Do Christian churches have a mandate to be inclusive first? Is the leadership leading the church astray by catering to prejudice of some members? Here are some of my thoughts about the 1966 documentary, "A Time for Burning."
This 1966 video remains relevant today. I hope you find time to watch it. It was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary. It was edited down from a larger amount of unscripted material where citizens and church members gave their opinions on racial integration in their hometown churches in Omaha, Nebraska. It begins with the white churches being asked to allow visitors into youth classes from the area's black churches. This was viewed as "disruptive" and "not the right time" for it to happen. The progressive preacher asked when would be the right time...never? He won some converts to his side, but was eventually forced to resign.
This film asks basic questions about fairness and equality. It asks whether there can be hard line distinctions between people based on their race/color. In the past, a large segment of society was marginalized and classified as "other," despite the Christian bible's admonition to accept everyone.
[Matthew 11:28] Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
[Galatians 3:28] There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
[John 13:34] A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
A basic question the film asks is whether prejudices will be catered to, especially if those voices are held by the majority. If the proposed change is "too radical" then people will simply exit and look for another congregation that matches their ideas. Or, as in this case, the pastor will be forced out for attempting to lead them where they were unprepared to go. In the 1960s, the civil rights cause focused on racial equality. Bias against black people was encoded in law in the Jim Crow south, red-lining neighborhoods by banks, and generalized white-flight from the inner city to the suburbs. Mormonism was in line with these racist views. They held to a not-one-drop rule to classify black people as ineligible for the temple rituals and for the priesthood. Then change happened overnight; probably due to pressure from areas in Brazil with high numbers of converts with a high degree of mixed-race persons. The line from the song, "I Believe" from Parker and Stone's Book of Mormon musical is how the mormon faithful think about it..."in 1978 god changed his mind about black people. You can be a mormon!" Mormonism lagged the rest of the nation by about a decade on racial integration. I was attending Brighamite mormonism at this time and I didn't see a lot of change in the lily-white Wasatch front ward where I attended. What I did witness was plenty of back-patting and self-congratulatory platitudes. Aren't we so progressive? The will of the Lord has been made manifest by his one-true-prophet of god!
The civil rights battles continue on. The battle for racial equality continues onward, with recent flare-ups in racial profiling with black people being murdered by police. High incarceration rates leaves neighborhoods decimated; children have a minimal chance to escape poverty via education. It is still uncertain whether the United States will live up to its creed and deliver equality for everyone, and not simply give lip service to it. Meanwhile, vested corporate interests continue to privatize their profits while socializing their risks.
As we press forward, the causes we face require equal treatment and equal opportunity for everyone. LGBT rights has been in the spotlight, leading to Obergefell v. Hodges adding to Loving v. Virginia. It is in the state's interest to provide a level playing field for everyone, per the fourteenth amendment. The millennial generation are much more likely to build on principles of fairness and equality, rather than blindly follow the prejudiced thinking of the past. When being a racial bigot went out of fashion, then it also opened the door for people to ask whether they were still bigoted against classes of people for no good reason. Everyone wants a chance at happiness and self-actualization. Everyone wants a chance to find another person to love and to build a life with.
I hope you find time to watch the film. I hope that it raises some questions for you. If the Brighamite church were to adopt equal treatment for LGBT persons, including the opportunity for temple marriage, then what would be the reaction in the typical mormon ward? Would it be the same as 1978 when everyone I knew were simply patting themselves on the back and singing "We thank thee, oh god, for a prophet." Or, would there be a mass exodus because the institution, stain-glassed windows cemented in their granite walled edifices could not withstand any more change? It's sort of a moot question because the church isn't likely to change due to the built in prejudices and leadership from the gerontocracy. My opinion is the membership would do as they did before, but they'll have to wait..."in 2078 god changed his mind about LGBT persons. You can be a mormon." Will it take that long?
[Martin Luther King] I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
Regardless of whether prejudices remained ingrained in institutions like the Brighamite Latter Day Saints, society as whole demands we move forward and demands justice and equality for everyone.
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Posted Apr 22, 2017, 12:16 PM UTC · edited