The Mormon Apocrypha

Racism is a hard thing to talk about. But it is something to be talked about. Within this talk at BYU, delivered on April 6, 2022, Ryan Gabriel goes over how Christ and his teachings can help use heal the painful legacy of racism. In the spring of 2018, I was fortunate enough, along with a group of faculty and administrative colleagues here at BYU, to travel with a group of students to the southern United States to visit a number of famous civil rights sites. One of these sites was the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The 16th Street Baptist Church was a hub of civil rights activity in the 1950s and 1960s. It was a meeting place for civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. Parishioners of the church marched through the streets of Birmingham with the hope that their action would integrate a deeply divided city. Outside of the church rests a small plaque that memorializes the deaths of four young girls: Addie Mae ...

The Great Depression was a hard time for everyone, including members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So, to read this General Conference must have been hopeful. It goes over how blessed the members are, with inventions like the telephone and light bulb, and the continued growth of the Church. When the talk does discuss the hardships, people were dealing with, it discusses it in a hopeful tone, saying not to despair and that God will help them through it. Elder Melvin J. Ballard  Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles Benefits of Conference It has been my great pleasure now for nearly forty years to be in attendance at the General Conferences of the Church. I count it a liberal education in the science of life to have had this distinguished privilege, not alone from the things that were said, but the spirit that prevailed during those many sessions has brought to me understanding, light and knowledge that I have prized most highly. I have observed that there has a...