Elder Quentin L. Cook's Remarks to Black Church Leadership

[Maidservant]

Elder Quentin L. Cook opens Black Church Leadership Summit

Mormon Newsroom YouTube bit

Transcript of Elder Cook's remarks

Highlights for me:  Mentions meeting Bernice King while (both) attending the Pope (sweet); affirming LGBT rights in the society (nice); that (unlike many churches of the day) blacks (the few) and whites worshiped together in the same early Mormon Church (let's not forget that; beautiful); 'battle' and 'attack' imagery (I really challenge that, not how I see the world, but I find it fascinating that our religious, in fact human, struggle continues to be encapsulized that way); his challenge to the challenge to the colonial narrative (cool, it's time; although let's not overdo it, colonial narrative, not to mention colonialism, is alive and well and still doing damage); continued affirmation of the Church's very specific stance on religious freedom (what it means and what it looks like) (ok); reiterating the Church's persecution foundation (what?! sigh; let's DO forget that).

And this spectacular quote from the Prophet Joseph.

///A few months before he was killed by a mob in 1844, our prophet, Joseph Smith, taught that moral agency was essential for each individual: “God cannot save or damn a man only on the principle that every man acts, chooses and worships for himself; hence the importance of thrusting from us every spirit of bigotry and intolerance towards a man’s religious sentiments, that spirit which has drenched the earth with blood.” ///

My hero.  (The Prophet, not Elder Cook )

Lots more in the talk . . .

 

Edited July 30, 2017 by Maidservant

[Guest]

I have often debated the issue of Africian Americans (and their Churches) and Mormonism on many sites. Each time those who are 99% Calvinists, would often try to lay the sin of racism, solely at the feet of Mormonism (as it relates to race, via the Priesthood ban), also all the while speaking of limited atonement, of how some where born to be saved, and others to be damned. But having grown up in the South, I know the truth that (as Martian Luther King, Jr said) "11:00AM on Sunday is the most segregated hour of the week". But, unlike many Church's (almost all but Catholic) Africian Americans, we're not allowed to attend "White Churches", which was never the case in our Church. As a result historically Black Church's had to develop strong leadership, and community. Even still every Baptist Church I ever attended is still segregated, although no one would be asked to leave, but the damage is already done. 

The irony is that dispite the many hardships and segregation they endured, they did not do the same, they allowed anyone to attend their Churches. The only Church I have ever attended (other than funerals) with those of other races, is our own. Today, there a number of Black families in my Ward. One of my longest friends who was in a military Branch back in the early 80's moved near where I live now and served as the Bishop of a Ward in our Stake. While many Churches in the south have issued written apologies, we changed instead. I do not wish to imply that no Southern Church has not changed, but few have. Elder Cook comments, are those one should expect from an Apostle. It is difficult to know why, when Joseph ordained a number of Africian American men to the Priesthood, that BY enacted the ban. Though it would seem that an incident at Winter Quaters, may have contributed to it. Anyway, it was good to hear (or read his comments), on the topic I addressed. 

[Robert F. Smith]

On 7/29/2017 at 10:43 PM, Maidservant said:

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And this spectacular quote from the Prophet Joseph.

///A few months before he was killed by a mob in 1844, our prophet, Joseph Smith, taught that moral agency was essential for each individual: “God cannot save or damn a man only on the principle that every man acts, chooses and worships for himself; hence the importance of thrusting from us every spirit of bigotry and intolerance towards a man’s religious sentiments, that spirit which has drenched the earth with blood.” ///

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Quote

 

"Nothing can reclaim the human mind from its ignorance, bigotry, superstition &c but those grand and sublime principles of equal rights and universal freedom to all men."  - Joseph Smith, Jr., Minutes of the Council of Fifty