It would be easy to absolve my grandfather of his choice to participate in a religion touting white supremacy by saying he was merely a man of his time. But that is a lie.
In addition to black people tirelessly championing their right to fair treatment, white men and women have fought beside them.
One such white man, John Brown, was born in 1800, like my grandfather Daniel.
“I have come to believe
that racism gets into all of us.
On that day,
some of Daniel’s came out.”
“Unfortunately, instead of being left to practice their faith peacefully, the saints faced intense mistreatment for nearly fifteen years before beginning their mass exodus to Utah.
Their beloved prophet, Joseph Smith, was murdered in Carthage jail while awaiting trial. Shot in the back while trying to flee the assassination attempt by an angry mob.”
“God’s latest revelation to Joseph Smith instructed him to gather his chosen people in a central place called Zion. Here the saints could practice their faith while waiting for Christ’s second coming. Little did he know the Mormon search for a utopia was only beginning.”
Once upon a time, a boy named Joseph said he talked to angels. He claimed he began receiving holy revelations as a teenager. In 1830, at the age of twenty-five, those conversations became the foundations of the church he built, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints also called the Mormons.
