The Gospel Can Bring All of Us Together

By Mable Burt

The author lives in Utah, USA.

President Dallin H. Oaks’s address about racism meant the world to me as a Black Latter-day Saint. It helped me realize how we can all be united in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The current racial tension in America has brought me a lot of heartache and anxiety. My emotions have been all over the place as I’ve gone through some recent painful experiences of my own.

I’ve overheard colleagues and other people around me describing Black people in a negative way; making harsh, generalized judgments; and expressing preconceived notions about Black people more than I ever have before. Whenever I overheard conversations like these, I was usually the only Black person around. It can be scary to speak up in such situations.

One day, two young men yelled a racial slur at me as they drove past me in a car—an experience that left me shocked and hurt.

Talking about it has been difficult because so many people around me don’t understand how big of a problem and how common racism really is, and how hurtful it is to those who experience it. And as the only Black person in my ward and neighborhood, I started feeling isolated and misunderstood.

I started avoiding people out of fear.

I started wondering if I really belonged anywhere.

Realizing I Truly Do Matter

These painful feelings settled in my heart for a while, but everything changed when I heard a recent Brigham Young University devotional by President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency. I felt his sincere love and concern for me as he said: “My brothers and sisters of the rising generation of the restored Church of Jesus Christ, I love you. I want to help you. … I must try to help you through teaching correct principles and trying to help you follow them.”¹

I did not realize just how much I needed to hear President Oaks’s address, “Racism and Other Challenges,” until I did.

“Of course Black lives matter!” he said. “That is an eternal truth all reasonable people should support.”²

Those words meant everything to me. I felt a weight lift off my shoulders when I felt the Spirit confirm the eternal truth that God loves me regardless of my skin.

I’m an immigrant from the beautiful African country of Zambia. I’ve lived in America for 14 years. I married my white husband, and we have three beautiful half-Black, half-white children. Being a mother to them and being a Black woman myself, I found so much peace, comfort, and reassurance in President Oaks’s message that I am in the right place and that I truly do belong, especially in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I forwarded the devotional to several of my Black friends who were also struggling like I was. They too loved this message because each of us has experienced racism in one form or another, ranging from hurtful name-calling to physical danger.

We all felt an enormous amount of joy, because the Lord’s prophets were speaking out against racism and reminding us of Heavenly Father’s love for each of us.

Witnessing Unity

President Oaks taught that we cannot go backward and change history in this country, but we can learn from it and move forward by striving “to build bridges of cooperation instead of walls of segregation,” as President Russell M. Nelson once said.³

And one of those bridges can be built as we come together as disciples of Jesus Christ. President Oaks explained that “only the gospel of Jesus Christ can unite and bring peace to people of all races and nationalities.”⁴

And I can testify that this is true, because I’ve experienced it firsthand.

When I was called to serve a mission on Temple Square, I was able to serve with other sister missionaries from over 40 different countries. It was amazing to see how despite our differences in culture, race, traditions, and even small things like food preferences, we were united as one through serving God and furthering the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We weren’t divided by differences—we saw the good in one another; we saw one another as children of heavenly parents, regardless of appearance or differences; and we loved one another dearly.

My mission was a beautiful experience I have always carried with me.

We Can All Be One

President Oaks quoted Joseph Smith, who said: “While one portion of the human race [is] judging and condemning the other without mercy, the great parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and paternal regard; he views them as his offspring, and without any of those contracted feelings that influence the children of men.”⁵

I know this is true—the worth of every soul is great in the sight of God (see Doctrine and Covenants 18:10).

I believe that by following the Savior’s example of love, we too can increase unity among us as Latter-day Saints and throughout the world, and we might see that we do belong—we truly are all divine children of heavenly parents, all with the same destiny.

I invite you to read the inspired words of President Oaks in “Racism and Other Challenges.” I know his talk will help us understand more about racism and how we can all become better at “having [our] hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another” (Mosiah 18:21).