I finally finished Paul Reeve’s book Religion of a Different Color.  Paul highlights the strange evolution of Mormons, once seen as not white enough, now seen as too white. From page 270,

…as late as 2012 the perception persisted in some corners that Mormons were racist and that there were few or no black Mormons.  It was a new racial problem for Mormonism, which was the opposite dilemma it faced almost two centuries previously.  In the 1830s reports of the integrated and charismatic nature of Mormon worship services in Kirtland, Ohio, made news in New York and Pennsylvania within months of Black Pete’s conversion to the new faith.  In Missouri, the perception that Mormons invited freed blacks to move to that state in order to incite a slave rebellion and violate white women only fueled interracial rumors.

I found it interesting that Reeve noted (page 269)

In the United States, the Pew survey noted that 86% of Mormons were white, an indication that US Mormonism is more racially diverse than mainline Protestant churches (91% white), Jews (95% white), and Orthodox Christians (87% white).

Yet nobody seems to make this fact known about mainline Protestants.  (I have a feeling that many of these mainline Protestants are Donald Trump supporters…..)

What I loved most about the book was the highlight of Orson Pratt.  Of course many (including myself) have long condemned the racial ban, the more I learned about Orson Pratt’s defense of black rights, the more proud I was of him.  I think Orson is one of my new Mormon heroes.  Continue Reading »