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TURNING THE TIME OVER TO... brother Bubba, her sister Brenda, and her cousins William and Eleanor Guest. Over parts of four decades (the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s Paul Swenson and ’80s), Gladys Knight and the Pips were one of the nation’s premier singing acts. In 1959, Brenda and Eleanor left the group, re- placed by cousin Edward Patten and a friend, Langston George. Even after George’s depar- GLADYS AND THURL: ture in 1962, the group continued to per- form together until 1989, when they THE CHANGING FACE OF disbanded to pursue separate career paths. When Gladys Knight spoke to the 1999 MORMON DIVERSITY BYU Women’s Conference (her talk has been rebroadcast several times on KBYU-TV), and when she appeared with President Hinckley at his birthday celebration on 23 June 2000, the impact wasn’t so much what she said––although some of it was extraordi- nary––but what she did, how she moved, With the exception of and the tone she set as both speaker and per- Marjorie Hinckley, is former. At this birthday celebration for President there another woman Hinckley, especially in Knight’s interactions in the Church who with him, one could feel a different and posi- tive new vibration in the Mormon experi- would so confidently ence. Comfortable in her clothing, in her body and her skin, she suggested an integra- and comfortably intrude tion of the spiritual and sensual that many of on the personal space of us may not have known how much we longed for until we saw it. President Gordon Bitner When I came upon Knight on the KBYU Gladys Knight greets broadcast one Sunday morning while President Gordon B. Hinckley, and so naturally channel surfing for spiritual or intellectual Hinckley during his 90th induce him to enjoy it? enlightenment, I had a moment of déjà vu. birthday celebration. How long, I mused, had it been since we’ve seen at a Church pulpit the full complexity of a Mormon woman who didn’t wish to hide HE COVER PHOTOGRAPH of the 3 With the possible exception of Marjorie or obscure her earthiness? And then I re- July 2000 LDS Church News is quite Hinckley, is there another woman in The called the same sense of discovery I had felt T remarkable in the way that it casually Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in another KBYU broadcast in the late 1980s shatters a number of taboos once held invio- or for that matter the world, who would so when I had stumbled upon a devotional ad- late within the Church community. confidently and comfortably intrude on the dress by a naturalist and writer whose face I Leaning into a pulpit, a beautiful and sen- personal space of 90-year-old Church presi- had not yet placed with her name––Terry suous black woman, wearing a long, flowing dent Gordon Bitner Hinckley, and so natu- Tempest Williams. She spoke of God’s nat- gown, has moved within six inches or so of a rally induce him to enjoy it? Not likely. For ural handiwork on display all around us, distinguished Caucasian man behind the this man, held by Church members to be while her own face and carriage were a cor- lectern. She is smiling, and her gleaming prophet, seer, and revelator, it was a moment poreal witness of the earth as well. teeth flash pleasure. The man, white-haired, of unusual personal intensity and, yes, per- older, his tuxedoed chest and shoulders gar- haps, revelation. It occurred during his HILE I was still mulling the full landed by a lei of flowers, is turning toward public birthday celebration before a huge import of what I had seen and her with a smile of shy but burgeoning satis- throng in the new Church Conference Center W remembered, another Sunday faction. Just above the pulpit, her dark, left at Temple Square. morning KBYU telecast woke me to a male hand grasps the pale fingers of his right The woman’s name, of course, is Gladys image of self-assured power and relaxation. hand. Knight, gospel, pop, soul, and blues singer; The man at the pulpit was immediately rec- spiritual seeker; and late-1990s convert to ognizable––Thurl Bailey, of the soulfully ex- PAUL SWENSON is the managing editor of C20 the Church. She had traveled a long road to pressive voice and face, former basketball media, publishers of the VOICE and The Green this moment. star with the Utah Jazz, now a jazzman of a Sheet, and the soon-to-launch publication B to B Fresh from her triumph at age seven in different stripe as a recording artist who has (Business to Business). An earlier version of winning television’s Ted Mack Amateur sailed the seas of soul, jazz, and pop. Here he this paper was given at the 2000 Sunstone Hour, Knight at age eight organized her own was now, an LDS convert, harbored in Symposium in Salt Lake City (tape #SL00-254). group, called the Pips, which included her Mormonism in the ‘90s.
