We Shall Overcome

Whew! I wasn't so sure for the past couple of days. The events in Charlottesville with nazis, the kkk, and neo-confederates marching and one of them killing a woman and injuring several others were so horrifying. I about had another episode of trump derangement syndrome.

Then the LDS Church came out with a clarification of their earlier condemnation of racism in Charlottesville.  I'll let them say it:

     It has been called to our attention that there are some among the various pro-white and white supremacy communities who assert that the Church is neutral toward or in support of their views. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the New Testament, Jesus said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:37-39). The Book of Mormon teaches “all are alike unto God” (2 Nephi 26:33).
     White supremacist attitudes are morally wrong and sinful, and we condemn them. Church members who promote or pursue a “white culture” or white supremacy agenda are not in harmony with the teachings of the Church.

Wow! Just, WOW!


I am blown over.

The fact that this was released just an hour or so before trump had a melt-down news conference equating anti-fascist protesters with the nazis, kkk, white supremacists, neo-confederates, and alt-righters who were marching in Charlottesville is astounding. It is a faith-promoting incident that helps shore up my already strong faith in my Church and its leadership.

I've been rambling on Facebook and Twitter but it helped me refine a sentence to contain my views:

The only "white culture" at risk is the one that defines "others" by race to deny them rights, equality, and even humanity.

I love my Welsh heritage! I'm learning the language (slowly) which is a pretty weird thing to do. But it in no way denigrates any other human being or group. (I have been a little rough on the saxons, I'll admit, but as they are another "dominant"  group, of which I share significant DNA, I'm not all that serious about it).

Which brings me to DNA. There is no, and never has been, any "pure" race of any group of people. I have predominately Western European DNA according to the Ancestry.com test. I also have traces of Eastern Europe and Mediterranean DNA. Taking my raw data results to other sites and analytical systems (DNA analysis and the various logarithms are still in their scientific infancy), I do find a trace of Native American and weird connections to various samples of ancient bodies uncovered by archaeologists. 

The whole concept of "Western Civilization at risk" which apparently started with Charles Martel and later, Isabella and Ferdinand driving out the Moors from Spain, is still only defined by defining an "other" to save yourself from. According to the BYU Ancestor Analysis, I have royal Moorish ancestry.

Every culture of the human experience has intrinsic value and has gone into our melting pot of common humanity. It's good to preserve and honor all these various cultures. It is not good to set up artificial constructs to classify them into a threat or something to be lorded over.