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Apologia Report 16:34 (1,084)
October 19, 2011
Subject: Launching the 'Mormon Defense League'
In this issue:
MORMONISM - documentary film considers the LDS "spotty record of accepting African-Americans"
+ Mormon Defense League launched by LDS apologetics group
SCIENTOLOGY - Hugh B. Urban's new book reviews "the church's many legal battles"
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MORMONISM
"Mormons Wrestle With a Racist Past: America's 'Mormon moment' has exposed an uncomfortable side of the church: its spotty record of accepting African-Americans, according to a new film. Lizzie Crocker talks to the people behind a bracing new documentary that tries to set the record straight. ...
"Several former BYU football players said that many of their white teammates often broke the honor code but weren't punished. Either they were never caught or their offenses were purposely overlooked.
"Racial issues have long been a source of controversy within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and are at the core of a new documentary, Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons [www.bit.ly/nvl6Bi]. The film treads on fraught territory, exploring the faith's attitude toward African-Americans from its beginning in 1830 up to today, featuring interviews with Mormon scholars, civil-rights leaders, and clergy. ...
"According to the film, it wasn't until after Smith's death, when Brigham Young took over in 1847, that racist folklore became intertwined with Mormon dogma. Young preached about the myth of Cain, who was cursed by God and portrayed as 'black' in the Book of Genesis and the Book of Abraham. Mormons adopted the belief that Cain's dark-skinned descendants weren't in God's favor during their pre-mortal lives and were thus unworthy of holding the priesthood. For years, the Church of Latter-day Saints was labeled racist. The priesthood restriction denied African-Americans the most sacred privileges of the faith, including the ability to participate in ordinances and civil services. (Update: A representative from the church declined to comment on this article.) ...
"Darius Gray, a black Mormon and renowned historian ... co-produced Nobody Knows with author Margaret Young....
"In 1971, [Gray] voiced his concerns about the revolving door of African-American Mormons to the president of the church, explaining that converts were renouncing their faith because they felt unwelcome in the community. ...
"After President Spencer Kimble [sic] announced in 1978 that the priesthood restriction would finally be lifted, African-Americans flocked to join the Mormon faith. They were disappointed to discover that though the ban had been revoked, a racial stigma still echoed in the church. Several black Mormons featured in the movie maintain they feel segregated today. 'I don't mind defending the church to black people,' says actress Tamu Smith. 'I do mind defending my blackness to the church.'"
Co-producer Margaret Young adds: "The stats are telling us that the most hated [religious] groups in America are Muslims and Mormons, and when people ask questions about Mormons, the two biggest issues are race and polygamy."
Crocker notes that "Though it's not mentioned in the film, Africa is currently a prime breeding ground for new members of the church"and includes this link: <www.bit.ly/dnl1yH>. The Daily Beast, Aug 2 '11, <www.bit.ly/opHX55>.
(Indeed, on October 1st the Mormon church announced plans to build a temple in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. It will be the church’s fourth temple on the continent and its first in central Africa. <www.bit.ly/mQFoj7>)
"New website to jump to Mormonism's defense" by Peggy Fletcher Stack -- reports that the "Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) announced that it was launching the Mormon Defense League (MDL) to help journalists 'get it right,' said Scott Gordon, FAIR's president who will direct the new project.
"If the MDL notices a misstatement or mischaracterization, the group will first contact the journalist, Gordon said. But if a pattern of misrepresentation emerges, the defense league will 'go after the writer' by posting the piece or pieces on its website (www.mdl.org) and pointing out the errors. ...
"FAIR itself began in 1997 primarily as a defender of the faith.
"Participants, each with expertise in aspects of Mormonism, found each other on message boards....
"Those writers, located in various states, seemed to answer the same questions and criticisms over and over. So they pooled their respective research and thinking into one website (www.fairlds.org), which became the nucleus of FAIR.
