Several Jewish readers have contacted me about the recent case of a Mormon Sunday School teacher who was “released” (basically fired) by his bishop after teaching the 12- to 14-year-olds in his class about the history of blacks in the church using an official Church statement on the topic.
http://www.sltrib.com/lifestyle/faith/2475803-155/mormon-bishop-dismisses-teacher-for-using?fullpage=1
Having served both as a Mormon bishop and a youth Sunday School teacher, I followed this story with great interest. As is the case with most religious controversies, there is much more here than meets the eye.
Honolulu resident Brian Dawson, a white man who has a lovely Nigerian wife, was asked by one of his Sunday School students why the LDS Church instituted the 126-year ban on ordaining black men to the priesthood. He did what I probably would have done: instead of winging it on his own, he brought to class the church's recent official statement on race and the priesthood
https://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng
to use as the basis for the class discussion. I was asked the same question years ago by my all-white Sunday School class of high school students, and was not fortunate enough to have this document available as a resource. The ensuing discussion was the most intense one of the year.
In Dawson's case, one of the students' parents complained to the bishop (= congregational rabbi), who asked him not to bring up the essay or discuss race in the class again. In a series of meetings involving his wife, his bishop and the stake president (= regional Mormon leader), Dawson refused to comply with the bishop's request. As one might expect, he was then released from his volunteer calling as a Sunday School teacher.
I'm certain that Dawson's motives are pure, and his initial action (i.e., turning to the church's official statement for guidance) was unobjectionable. However, once his bishop asked him to stop addressing this topic in his youth Sunday School class, he should have complied. When they are called to serve, bishops in the church are given a special charge to oversee and reach out to the youth in the congregation. While the church's new statement on race has been incorporated into the official curriculum of the Seminary program for high school students, the bishop may have felt that the essay and/or the topic may have been too much for the 12-year-olds in the class to handle. He may also have felt that Dawson for one reason or another was not the right person to address this sensitive topic. After all, the fact that he is married to a black woman doesn't necessarily give him special insight into the history of priesthood denial, any more than my having a Romanian wife qualifies me to lecture on the sensitive topic of Transylvania. At any rate, the final call was the bishop's, not Dawson's, to make.
According to news accounts, Dawson claimed that the Spirit was telling him to teach this topic to the kids in his class. For reasons outlined above, if my daughter were one of his students, I would have asked her to be excused from the class. I have met more than one member of the LDS Church who claims to have received unique divine insights on blacks and the priesthood. Truth be told, I would not invite any of them to share their insights with my daughters.
I definitely intend to teach my children about their church's history on race and the priesthood when I feel that they are old enough to understand it. When I do so, I will avoid the fiction and nonsense that are often brought up during discussions on this topic, including some expressed by black members of the church (I was once told by my bishop that blacks were denied the priesthood because they were “fence-sitters” in the pre-earth life). Given the personal agendas that often creep into conversations about race and the LDS Church, I would never allow a Sunday School teacher to preempt this important discussion on race that we intend to have with our daughters.
Some theological discussions need to take place at the dinner table or in a family setting, not at church. I agree with Dawson's bishop that this is one of them.
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