Second-Class Saints Part 1/3 - “Invisible change brewing”
Part 1 of 3: “Invisible Change Brewing”
Matthew L. Harris had no intention of making observations about LGBTQ Latter-day Saints in his book, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality. But I couldn’t help thinking of my LGBTQ siblings while reading this meticulously-researched, extensively-footnoted book.
While there are similarities between the Black LDS and LGBTQ LDS struggles, there are also important differences. But read the following excerpt twice — once as it is intended, about the actual Black LDS experience, then again wondering if the same is happening today around LGBTQ LDS:
Invisible change brewing?
In the three decades before lift[ing] the ban [in 1978], Mormon leaders were engaged in a vigorous debate about whether to keep it in light of the apostles’ ambitious attempt to globalize the church. Their clashes were lively, fraught with emotion, and bitterly contested. These took place behind closed doors, leaving Latter-day Saints largely unaware of what was transpiring.
In 1954, [President David O.] McKay convened a special committee of apostles to look into the possibility of lifting the ban. Never before had a church president considered such a drastic move. McKay was unable to sway the rest of the Brethren, [who had] “sharp and bitter differences” over civil rights.
[When Spencer W. Kimball became president in 1973, five years before the ban was lifted, he] needed time to convince the hard-liners to lift the ban. And time to prepare a stubborn church body for the change to come. There was probably much truth to BYU professor Marvin Hill’s observation that most Mormons “are fiercely prejudiced and that actually dictates what the leadership does.”
It was perilous to question any of this, lest it undermine the Brethren’s authority. Apostle David B. Haight put it well: “Every time [the ban] was raised before, all we could think of was defending our position. Nobody would ask the question seriously, we just needed to defend our position.”
I was astonished to learn that discussions about lifting the ban started at least three decades before it happened in 1978. Could the same be happening now for LGBTQ folks? We have no way of knowing.
So what’s an ordinary LGBTQ Latter-day Saint to do — wait for the Q15 to land? Nope. Each person has one life to live. Personal revelation is essential while the restoration continues to unfold. (See my previous thoughts at “Hoping for institutional change to catch up to personal revelation” here on this blog.
Maybe invisible change is brewing in our day too.
-Marci
Also see Second Class Saints Part 2/3 - “Is this how God does business?” and Second-Class Saints Part 3/3 - “Uncounted losses”
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