"In 2001, FAIR focused its energies on Mormons themselves, giving believers information and tools to explain all these issues to friends and neighbors. ...
"FAIR's new defense league is aimed at journalists and non-Mormons and is modeled after the Anti-Defamation League, created in 1913 'to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all,' according to its website (www.adl.org)." Salt Lake Tribune, Aug 5 '11, <www.bit.ly/p8ScVR>.
SCIENTOLOGY
The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion, by Hugh B. Urban [1] -- reviewer Steve Young briefly reports: "Urban (religious studies, Ohio State Univ.; Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism [2]) describes concisely the development of the Church of Scientology from a pseudopsychological self-help business venture to a self-proclaimed 'religion' fighting vigorously for government recognition. Urban argues that Scientology is a kind of carnival funhouse-mirror reflection of broader American cultural fixations, phobias, and fascinations from the 1950s through the 1990s - from Cold War secrecy and a love of all things scientific to the contemporary cultural enthrallment with celebrity. Scientology, he notes, has a lot to teach us about society's complex and freighted contest to define just what is and is not 'religion.' VERDICT: Highly recommended, this is a valuable, evenhanded, academic but engaging introduction to the controversial church, both for those interested in the topic of religious studies and for general readers. [Janet] Reitman's journalistic Inside Scientology [3] pays less attention to the church's many legal battles. These two books offer much needed impartial perspectives on their subject." Library Journal, Aug 1 '11.
Boston Globe reviewer Glenn Altschuler adds that "The Church of Scientology, an immensely successful enterprise with Tom Cruise and John Travolta among its celebrity converts, has gone to great lengths to protect its secrets. The church has been, and remains, controversial, not least over the basic question of whether it is a religion or, as its critics charge, 'a swindling business and a brainwashing cult.'
"In The Church of Scientology, Hugh B. Urban ... provides a fascinating account of how a healing practice called Dianetics came to define itself - and become officially recognized - as a religion in the United States. Urban strains to strike a balance between what he calls 'a hermeneutics of respect and a hermeneutics of suspicion,' grounded in a firm belief in freedom of worship and an obligation to ask tough questions about alleged misbehavior by Scientologists, including espionage against government agencies, attacks on critics, abuse of members, and attempts to alter entries in Wikipedia. ...
"The greatest threat, Urban reveals, in the most intriguing and important chapter of his book, came from the Internal Revenue Service. Forced to decide (despite First Amendment strictures against a government 'establishment' of religion) what is or is not a valid church, the IRS revoked Scientology's tax-exempt status in 1967, igniting a 26-year battle that resulted in thousands of lawsuits. At first, the IRS decreed - and the courts concurred - that despite its clerical collars and crosses, its doctrine and discipline, the Church of Scientology was not a bona fide religion because its activities had a commercial character and served the private and pecuniary interests of its members.
"But in 1991, five years after Hubbard's death, following negotiations shrouded in secrecy, the IRS reversed itself. And the State Department began to defend Scientology operations abroad. ...
"Despite vast financial resources, new building projects, and boasts that Scientology is the fastest-growing religion in the United States, however, Urban suggests that membership may actually be declining in the 21st century.
"Either way, it matters a lot whom society delegates to settle claims regarding religious status. And so it is disappointing that Urban concludes by asking his readers to resolve that question for themselves. He asks them to decide" - and lists the many issues involved, concluding: "When presented with these head scratchers, most readers are sure to need some help." Boston Globe, Aug 31 '11, <www.bo.st/oC7nSw>.
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion, by Hugh B. Urban (Princeton Univ Prs, 2011, hardcover, 296 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/3lpfjaq>
2 - Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism, by Hugh B. Urban (Univ of Calif Prs, 2006, hardcover, 349 pages) <www.tinyurl.com/y856cda>
3 - Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion, by Janet Reitman (Houghton Mifflin, 2011, hardcover, 464pages) <www.j.mp/fC3s9Q>
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