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Bailey is 6-foot-11 and looks resplendent the priesthood. “But for some reason, what so many special people in my life. He brought me in his gold suit and navy blue turtleneck, his they said didn’t sink in or didn’t tell me what my wife. I think about her choice to be with me. angular black face gleamed under the lights I needed to know.” It was Clegg’s direct reply You’re talking about a girl from Richfield. A of the Woods Cross East Stake Center. He that pierced the rhetorical fog for Bailey. “Our Caucasian girl from Richfield, who looks at me was a striking and unusual foreground for a Heavenly Father has a time and a place for and sees past my color, sees in my heart and familiar background––dark-suited, white- everything,” Clegg told him, adding that says, “This man is special. I want to be with shirted stake leaders and their Sunday- prior to 1978, “blacks weren’t ready and him.” She sacrifices everything except what she dressed wives. whites weren’t ready” believes in, no matter what other people are The camera was drawn to a face in that for the prophet to an- telling her, and she goes through absolute hell for background. As Bailey nounce a revelation making that choice. took a portable mike an . . . from God that would I look at her, and I’m so grateful to my Father s Jazzm ailey a to the lip of the stage to Thurl B instruct Church in Heaven for bringing her to look more directly into leaders that worthy me. She’s taught me so much. the faces of the mostly She’s taught me so much and young adults at this probably without really multi-stake fireside, the knowing it. And I look at video technicians cut to a . . . and jazzman. my children. I look at all close-up of a blonde those things I’ve been woman seated with the blessed with. And I say leaders. From her de- that I know I’m where I meanor, it was easy to de- belong. duce that this was Bailey’s The easy blending wife. (I had missed the be- of familiar Mormon ginning of the telecast in rhetoric with the which Sindi Bailey had black more expressive spoken prior to her husband’s males were to receive African - American address.) the priesthood.” idiom, body lan- On a later viewing of this program, I “I felt something in guage, and speak couldn’t ignore the thoughtlessness of some me open up,” Bailey ing styles distinguish both parts of the stake president’s introduction. He said, “and I knew why I Bailey’s and Knight’s contributions to the said he was “grateful to have Sindi Bailey had come to Italy.” changing face of Mormon diversity. This ap- with us tonight [since] normally she’d be While Thurl and Sindi Bailey’s remarks plies to their infusions of new musical life as home with her children as she usually is.” had a powerful impact for anyone who lis- well, which I mention below. Was it meant to reassure us of her diligence tened, what wasn’t said loomed nearly as as a parent? Some things never change, it large. Bailey’s allusions to what his wife expe- HE introduction of Gladys Knight at seems, even in a Church setting where the rienced—in choosing to marry and live with a the 1999 BYU Women’s Conference sheer visual and spiritual beauty of an egali- black man and give birth to and raise biracial T included not only such familiar refer- tarian, biracial LDS couple is evident and children at the white center of a world church ences to her status as a mother of three and whose respect for each other and their part- that is diversifying mostly at its geographical grandmother of ten, “with one on the way,” nership speaks volumes about changes in edges—made it clear that many stories re- but also the information that she was the Mormon perceptions. main to be told. Stories of not only the Baileys’ popularizer of such musical hits as “Midnight Sindi and Thurl Bailey spoke of Thurl’s experience, but also of many others. Train to Georgia” and “I Heard It through the conversion to Mormonism from slightly dif- Bailey briefly related a letter he had re- Grapevine.” (This announcement was ferent perspectives. It was accomplished ceived after returning from Italy, written by greeted by wild applause. Did this sponta- during a pro-basketball sojourn in Italy. After an LDS woman in California whose ex-hus- neous outbreak happen because the women being exposed over a period of time to the band was African-American. This woman’s in the audience were proud to identify with a tenets of his wife’s faith, Bailey had been im- son, 15, was having problems. Among mem- soulful new Mormon celebrity, or did it show pressed to call the mission home in Milan. bers of her ward were those who refused to their weariness, perhaps, at sitting passively (Sindi had flown back to the States to attend take the sacrament from him when he passed through Church meetings? Was this their her grandmother’s funeral.) Mission presi- it because he was biracial. Bailey spoke to the first opportunity in perhaps years for some dent J. Albert Clegg impressed Bailey with boy and told him he believed God had plans release?) his straight talk. Bailey said that at 5-foot-7 for him. He also encouraged him to refrain Also mentioned was Knight’s membership or 8, Clegg towers in his memory over such from getting angry or pointing fingers at in the