101ST ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF COMPLETION OF MAGNOLIA CHAPEL
[Talk by John E. Enslen in Magnolia, Alabama, on the morning of June 21, 2014.]
My Magnolia Connections
During the 30-year period from 1978 through 2007, when I served either in the stake presidency or as a counselor to four mission presidents, I had the privilege and honor of visiting with the saints in Magnolia many times. The members of this branch and this old chapel are special to me, and I am honored to be with you.
On a Sunday in November of 1987, I conferred the Aaronic Priesthood on my 12-year-old son, Joshua Alma, while he and I were alone inside this old chapel.
For the 75th anniversary celebration, our 15-year-old son Jacob, who had a learner’s permit, drove me from Wetumpka to Magnolia. I had no inkling that 11 years later Jacob would marry Donna Martin from Magnolia, or that 3 years later Jacob would baptize his best friend Danny Carpenter, who would marry Sharon Martin from Magnolia, or that 16 years later branch president Jack Clark and his wife Anniece would become my neighbors in Wetumpka.
With three grandchildren who have roots here, and lots of friends I call cousins-in-law, being in Magnolia today feels a whole lot like coming back home.
The Magnolia Contributions
I do not believe that the Lord uses tunnel-vision to microscopically evaluate the worth of the Magnolia Branch. What happens in Magnolia does not stay in Magnolia. The Magnolia Branch has always been an “export branch.” Its departing youth and young adults have rarely returned.
For generations, former Magnolians have raised families in other parts of the world where they and their descendents have faithfully served as bishops and relief society presidents, missionaries, home teachers and visiting teachers, and in countless other praiseworthy ways. Thank you for your profound contributions to that divinely inspired phenomenon that helps to produce and maintain the backbone of the Church.
A Journal Quote from Saturday 26 Years Ago
May I share with you an excerpt taken from Volume 37 of my personal journals? The date was Saturday, June 11, 1988, the first day of a two-day celebration that took place here 26 years ago. So today we are actually either celebrating the 101st anniversary of the completion of the chapel, or we celebrated the 75th anniversary of that event one year too early. (They were actually celebrating the 100th anniversary of the dedication, not completion, of the building.)
There were about 100 people present (26 years ago), many from out of state, including four daughters of a Brother Ward who supervised the 1913 construction of this chapel. A Brother Segmiller who had baptized Sister Elsine Martin in 1937 was here. Many of those who were here then are no longer with us now.
With that preface, I quote from my journal entry for the Saturday of more than a quarter of a century ago:
“After a big dinner on the grounds, we held an afternoon meeting from 1:00 to 3:15 in the old building. There were many wasps flying around. All of the old timers told how it used to be—traveling by wagon to a three-day conference; baptisms held in the creek; and standing guard with a shotgun so that the saints could meet in peace.”
Change in How We as Latter-day Saints Are Now Treated
We can be grateful for the change in how we as Latter-day Saints are now treated. Elder Dallin H. Oaks once remarked: “The ugly triplets of prejudice, bigotry, and hatred are the dreadful children of ignorance.” (Church News, September 18, 1993, page 4) The environment in which we live has improved over the years as ignorance has faded, and ignorance fades when good members live true and faithful to their baptismal covenants.
In our lifetimes, we as Mormons have progressed from being labeled as “devils” to being stereotyped as participants in a “cult.” When I was regularly told in the 1990’s that I was a member of a “cult,” I had great difficulty picturing in my mind President Hinckley’s leading the Mormon Tabernacle Choir into the jungles of South America so that he could force them to drink poisoned Kool-Aid. In this present day, we can rejoice that the Church is emerging triumphantly from having been long mischaracterized as “non-Christian.”
We all know that there is an extended history of engrained religious bigotry and prejudice against the Latter-day Saints, and the persecution has been nowhere more sustained than in the wonderful South that is our beloved homeland. As Latter-day Saints, all we have ever asked for ourselves is that we be treated with dignity and respect as fellow human beings.
