Remembering Our Own Filthiness

In the wake of the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police this past summer, the role of our nation’s most prominent historical figures in promoting racism has come under renewed scrutiny. For Latter-day Saints, this has caused us to take a new look at the racism promoted by our own church. In this spirit, on June 14th, two unknown individuals splashed red paint and painted the word “racist” on a statue of Brigham Young on the BYU campus.  

Many believing members might consider vandalizing Young’s statue as an attack on the Mormon faith and resist attempts to reckon with the church’s legacy of racism, both past, and present.

For others, acknowledging the racism of Brigham Young and other past Mormon leaders will be welcomed, but such an acknowledgment may, at the same time, lead to a crisis of faith. How can the church be true, and the leaders of the church prophets of God, if they at the same time viewed our Black brothers and sisters as inferior and deserving of a life marked by the cruelties of slavery? 

Many who ask such questions leave the church, and I can understand why. For Mormons who were raised to believe that church leaders are God’s mouthpieces on earth, the hypocrisy of early (and current) church leaders is heartbreaking, and it often leads us to conclude the church could not be true.  

For those who choose to stay in the church, perhaps asking different questions is appropriate. “Do I have a testimony of the church, or of Jesus Christ?” “Do I have faith in God, or in a fallible human being, whether Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, or Russell M. Nelson?” In my view, the point of being Mormon is to follow Jesus Christ. Everything else is secondary. 

Regarding racism specifically, we might ask “What does the Gospel say about racism?” Despite what Brigham Young believed, racism contradicts the most basic tenets of the Gospel. In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Jacob taught that because God has “created all flesh. . . the one being is as precious in his sight as the other.” Jacob makes clear this equality extends to race as well, condemning the racism in Nephite culture which appeared to be ubiquitous in his time. He warns the Nephites that they have become more wicked than their unbelieving Lamanite brothers and sisters, and commands the Nephites “to revile no more against [the Lamanites] because of the darkness of their skins; neither shall ye revile against them because of their filthiness; but ye shall remember your own filthiness. . . .” 

Seen in this context, painting the word “racist” on the statue of Brigham Young was not an attack on the Mormon faith, but rather an important reminder that we “remember our own filthiness” regarding our racist past. It is a reminder that combating racism is not contrary to Mormonism, but rather a necessary part of it if we wish to call ourselves followers of Jesus. It is no mystery that Jesus asked us to love our neighbor as ourselves, care for the poor, and fight for the oppressed. To the extent that the leaders of the Mormon church discourage us from doing so, we have the choice to simply ignore what they say, and instead, simply ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do?”