings that  make  us better human beings and better family members. And the   African-American community needs that salvation of the family.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JAYNE CORBITT<\/strong> (Wife of Ahmad Corbitt): We believe that  we can be  married for eternity, and that&#8217;s done in the temple. And  because we can  be married for eternity and our children are ours for  eternity, it makes  what we do in our home very important.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: But despite its efforts to appeal to blacks  today &#8212;  celebrating their heritage and tracing their genealogy &#8212; the  church has  never repudiated its old teachings that blacks were cursed  by God as  descendents of Cain or Ham. Armand Mauss is former president  of the  Mormon History Association and a visiting scholar at  California&#8217;s  Claremont Graduate School of Religion.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2006\/03\/post03-blackmormons.jpg\" alt=\"Professor Armand Mauss, former president of the Mormon History Association and a visiting scholar at California\u2019s Claremont Graduate School of Religion\" width=\"270\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10216\" \/>Professor <strong>ARMAND MAUSS<\/strong> (Former President, Mormon  History  Association and Visiting Scholar, Claremont Graduate  University, School  of Religion, Claremont, CA): The old ideas that were  used to justify  this ban on priesthood, those ideas have survived even  after the policy  was changed that they were supposed to justify. And  so you still  encounter places in the church, among white people, in  which the ideas  come up again.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: Darron Smith, who became a Mormon at age 15, says it&#8217;s  painful to hear fellow church members cite what he calls racist  teachings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DARRON SMITH<\/strong> (Coeditor, BLACK AND MORMON): They&#8217;re harmful for  blacks because they psychologically damage blacks, whether they admit  that or not. And they &#8212; and one way that they &#8212; I think that this  harms blacks is that blacks often will recite the same kind of folklore  and justification for it as whites do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CORBITT FAMILY<\/strong> (Saying Grace): We&#8217;re grateful for the gospel in our lives and we say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: Ahmed Corbitt argues that it&#8217;s what the church does now that counts, not its history of excluding blacks.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2006\/03\/post04-blackmormons.jpg\" alt=\"Ahmad Corbitt, Stake President, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, New Jersey\" width=\"270\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10217\" \/>Mr. <strong>CORBITT<\/strong>: There was a purpose in it. I don&#8217;t know that we  fully understand it, that anyone does, including, I&#8217;ve heard leaders &#8212;  top leaders &#8212; say that very thing. But we can come together and feel  the fruits of it, the love of it and spirit of it, and we can know it&#8217;s  true despite that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: Not good enough, says Darron Smith. He&#8217;s says his faith  is strong and he&#8217;s staying in the church, but he wants to see it change.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. <strong>SMITH<\/strong>: The church has never come out publicly and said this  is an issue. This is a problem. We need to stop spreading pernicious  rumors, innuendos, folklore about our black brothers and sisters as  being cursed. This is not productive in our efforts to proselytize  blacks and to retain blacks in the church.<\/p>\n<p>Prof. <strong>MAUSS<\/strong>: The old folklore, the old doctrines about curses and  marks and the displeasure of God and all of that could easily be  repudiated and, I suspect, will be someday.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: But experts say that admitting a past mistake could  undermine the authority of Mormon leaders and the LDS belief that God  speaks directly to them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>UNIDENTIFIED PASTOR<\/strong>: God is our Father. He loves us and he wants to instruct us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: What matters most to Thomas Russell is finding a  spiritual home. He doesn&#8217;t know much about Mormon church history yet,  but he likes what he&#8217;s seen so far.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. <strong>RUSSELL<\/strong>: And this is where I need to be, and this is where I&#8217;m coming.<\/p>\n<p><strong>POTTER<\/strong>: For Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly, I&#8217;m Deborah Potter in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints \u2014 the Mormons \u2014 barred African-Americans from full membership until 1978. Since then, the church has increased its outreach to African-American communities, but has yet to repudiate its old teachings that blacks were cursed by God as descendents of Cain or Ham. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2006\/03\/31\/march-31-2006-african-american-mormons\/10212\/\" class=\"more\">More <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":17593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[921,5141,3459,1296,5129,2786],"class_list":["post-10212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-african-american","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-discrimination","tag-missionaries","tag-mormons","tag-racism","topics-race","faith-mormon"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>March 31, 2006 ~ African-American Mormons | March 31, 2006 | Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints \u2014 the Mormons \u2014 barred African-Americans from full membership until 1978. 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