Black Bishops in the United States

[Indy Coug]

The vast majority of black priesthood holders in the wards I've been in are very new to the church. There haven't been any black bishops simply because there are more experienced priesthood holders to do the job. That will change -- and probably pretty soon. I can easily see the black 1st counselor in my current ward (who was the Stake YM president prior to that) become the bishop. My ward is mostly white, but the percentage of latinos and blacks (particularly a lot of Haitians recently) are on the increase.

[Jeff Lebowski]

The main point of the poll is to find out if my own personal experience, having never known a single black bishop or SP presiding over a primarily white congregation in the US in 30+ years, was the common experience. So far it seems that my experience is common with most people (and I wonder how many of the 'yes' votes are people referring to the same leaders.)

The benefit is simply for folks to know if their own experience in this issue is typical. But lets not kid ourselves. Any church that had a history of institutional racism like the LDS church is going to continue to harbor some racism even after an event as remarkable as the proclamation. The church continues to exorcise its demons, and I'm confident that decent policy combined with the righteous desires of members' hearts will eventually result in an institution as free of racist people as any other institution on the planet. So that is the future, but what about the present? It is useful to take one's temperature from time to time, and maybe this poll does that.

Obviously a church with so few black members is not going to have an abundance of black leadership, but there ARE plenty of black leaders, as the anecdotal evidence provided here suggests. There are black high priests and black EQP and black counselors. In other words there is an decent pool of leaders who could be 'promoted' to executive leadership over a ward or stake, yet that mostly doesn't happen (which I can say based on the experiences people are sharing of having black leaders, but not black bishops and SPs).

So what are we to make of a situation where black leaders frequently get called as counselors and EQP and HP, but almost never serve as Bishops and SP's? That strikes me as suggestive of tokenism. (this is why I wanted to limit the poll to Bishops and SP's, so we could compare anecdotal stories of many black HP/EQP/Counselors to the lack of Bishops and SP).



You know, that reflects my experience too. I've had about 10 black people in all my wards (Maybe more at BYU, but I never really knew my wards there). This is why the poll is useful, because while your ten might be insignificant, and my ten are insignificant, together they make 20, and that is starting to get significant. If each of us has 10 or so black people in our various wards (some will have significantly more, depending on their region), then all of a sudden we have enough of a pool of people to be significant, and then the fact that most people who have answered have not known a black leader presiding over a white ward or stake to be more suggestive that maybe this reflects some cultural trend out of order.

The US part of the poll is just to make the information a bit more specific. If we make the poll too broad we reduce its effectiveness to tell us something useful.

Nice try. Think anyone will buy it?

[TripletDaddy]

This push poll has angered SeattleUte so much that he is refusing to participate.

[Moliere]

Has anyone ever seen a white bishop that presides over a predominantly black ward?

Yes, this was a joke!

[byu71]

What's next Robin. A poll on have you ever seen a democrat who was a Bishop or SP. Maybe a poll on, have you ever seen a Bishop or SP who wasn't rich in a ward or Stake full of rich people?

[tooblue]

Has anyone ever seen a white bishop that presides over a predominantly black ward?

Yes, this was a joke!

I have -- no, it's not a joke.

[smokymountainrain]

I have -- no, it's not a joke.

I'm pretty sure he was saying his question was a joke.

Of course there are white bishops in predominantly black wards. We've seen in this poll there are plenty of black bishops over predominantly white wards...why wouldn't the reverse be true as well?

[tooblue]

I'm pretty sure he was saying his question was a joke.

Of course there are white bishops in predominantly black wards. We've seen in this poll there are plenty of black bishops over predominantly white wards...why wouldn't the reverse be true as well?

I know he was saying his question was a joke I just thought I would reinforce the notion that there are in fact predominantly black Wards in north America.

[smokymountainrain]

I know he was saying his question was a joke I just thought I would reinforce the notion that there are in fact predominantly black Wards in north America.

I see.

[creekster]

Nice try. Think anyone will buy it?

Someone will. Ask P.T. Barnum.

[Jacob]

Since I've rarely encountered a black member, I wouldn't expect to see a black bishop.

[tooblue]

Since I've rarely encountered a black member, I wouldn't expect to see a black bishop.

You need to get out a little more.

[Jacob]

You need to get out a little more.

Why? I travel plenty. Do I really need to go visit churches in the country where there are more black people just so that I can say I know lots of black mormons?

I did go to church in Brooklyn once (all black). Does that make me a better person?

[tooblue]

Why? I travel plenty. Do I really need to go visit churches in the country where there are more black people just so that I can say I know lots of black mormons?

I did go to church in Brooklyn once (all black). Does that make me a better person?

I was making a wise crack. There's a certain cynicism in your tone. That's what I was responding to. And yes, IMO, visiting other congregations in culturally diverse places makes you a better person.

[Jacob]

I was making a wise crack. There's a certain cynicism in your tone. That's what I was responding to. And yes, IMO, visiting other congregations in culturally diverse places makes you a better person.

No cynicism intended. It's just a fact that there have only been a few adult black males in my wards in Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah.

My point was that this says nothing about whether the church discriminates against them becoming bishops in predominately white wards. Because there are so few, I'd be unlikely to have encountered one who was a bishop. I also haven't met any Greek Bishops. I didn't run into any white bishops in Mexico.

As far as visiting non-white congregations, I can think of better ways of spending my vacations than seeking out such LDS meetinghouses. If it's cultural diversity you want, come visit a Rock Springs Wyoming ward, or even Garden City Utah.