Peace and Love to Charlottesville
I love Charlottesville. For nearly a decade, Charlottesville has been my favorite retreat from the chaos of big cities. I have family who live, just barely outside of cell-signal range, in the...
View ArticleLord, Is It I?
Hear any other similar sermons this AM? Let me know! https://t.co/DBBcF1tmfJ — Jack Jenkins (@jackmjenkins) August 13, 2017 This morning, as I read my Twitter feed, I came to Jack Jenkins, a religion...
View ArticleEliminating Any Lingering Disapproval Of Interracial Marriage
I have a weirdly vivid memory of the early 1990s moment when I first learned that some people frown on interracial marriages. I was approximately five years old and living in Florida. While playing...
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30 Years Ago In White Supremacy
Thirty years ago I was a sophomore at BYU majoring in English. I lived in a house with 4 other women just two blocks south of BYU campus. 4 of us were LDS, and one was a Methodist film major who came...
View ArticleOn Standing against White Supremacy
Tinesha Zandamela is a BYU student double majoring in Sociology and French, with plans to go to law school. She has worked as a director of a nonprofit in Utah. Tinesha published a book about her...
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Erasing Race
We’ve had some outstanding Relief Society lessons in my ward this year, owing to the great teachers we have. Recently, we were talking about how to talk with people not of our faith or culture,...
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How to Retain Millennial Membership
The millennial generation overall has shown to be less religious than previous generations, a phenomenon that has not gone unnoticed by church leadership. When asked earlier this year, the newly...
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Gerrit Gong and Susan Gong, my marriage, and why #RepresentationMatters
Susan and Gerrit Gong (Church News photograph) There are any number of reasons I couldn’t be happier about the newly-called Elder Gong and Elder Soares. Elder Soares, a Brazillian, brings long-overdue...
View ArticleOn Kirton McConkie’s (Lack of) Women Shareholders
The other night, I was listening to the most recent Slate Money podcast. In its second segment, the hosts talked about the recent gender pay report in the United Kingdom. They specifically mentioned...
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Indiana Interfaith Vigil Against Hate
Indiana is my home. I grew up north of Indianapolis, in the suburbs of Hamilton County. This is what my part of Indiana looks like — abundant greenery, small country hills, midwestern sunsets,...
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New YW and RS boards include two black women, “Common Ground” LGBT inclusion...
The Newsroom announced new leadership on the Young Women and Relief Society general boards yesterday. There is plenty to celebrate here! I wish I knew more about all of the women, but I love what I see...
View Article#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd Revisited
A little more than a week ago, I posted some religious leaders’ reactions to the murder of George Floyd. While the church hadn’t responded when I posted, it responded shortly thereafter, and I update...
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Faculty Demographics at BYU
A couple weeks ago, President Nelson issued a joint statement with the NAACP condemning racial injustice. Toward the end of that statement, they said: We likewise call on government, business, and...
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No More Disposition to Speak Evil: A Lesson Plan to Address Racism in the Church
Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash Here is a lesson plan for BCC readers who need a Sunday School or Relief Society/Elder’s Quorum lesson to address white nationalism. I welcome...
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Accomplishing God’s Work of Leading Out Against Prejudice
I wish the Church would tackle racism and nationalism with the same energy it devotes to sex. It’s not difficult to envision. Just take every resource the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
View ArticleAbout Critical Race Theory
Yesterday morning, my wife came upstairs and told me that NPR had a story about taxes. She also mentioned that it would probably annoy me. (She gets me.) But I decided to turn it on just to see who...
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“Severe, Pervasive, and Objectively Offensive Race-Based Harassment”
Photo by Rolande PG on Unsplash Yesterday the Salt Lake Tribune reported on the end of a Department of Justice investigation into the Davis School District in Utah. And frankly, its findings were...
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“Lead Out in Abandoning Attitudes and Actions of Prejudice”
Note: between when I drafted this post and when I scheduled it to go live, Bro. Wilcox apologized for his statement. And it’s a real-deal kind of apology, not a squishy avoiding-blame one; in fact,...
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Living Our Values: FTSOY and Tucker Carlson
When I was a teenager, I, like so many of my cohort, had a copy of the church’s 1990 pamphlet For the Strength of Youth. The pamphlet has a section entitled “Media: Movies, Television, Radio,...
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Yearning and Trane
Yesterday I watched Chasing Trane, a documentary on jazz luminary John Coltrane. (I mentioned Coltrane my introduction to Coltrane in my tribute to Dr. Ray Smith.) The documentary is a perfectly...
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