MORMONS PROBABLY SHOULDN’T BE WHITE SUPREMACISTS

They would probably all agree that it is a good idea
to avoid white supremacy

Commentary by Jonathan Slowe

Recently there was a march of white supremacists in Virginia, and it got me thinking about how Mormons probably should not be white supremacists, well, at least not anymore.

White supremacists believe that white people are born better than non-white people. They believe that white people are “supreme” in intelligence, virtue, morality, ability, and culture. Brown people or black people or yellow people might be good at a few things like sports or math, but in all of the stuff that really matters, white people have always been the best and are just born better. What group has the highest percentage of people in the most powerful government, religious, business, and culture jobs? White people! What groups have the highest percentage of people on welfare, in poverty, in jail, or in poor countries? Non-white people! The math is pretty simple, so it could be easy for Mormons to agree with white supremacists that whites are supreme.

Still, it is not a good idea for Mormons to be white supremacists. This is because it could get in the way of doing missionary work. If the people you are teaching think that you think you are better than them because your culture is better, more intelligent, harder working, more virtuous and more upright than theirs, then they might not join. Of course if you are superior then your goal could be to help them be as good as they can get, within limits, even if they can’t really keep up or stay active in the church like white people can. But still, it is probably not a good idea.

It is also not a good idea for Mormons to be white supremacists because that would look bad for the church. Back in the day it was widely socially accepted to see non-whites as inferior. In the past Mormons used the same arguments used by other white supremacists to explain why Blacks could not have the priesthood, could not go to the temple, and could not be sealed together as families. That was okay back then, but it is really socially frowned upon now. In fact, it seems like some church leader said that all of those explanations were not right, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the prophet. I am also pretty sure that whoever said that didn’t say it in Conference, and of course there would not be a reason to apologize for having the same ideas as other whites back then. You are probably not going to get excommunicated if you happen to slip up and say that stuff, but it just isn’t a good idea.

Some people go way overboard with “political correctness” (which is of the devil) and almost make it seem sinful to be a white supremacist. Mormons should not go off the deep end like that; moderation in all things! Crazy extremists have bizarre ideas about history and claim that colonies, the treatment of Indians, and slavery all go back to this white supremacy stuff. Wackos even say that the weapons, brutality, coercion, corrupt laws, racist law enforcement, economic and educational manipulation, denial of voting rights, and lynchings by white people put them in power, and that inequalities we see today come from the abuses in the past. But that cannot be true, and if all that stuff were really true, we would probably hear differently at church or at least at church schools like BYU. This is all extremist “social justice warrior” nonsense, and for the real truth about history, politics, and economics, all you have to do is take BYU’s American Heritage class, a class about truth, culture, virtue, and goodness. 

As is clear from the Book of Mormon, being righteous, hardworking, and prospering in the land because of your righteousness is God’s way of blessing His pure and delightsome people. Even though He curses evil, lazy, savage people from time-to-time with dark skin, and even though poor, lazy, drug-addicted, and lawless people today so often have dark or at least not white skin, it is still probably not a good idea for Mormons to be white supremacists. We should probably love everyone like Jesus did.

Update: sorry, looks like I was wrong.