Rhythm and Blues and Rock and Roll intimidating masculine figures as Kareem people who don’t understand. Halls of Fame (certainly a first for biograph- Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal, both of In this excerpt from his address, notice ical detail approved as an introduction for a whom Bailey had played against in the the pain and carefully contained tension that BYU audience), and that she had been National Basketball Association. runs parallel to Bailey’s expressed joy in “schooled in show business” by bluesman B. Bailey said that through the years, mis- finding his new, cherished faith: B. King. These plaudits were accompanied sionaries had tried to answer his questions I look at those people that Heavenly Father by video images of Gladys as a child, posing about the history of minorities in the Church has put in my life. He does that for all of us, you with Nat King Cole, and of fleeting footage of and specifically about African-Americans and know. And not all of them are good. He has put her as a young woman in an energetic dance
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AT his birthday celebration, President Hinckley good-naturedly mentioned that upon joining the Church, Gladys Knight said she wasn’t exactly excited about the state of Mormon music. “But she’s repented.” A good laugh line, perhaps. But doesn’t this obscure a genuine problem?
number in which her dress showed off her Saturday’s Warrior and similar productions, Mormons seem to have had a curious obses- dancer’s legs, well above her knees. after the listless reiteration of Church hymns sion with Mormons of status and celebrity. “When you’re on a mission for the Lord,” by congregations in wards where choristers Perhaps it suggests a certain insecurity. Living she said by way of introducing her topic, and organists have lost passion and are only in a world in which stardom and fame shine “The Song in My Heart,” “it’s a little bit dif- going through the motions, this was a shining so brightly, one may feel the need to boast of ferent than doing your own thang.” (That’s moment. A moment that only suggests the sports stars, entertainers, and politicians what she said, thang). “It’s been a wonderful, possibilities for new life in Mormon music. known by the world. Perhaps we are so fo- wonderful journey.” At President Hinckley’s birthday celebra- cused on standouts, because our usual “Song,” Knight said, “is symbolic of tion, he good-naturedly alluded to the fact Mormon conformity makes us as predictable joy––joy in my heart. That song is not ‘I that upon joining the Church, Gladys as peas in a pod. Heard It through the Grapevine,’ although I Knight mentioned she wasn’t exactly excited I believe it is time to move beyond our ap- love those songs. The song is Jesus Christ by the state of Mormon music. “But she’s re- preciation for what Mormon culture has and all the things in the restored gospel that I pented,” he said. A good laugh line, per- done and can do for its adherents and con- have learned.” haps. But doesn’t this obscure a genuine verts. It is time that we welcome an infusion She appeared pleased to have come upon problem? of peoples with a diversity of cultural, the revelation from God through Brigham Those converts to Mormonism who are of artistic, and intellectual traditions. Welcome Young urging the Saints, “If thou art merry, the most use to their adopted faith are not their differences; we have much to learn from praise the Lord with singing, with music . . . necessarily those who drop their cultural them. These newcomers, particularly those with dancing” (D&C 136:28). Although, as baggage at the church door. Are there not who insist on maintaining their own styles she added, “I ain’t seen much dancing yet.” thousands of Latter-day Saints hungry for an and keeping them original and fresh, will be “Music,” she said, “is one of the best tools injection of new spirit, music, and culture crucial in enriching a stream that must flow for bridging gaps” between people. “Music from other traditions? The response of the wider and deeper if our religious life is not lifts you. It gets you close to the Lord right women’s conference audience to Knight and to stagnate. away. Music has so many uses, and it does the stake fireside audience to Bailey seem to touch the heart.” Although those in the suggest this longing. To comment or read comments by others, Church may not be accustomed to the sound There was a clear and interesting visit
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PILLARS OF MY FAITH get blown off and the pillars need repair. And the Parthenon’s pillars are not one contin- uous piece of stone; the great columns are sections of stones, one stacked on top of the other. Rather than one seamless, tall column, HE ILLARS OSTS many smaller pieces create each pillar. My T P , P , faith also is neither seamless nor unbroken. It has been nourished and sustained, broken AND BEAMS OF MY FAITH down and rebuilt by many experiences and people. Some of my most creative times have been when I tear down and rebuild some- By Charlotte H. England thing. So now, let me share with you a few of the things in my life I have used as the pillars, posts, and beams in constructing and recon- structing my Mormon faith.
