One of the challenges that
a lot of people of African descent have as members of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
is this struggle with the history of
the Church in regards to race and the priesthood.
I joined the Church at a fairly young age; I was 21.
I listened carefully to the missionaries.
As they continued to teach me and everything,
I was like: “This is great. In fact,
I’ve heard a lot of new stuff that I think is exactly right,
that makes total sense.” And
I describe it to my friend later, and I said, “It was kind of like
there was this thing whispering to me the whole time,
‘This is what you’ve been looking for.’”
And of course, later on I heard about
the whole still small voice thing and that sort of stuff, like,
“Oh, I guess that’s what was happening while
I was taking those discussions.”
But then you start hearing these sort of rumors almost of, like,
Blacks not holding the priesthood.
So from 1852 to 1978 people of
African descent were not allowed to hold the priesthood in
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
When I heard that, I was kind of like, “Wow, that’s a shocker.”
And I had to kind of think about it in my mind, because
I felt like there has to be some reason for that.
I didn't think that I have to just throw the way
the whole thing, right? Like what,
what good is that going to do me at this point in time?
The other thing I think that you have to do is understand more
about it. There's a lot of details that you can learn about
once you really get into the history of that.
I kind of was praying and I was like: “Heavenly Father, really?
Like, why won’t You let me hear Your voice?”
Like, I keep hearing this. I keep studying about it.
And it’s all the stuff I’ve been baptized, confirmed etc.
Like, “Am I not good enough?” You know, and I did.
I did hear his voice, and He said very simple, “Hear me.”
That’s it. And it was the most beautiful, soft, amazing thing.
And I thought, OK, is that my imagination or was that really it?
And I said: “Heavenly Father, is that really you? Is it really
you?” And he said, “Yes, my son.”
And ...
I don't care what you think about the priesthood,
I don't care what you think about dark skin.
I know I’m a son of God,
and I know He loves me more than I can stand,
more than anybody else can stand. So I don’t need justification
for the past, because, again,
all I want is a personal relationship,
and everything else is built around that.
When your life experiences such an event that you wonder,
“Will life ever be the same again?”
That’s when you truly come to God.
That's when you truly come to know what matters in life.