UW to Commemorate LDS Church's 'Official Declaration-2'

Aug. 26, 2008 -- The University of Wyoming will commemorate the 30th anniversary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' "Official Declaration-2" with two events Friday, Sept. 26.

"Official Declaration-2," made in 1978, was the formal announcement that the church's priesthood would no longer be subject to restrictions based on race or skin color. Until then, the LDS Church prohibited African men to hold the priesthood and restricted women of African descent from participating in most temple rituals.

The UW events include a screening of the documentary "Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons" and a public lecture titled "From Galatia to Ghana: The Racial Dynamic in Mormon History."

"This discussion of race in the LDS Church is particularly timely because it's the 30th anniversary of the lifting of the priesthood ban," says Quincy Newell, an assistant professor in the UW Religious Studies Program. "It's a relevant issue for UW, too, because events in our own history, such as the ‘Black 14' incident (in which 14 football players were dismissed from the team after stating their desires to protest LDS racial policies by wearing armbands during a game with BYU), stemmed from the fact that the LDS Church did not allow men of African descent to hold the priesthood."

The documentary begins at 3 p.m. in Room 133 of the UW Classroom Building. A discussion with the documentary's producers, Darius Gray and Margaret Blair Young, follows. To learn more about the film, go to the Web site at http://www.untoldstoryofblackmormons.com/.

The lecture, by Armand L. Mauss, professor emeritus of sociology and religious studies at Washington State University and visiting scholar at Claremont Graduate University's School of Religion, begins at 7 p.m. inside the College of Agriculture auditorium.

Both events are free and open to the public. The events are sponsored by the UW Religious Studies Program, with generous support from the President's Advisory Council on Minorities' and Women's Affairs, the UW Foundation, the Office of Academic Affairs, the UW College of Arts and Sciences, the UW departments of English and sociology, the UW programs of  African American Studies and American Studies, the Master of Fine Arts Program and the UW Latter-day Student Association.

For more information on the UW Religious Studies Program, go to the Web site at
www.uwyo.edu/relstds/Guest%20Speakers/LDS.asp.

Photo

Armand L. Mauss

Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008

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