Category: Race

Whack-a-Doodle Timelines, the Death of a Prophet, and a Massacre or Two

On By lisatorcassodowningIn Abuse, Inclusion, Outreach, Politics, RaceLeave a comment

DOES ANYONE ELSE FEEL STUCK on a timeline that is too confounding for words? Everything around me feels shoved into reverse as it stutters forward. Can a crab walk in two directions at the same time? Because it seems like anything can happen, especially if it makes no sense. And what does it signify when the people you’ve always known best are people you feel you don’t know at all? Is it only me? I doubt it. And that feels like the point. I need to slow down, start somewhere, so, because I’m the center of my own universe, let me start with Sunday morning, Sept. 28, 2025. I know what happened then. Not really. Oh, and it might be important to know (if you didn’t already) that I’m a Latter-day Saint. A Mormon. (Can I say that again?) Or it might not matter at all.

So here it is. On Sunday morning, a 40 year old man – a veteran who decorates his pick up truck with US flags and his home with a Trump sign – plowed into a Stake Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and then rained terror in the form of gunfire and improvised explosive devises on a congregation that included scores of children. He killed four people and wounded eight. To his mind, each victim, whether killed, wounded or traumatized, is or was, an “antiChrist” (his word), a Mormon, someone like me. The word he used – “antiChrist” – is decidedly Christian, but the actions he committed are not. 

Continue reading “Whack-a-Doodle Timelines, the Death of a Prophet, and a Massacre or Two” →

Dear Sister Larson, This is Why I Stand with the LDS Women who Spoke Out on Instagram

On By lisatorcassodowningIn authority, Church Discipline, Excommunication, General Conference, Holy Ghost, Mormon Feminism, Priesthood, Race9 Comments

DEAR SISTER LARSON, I want to respond to your recent, public post that pertains to the aftermath of last week’s Relief Society Worldwide Devotional, as well as those who agree with its content. I consider myself an LDS feminist, something I haven’t come to easily or without decades of study and reflection, both of Church doctrine and history. I’m disheartened because I think your words alienate LDS women from one another. There’s been too much of that lately, from both views. Because of the many hats you wear (therapist, chaplain, RS leader), your words bear a unique sway that, I think, deserves to be answered. It’s unfortunate that this answer is coming from a place of my own perceived self-defense, but you were neither generous nor kind to those of us who think differently than you do. As you can see, I will be at least as direct in my tone as you were. What I’ll do is repeat each paragraph you wrote and then respond.

(Note to readers: you can click here to read it straight through.) 

Sister Larson, you write:

“So I don’t normally weigh in on stuff like this because honestly I feel like it shifts our focus away from assisting in bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man(kind). But I feel like I have an interesting perspective because of all of the hats I wear.”

Continue reading “Dear Sister Larson, This is Why I Stand with the LDS Women who Spoke Out on Instagram” →

Why Race Matters

On By lisatorcassodowningIn RaceLeave a comment

I am white. I grew up in a very conservative home in a very conservative suburb of Los Angeles County. The headquarters of the John Birch Society was walking distance from my house. In my 12 years in one school district, I never had a black classmate. Then, in my late teens, I joined a religion just stepping away from a doctrinal stance that denied black men the priesthood and all people with “Negro blood” access to temple worship. Across 40 years, I’ve watched as the LDS church first claimed that “the curse of Cain” was God’s will, and then shifted, insisting the Curse had been policy, not doctrine.  I watched as the Church was pelted by the undeniable reality that its leaders had taught bigotry as if it were the word of God. I’ve watched the Church limp hesitantly toward an accountability it doesn’t want to bear. I’ve watched. Safely distant. Comfortably oblivious that some of my brothers and sister were living it all like a daily beating.

On May 17th, 2018, top LDS leaders met with leaders of the NAACP. During that meeting, a devastating hoax was perpetrated against black members of the LDS church, all in the name of satire. Continue reading “Why Race Matters” →