How Progress Has Come
What has helped others to see Latter-day Saints in a less prejudicial manner? One important thing has been their increased associations with those of our faith. In the past, we were more apt to be viewed negatively when others’ associations with us were very limited, and when we unfortunately limited our own associations to a small group of people who were just like us.
Over time, many of our critics have come to know us for whom we truly are. Once others visit with us in our homes and share a meal with us at our dinner tables, the barriers crumble. As others labor side-by-side with us as co-employees or as volunteers on a community project, they gain a new view of our intrinsic worth. As our innocent children play with their innocent children, the adults receive a visual lesson on harmonious interaction. As we attend sporting events together as families, the differences disappear.
The bonding is a two-way street. Close, personal, unrushed social interaction causes us to humanize one another. The differences which once marked our relationship dissipate.
We come to understand that no group has a monopoly on either truth or righteousness. Both sides learn to appreciate, as opposed to judge, those we consider to be different from ourselves. We overcome the natural man who believes his way or condition is always superior. We learn that we can actually embrace the religious and cultural differences of others that do not violate commandments or gospel principles.
We know that every person is a child of God, and it does not matter whether that person is from Magnolia or Mongolia. Others should value each of us the same as we should value each of them—as a precious, unique, individual human life.
We don’t like it when others privately cling to false notions that differentiate us, or, even worse, dehumanize us. The climate of mutual respect can be fragile, and attentive care is required in our social interactions. We each possess our own set of delicate sensibilities, and we inherently know when others are not fully accepting of us or are hurtfully shunning us.
The Word of God on the Subject of Equality
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has spoken on the principle of fair and equal treatment for all, and He himself adhered to this divine principle when he addressed us with these words: “What I say unto one, I say unto all” (D&C 92:1). So what exactly has the Lord revealed to us with regard to the principle of equal human dignity and respect for all?
The Book of Mormon reinforces the principle of equality among God’s children many times over with phrases like, and I quote, “all men [are] on equal grounds” (Alma 30:1); “all men are privileged the one like unto the other” (2 Ne. 26:28); “there should be an equality among all men” (Mosiah 27:3); “every man should have an equal chance” (Mosiah 29:38); the word of God was imparted “without any respect of persons” (Alma 16:14); “there was no inequality among them” (Alma 16:16); “they were all equal” (Alma 1:26); “all…are alike unto [God]” for “God is not a partial God” or “a respecter of persons” (Moroni 8:12;17-18); “one being is as precious in [God’s] sight as the other” (Jacob 2:21); ye shall not “hiss, nor spurn, nor make game of [another]” (3 Ne. 29:8); “[b]ehold, the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one” (1 Ne. 17:35); he denieth none that come unto him, black [or] white,…[for] all are alike unto God” (2 Ne. 26:33); and finally, do not “persist in supposing that ye are better one than another” (Alma 5:54).
When the pure doctrines of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ serve as the guiding light in our lives, all peoples are brought together and united. The gospel cuts across every difference, penetrates every wall, and spans every gap that pride can create. Another may seem strange or foreign to us, but through the lens of the gospel, “the stranger that dwelleth [in the land] with [us] shall be unto [us] as one born among [us], and [we] shall love him as [ourselves]….” (Lev. 19:34)
Journal Quotes from Sunday 26 Years Ago
I report from my journal for Sunday 26 years ago:
“I presided over a sacrament meeting from 10 to noon in the old chapel that was full again. I told those in attendance that in 25 years we would need to put speakers on the outside so that the people would be able to hear the proceedings. I directly challenged the members to take the gospel to our black brothers and sisters, and that if we did not do so, the Magnolia Branch would still have about the same number of active members 25 years from now.
I asked President Jack Clark to call on my guest Wamon Collins to speak. He and his wife were the only black members in attendance. Wamon was the first black brother to hold a position in a PEC in our stake. I mentioned the 10th anniversary, that very month, of the revelation extending the priesthood to all worthy men.
