In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in the summer of 2020, I started binge reading books on American history, politics, and sociology. In many courses I teach, students want to know what to do about sexism and racism in society once they understand its history and the many ways it shows up in every day life.
Ibram Kendi recommends supporting and voting for policies and candidates that are anti-racist and anti-sexist.
Heather McGhee reminds us that social forces often put pressure on us to see others who share our identities as our allies. Instead, we must learn to find solidarity and build bridges with people and groups who do not share our identities but with whom our interests are aligned.
Mikki Kendall offers a vision of an inclusive feminism that seeks the thriving of all in society by tackling poverty, food insecurity, housing, gun violence, and other issues not traditionally understood as feminist ones.
After the election in November 2024, I re-read Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny, which serves as an informed listicle of ways that we can resist the onslaught of racist, sexist, anti-immigration, anti-trans, ablest, and anti-democratic tide of executive orders and legislative bills at the state and national levels.
Snyder’s point that resonates with me the most is that we must resist pre-complying with unjust laws and policies. If we pre-promise that we are going to comply with rules that hurt other people, we will not be able to resist when our moment of truth comes.
This is especially important for us in the Mormon, fringe Mormon, and ExMo communities. Over and over again, I heard as a child, teen, and adult, that “Obedience is the first law of heaven,” a statement not supported by scripture. We were taught to pre-comply with authority and to acquiesce to the demands of leadership, regardless of the consequences to ourselves and others, in the name of faith and obedience.
A new state law in Utah, passed in 2024 (HB 261), requires professors at state universities and colleges to submit all course readings and lecture outlines for required courses to a publicly available database.
At my university, I see professors racing remove potentially controversial content from their courses in an effort to pre-comply with a legislature that is anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion. Some feel that by doing so they will protect themselves from this new state surveillance system, but at the expense of student learning.
Pre-complying in this way makes it easier for the state to remove academic freedom and to police content taught at universities that is about inequality in our society, because such content is viewed as controversial from an extreme political point of view. We live in a world full of complex systems and we must continue to teach our students about these realities.
I am actively talking to colleagues about continuing to teach content that is socially relevant to our courses, our research, and the lives of our students. In this time of fear, we must not pre-comply.
11 Responses
The whole-‘obedience-is-the-first-law-of-heaven’ thing has me cringing big time. I always have questioned, especially male church officials. In the process I was labeled ‘bad’ or when I worked at BYU-told I needed to go to the temple and repent. **That was after an incident when I refused to do something that I knew was wrong.
I’ve been struggling with the church’s statement regarding the mass deportations. I told my husband I refuse to look the other way if a neighbor or member is rounded up. I think of those teens in Germany during WWII who stood up to Nazis and later were executed. One of them was exed by his stake president-who was a Nazi. I feel it’s wrong not to take a stand against injustices. I will continue to speak out on them.
I agree wholeheartedly, Kim! I hope I always continue to have the courage to speak up because the church today is riddled with white supremacists who don’t think they’ll ever have to worry about anyone coming for THEM. Ditto for the deep red wards and stakes in multiple counties of so-called blue states. I’m not in Utah (13 adult years were enough) but I worked with LDS for Harris up there and other groups. Given that a good half of the church membership is in Latin America, Africa, and .Asia, the church’s responses to current events are weak and close to being hypocritical.
Exactly. I’m having a hard time with it. Today I even Googled an Episcopal church close to us after reading the blog here on going to a church where a woman conducts. I told my husband that one bishop’s words at Trump’s prayer meeting resonated with me.
But yes, I don’t want to see all the brown, black faces on church sites as long as the church doesn’t stand up to what’s going on in our nation right now. Sadly, I doubt that will happen and waiting to hear that ICE come into one of our buildings and round up some members of the church. That will be a very sad but revealing day.
“Pre-comply.” I like that thought. Back in the War in Heaven, Satan promised he would save all of God’s children if they would only agree to pre-comply. Pre-comply means promise to give away your free agency. By “pre-comply” you are talking about blind obedience. But I like the concept, or rewording of an old concept because it makes that old concept new again. The new word forces us to think about what we are doing, rather than going about business as usual because the church has told us that blind obedience is not what they are asking for, when it is exactly what they expect. Pre-comply. Think about what you are doing when you agree to obey no matter what.
With the current political climate and our authoritarian excuse for a president, the church will swing more into authoritarianism. The majority of Mormons voted for a dictator, so if they accept that in government, they obviously accept that from church leaders. So, an organization that has been authoritarian enough to expect blind obedience for years now is going to get worse. They forget that they teach that blind obedience to authority was Satan’s plan. They just want obedience so badly because they know they are infallible, and they know they can save everybody if they can just make them obey. Talk about needing to go back to primary and understand their own doctrine.
Preach! Thanks so much for this, Nancy!
Thanks, Nancy! So well said. I found “On Tyranny” last year right around election time. Professor Snyder is the expert on so many aspects of political authoritarianism, especially in the European countries. (I believe most of Russia is considered part of Asia but it, too.). He doesn’t like either political extreme, not that we would necessarily agree with everything he writes or says but I’m sure the professor is having a field day with Ignoramus-1, Ignoramus-2, and Ignoramus-3 in the White House meltdown. I have a hard time believing the church Elders will be riding to the rescue of our nation, though I can hope they will, maybe to “save the Constitution”? Mormonism might be a better replacement than the christian nationalism that’s promised. If the latter ever takes over, it will be the Handmaid’s Tale, for sure. Personally, I’m far too old to be slapped around by Aunties!! But I don’t like being punched down on by bishops, stake presidents and area authorities either.
Don’t think the church institution at present would be much better than the current administration. Utah’s legislature is doing everything it can to make sure marginalized groups stay marginalized.
Unfortuately, I agree. I don’t understand why members support a man who is racist and supports someone who is a white supremacist. Mike Lee’s comments are embarrassing. I lived in Utah in the mid 80s and remember the racism against the Mexican/Latine community. What’s going on now in Utah-last BYU Education Week having the Mom of Liberty as a speaker and the LDS propaganda artist with his offensive paintings? We decided we won’t be visiting Utah any time soon.
Part of the 70s and 80s is when we were in Utah, also. This included the chilling September 6 purge of scholars in 1983. That didn’t exactly bolster my opinion in regards to the church being afraid of the truth being told, but it did influence my decision not to accept an offered place in a Master’s program at BYU. As for Mike Lee and Gov. Cox, I’ve been cringing at something they’ve said or done almost every week. (Bagley at the SLTrib has been nailing it as always in his cartoons.) Friends have been trying to get me to move back to Utah for the past three years but I would be miserable, between the politics and the weather. I’m not sure what we’re going to get at Stake RS for the March anniversary but I’m hoping it will be practical and uplifting rather than propaganda.
My brother who teaches at ISU (in Pocatello) was asked by a student, “what does Fredrick Douglas know about slavery?” and “Can we trust Martin Luther’s views on race?” Ummmmmm…….
These links/books mentioned in the links are now on my list to read. Thank you.
Did your brother want to hang up his own Professorial spurs after that? The ignorance about Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s very being, as well as their lives, can be mind-blowing, though not too surprising in the Rocky Mountain states. I don’t know if the student was LDS but things are almost as bad in so many stakes and wards outside of that area.. I was made to remove inspirational quotes by King and by Desmond Tutu as well for our ward newsletter because “‘They’ are only 3% of our membership, so why should we have to listen to them?” And “We don’t want the fallout from our ward members.” The previous ward had a better attitude but after a total of 7 years, I’m not interested in doing any more censored church newsletters.