Introduction: Theorizing Mormon Race Scholarship

Colvin, Gina

doi:10.5406/jmormhist.41.3.16

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…White supremacy is the main defect of the Latter-day Saint belief (Colvin 2015;Simon , 2023a, but I argue that the principle of white possession also animates the Latter-day Saint's religious practice . The Church's beliefs have also justified Indigenous peoples' forced conversion and absorption into white American and Mormon civilisation, which cost them their land, culture, and identity (Boxer 2009(Boxer , 2015.…”

Section: Lamanites Racism and Other Book Of Mormon Issuesmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…In this article, I will use the word "race" to describe a complex of racial systems and formations that have worked together over time to create social divides and reproduce racebased power structures (Colvin 2015 as cited in Simon 2022b). Aileen Moreton-Robinson argues that: "The discursive formation of Anglocentric whiteness is a relatively uncharted territory that has remained invisible, dominant and pervasive" (Moreton-Robinson 2004, p. 79).…”

Section: Lamanites Racism and Other Book Of Mormon Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Genealogical Violence: Mormon (Mis)Appropriation of Māori Cultural Memory through Falsification of Whakapapa

Simon

2024

Genealogy

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The study examines how members of the historically white possessive and supremacist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United States (mis)appropriated Māori genealogy, known as whakapapa. The Mormon use of whakapapa to promote Mormon cultural memory and narratives perpetuates settler/invader colonialism and white supremacy, as this paper shows. The research discusses Church racism against Native Americans and Pacific Peoples. This paper uses Anthropologist Thomas Murphy’s scholarship to demonstrate how problematic the Book of Mormon’s religio-colonial identity of Lamanites is for these groups. Application of Aileen Moreton-Robinson’s white possessive doctrine and Hemopereki Simon’s adaptation to cover Church-Indigenous relations and the salvation contract is discussed. We explore collective and cultural memory, and discuss key Māori concepts like Mana, Taonga, Tapu, and Whakapapa. A brief review of LDS scholar Louis C. Midgley’s views on Church culture, including Herewini Jone’s whakapapa wānanga, is followed by a discussion of Māori cultural considerations and issues. The paper concludes that the alteration perpetuates settler/invader colonialism and Pacific peoples’ racialization and white supremacy. Genetic science and human migration studies contradict Mormon identity narratives and suggest the BOM is spiritual rather than historical. Finally, the paper suggests promoting intercultural engagement on Mormon (mis)appropriation of taonga Māori.

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Section: Lamanites Racism and Other Book Of Mormon Issuesmentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Lamanites Racism and Other Book Of Mormon Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genealogical Violence: Mormon (Mis)Appropriation of Māori Cultural Memory through Falsification of Whakapapa

Simon

2024

Genealogy

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“…These practices and the increasingly insular nature of LDS Church communities after multiple Westward migrations led to increased marginalization and rejection of Mormonism within mainstream US society, with Mormonism, like Jews, having been categorized as a "liminally White" ethnoreligious group (Moshin and Crosby 2018). As a counteraction to this racial "othering" and societal disenfranchisement, including multiple rejections of petitions for US statehood, the LDS Church undertook decades of institutional rebranding to realign itself with White racial assimilative practices and ideologies (Alexander 1996;Bushman 2008;Crosby 2011;Colvin 2015;Mason 2018).…”

Section: "All Are Alike Unto God:" Race Ethnicity and Whiteness In Ld...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Not a Country or a Stereotype: Latina LDS Experiences of Ethnic Homogenization and Racial Tokenism in the American West

Romanello

2021

Religions

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), also called Mormonism, has experienced rapid changes in its US demographics due to an influx of Latinx membership. The most recent growth in the US church body has been within Spanish-speaking congregations, and many of these congregant members are first or 1.5-generation immigrant Latinas. Using ethnographic data from 27 interviews with immigrant members living in Utah, Nevada, and California, LDS Latinas reported that while US Anglo members did seem to appreciate certain aspects of their cultural customs or practices, they also reported frequently experiencing ethnic homogenization or racial tokenization within US Church spaces and with White family members. Our findings indicate that the contemporary LDS church, despite some progressive policy implementations within its doctrinal parameters, still struggles in its ever-globalizing state to prioritize exposing White US members to the cultural heterogeneity of non-White, global LDS identities and perspectives. Latina LDS experiences and their religious adjacency to Whiteness provide a useful lens by which researchers can better understand the ways in which ethnic identity, gender, legal status, and language create both opportunities and challenges for immigrant incorporation and inclusion within US religious spaces and add to the existing body of scholarship on migration and religion.

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“Me enamoré, pero él es blanco”: Inmigrantes latinas mormonas hablan sobre el matrimonio interracial y las relaciones familiares en función de género

Romanello

2023

Lat Stud

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Introduction: Theorizing Mormon Race Scholarship

Cited by 6 publications

References 1 publication

Genealogical Violence: Mormon (Mis)Appropriation of Māori Cultural Memory through Falsification of Whakapapa

Genealogical Violence: Mormon (Mis)Appropriation of Māori Cultural Memory through Falsification of Whakapapa

Not a Country or a Stereotype: Latina LDS Experiences of Ethnic Homogenization and Racial Tokenism in the American West

“Me enamoré, pero él es blanco”: Inmigrantes latinas mormonas hablan sobre el matrimonio interracial y las relaciones familiares en función de género

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