I told the members in Magnolia that the future vitality of the Church in west Alabama depended upon a genuine willingness of the members to share the gospel with all of Heavenly Father’s children. I further stated that if any took the position that they would never be in the same Church with blacks, then such would be a self-fulfilling prophecy, for they would not be with them in either this Church or in the Celestial Kingdom.
Wamon was probably the second black man to ever stand and speak in the chapel. (Len Hope was probably the first.) He had overcome much persecution to unite himself with the saints. Brother Collins bore a very favorable testimony of the gospel.”
My Special Admiration for Members of Color
Historically speaking, members in Alabama have not been much different from members elsewhere. In 1841, a young black woman named Jane Manning joined the Church in Connecticut. In 1843, she walked 800 miles to Nauvoo, the heart and headquarters of the Church, and there, according to her own words, (quote) “experienced much rebuff” from the members.
Fortunately, Jane and her little band of converts were lovingly received into the home of Joseph Smith and provided for in an appropriate way.
I have a profound admiration for every black member who joined and remained active in this predominantly white American Church which forbade full participation in priesthood and temple ordinances. Those special members possessed a testimony that exceeded in strength and conviction the vast majority of testimonies possessed by faithful white members. The black members persevered only because of their powerful private religious experiences separate and apart from the institutional Church.
A 1979 black convert from Chicago recently said: “You cannot come from a heritage that includes slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, and priesthood bans without knowing God.” (Catherine Stokes) For those who lived through the restriction on the priesthood, exercising the priesthood and involvement in temple ordinances are not casual experiences.
It’s Time to Change How We Treat Others
Let’s face the unpleasant brutal facts, and this will not be comfort food for the ears. As a nation, we have been dealing with the race issue since our founding, including dealing with it in the drafting of our constitution. The promotion of the idea, directed in either direction, that people of one color of skin are inherently superior to those of a different color of skin is a misrepresentation of the truth and absolutely wrong.
The color of our skin is not a defining character trait. The Church does not maintain any type of membership record that reflects a person’s skin color. Whatever shade your skin color may be, it is immutable and innocuous, and the Church is oblivious to it.
Today we are much more than only one decade removed from the restriction on the priesthood. We are now 36 years removed from that glorious revelation which altered the trajectory of the Church.
Informed Latter-day Saints rejoiced on December 6 of this past year when the Church issued a crystal-clear disavowal of all the various theories that had been used to justify the 150-year priesthood ban. The rejection of the folklore was part of a published essay approved by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve.
The truth is marching on, but I fear we find ourselves still pausing at the crossroads. Our excuses are wearing thin. We can use history as our foe, or we can use history as our friend. Preferring the latter, today I remind ourselves of the same challenge which I issued 26 years ago, and I really don’t think I will be able to do this every quarter of a century for much longer.
Here is a recent statement from a member of the First Presidency uttered in general conference: “[D]iversity of persons and peoples all around the globe is a strength of this church.” (President Dieter F. Uchtdorft) If we as members can lovingly incorporate into the Church our wonderful brothers and sisters of color, who make up approximately 50% of the population in this part of west Alabama, there will be a strength in this Church that does not exist among either our neighboring churches or in any other earthly organization.
Conclusion
I conclude with these thoughts. There is only one race and it is the race of Deity, for that is the origin of every person. We are sons and daughters of the Most High God. We are called to know, live, and teach that principle.
Even though we are 194 years removed from the commencement of the restoration, we are still pioneering. We are not celebrating today the end of anything. We live at the threshold of many new and exciting developments that we have yet to imagine. The Lord Jesus Christ will accomplish his work, with or without us. It is our magnificent privilege to participate in that work, and He wants each of us fully and anxiously engaged.
We are still within a time period that will be looked upon in a future day as the early growth stages of the Church. You may ask how I know this. It is simple. I know there will be a 1,000-year millennial reign upon the earth when our day, and even this very day, will be studied and discussed by future saints. What we collectively do in our current allotted time in mortality is foundationally important to the establishment of God’s kingdom on the earth.
To this I bear my solemn witness and extend to you my love, my friendship, and my admiration, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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