Race, Religion and the LDS Priesthood

Guests: Marcus Martins, PhD, Professor of Religion, BYU-Hawaii; Eddie Gist, Former Leader of the Genesis Group; LaShawn Williams, EdD, Professor of Social Work, Utah Valley University, and Host of the Racism 101 Podcast at RationalFaiths.com; Matthew Bowman, PhD, Professor of Religious and Cultural History, Henderson State University, and Author of “Christian” and “The Mormon People”  Eight in ten American church-goers attend services at a place dominated by a single racial or ethnic group. Here we discuss how Christian churches in America have grappled with racial integration. And we’ve chosen today to have this conversation because The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is marking a key moment in its own reckoning with race: forty years ago – on June 1, 1978 - the Church lifted a ban that had been in place for a century which prevented black members of the Church from holding the priesthood or entering LDS temples.