Dialogue
Honest Questions about Race for Fellow Disciples
An open letter to Pro-CRT Latter-day Saints at BYU and beyond—inviting a good-faith dialogue that honestly engages some of our meaningful disagreements.
Jacob Z. Hess
June 4, 2021
An open letter to Pro-CRT Latter-day Saints at BYU and beyond—inviting a good-faith dialogue that honestly engages some of our meaningful disagreements.
Across the country, and within Utah, there’s been a great deal of fear and frustration directed at Critical Race Theory. For a faith community dedicated to “seeking truth no matter where it comes from,” are we open to doing that even with CRT?
Behind our beliefs, there looms the figure of Authority. Can we effectively evaluate the truth of a claim without dealing with what authority we trust?
The devil has been using contention to harden hearts and blind minds since long before social media. Then, and now, it’s a great way to stop the most important conversations from happening.
One sense of this popular term was used to call for the cancellation of Sister Wendy Nelson’s speech last week. Another sense of the same word was used to defend its occurrence.
Searching for Christianity in the latest BYU Equity Report. Eleven theses toward a more productive conversation on race.
Like the accusations against its history, some have insisted the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ has racism “embedded” within it. Are those making this claim aware of what the Church actually teaches?
There’s more than enough animosity and division going around today, with plenty of people proposing “the answer.” What if Jesus taught the true solution all along?
Those who claim that Latter-day Saint history is uniquely racist pay insufficient attention to the larger context surrounding early Saints, as well as the meaningful examples of positive race relations in the life of Joseph Smith.
As black conservatives have become more vocal and popular, efforts to dismiss them have also increased. If we’re serious about diversity and inclusion we need to hear from all black voices, including those on the right.
How discussions are pre-loaded for failure.
A long report on racial equity was released by a BYU committee last week, eliciting widely disparate public responses. We summarize three competing interpretations being taken up here.