NE of the pillars sustaining my faith is my Grandma Johnson, a woman I “Since childhood, O know only by one memory of her taking me on a walk near her Ogden, Utah, I’ve been able to home. Grandma died before I was four, so attack what seem like this one memory is precious. Elizabeth Jane Johnson was loved and adored by all who impossible problems knew her. Free of hypocrisy, she had integrity and faith. When her husband, Grandpa if they have Johnson, had been asked to take a young im- migrant woman from England to be his anything to do second wife, Grandma Johnson, apparently with building, tearing brokenhearted, took her youngest children and left for a couple of months. No one knew down, or redoing. where she’d gone nor when she’d return. However, when she did return, she made I am not one sure Aunt Mary received the help and in- to spend a lot struction she needed to manage a household and care for her family. of time thinking I think it was difficult for Grandma to be in a polygamous marriage, but her letters and and talking about a all reports from family members who knew her confirm her deep commitment to the problem once I have Church and her faith in an afterlife. As she lay a clear idea dying, she returned briefly from the afterlife to tell her children who surrounded her about how to tackle it.” what she had experienced there. My mother said Grandma described colors beyond our imagination. This attention to visual details of KATHERINE ENGLAND the next life seems fitting since both Grandma ILLARS BRINGS TO mind a visit center, rises above Athens. The Greek and Mother were artistic and very sensitive to to the Parthenon in Greece some temple that once housed statues, including nature and its range of color. Such stories of P years ago. It was raining, and few the Goddess Athena, and was decorated Grandma Johnson are stones for me, pieces braved the weather, so my daughter Jody with brightly colored friezes, now stands that together form a pillar of my faith. and I had the Acropolis nearly to ourselves. empty and roofless with broken remains I don’t know how thin the veil between us Jody was a perfect companion because she lying about the grounds. The great pillars of and those who have left this life is, but I had knew and loved Greek mythology. The the Parthenon have not held up their roof a vivid dream of my grandmother a few years Acropolis, with the Parthenon planted in its since l687, when the Turks stored their am- ago. I was walking along the bank of the munition there and an explosion from a South Fork of the Ogden River where my carefully aimed shell blew it off. Even mother’s sister had a tiny cabin. This cabin CHARLOTTE ENGLAND is an without the roof and bright colors and had no running water or electricity, but it was artist, chef, musician, grandmother statues, it is a magnificent edifice. a wonderful retreat where we slept on old extraordinaire. A version of this The pillars of the Parthenon are a fitting feather beds, listened to the rush of the river, paper was presented at the 1998 Salt image for my faith because I sometimes feel and smelled the cottonwood trees that Lake Sunstone Symposium (tape #SL98-391). as if the cover or roof of my faith does indeed shaded the cabin. South Fork was also a fa-
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miliar place to Grandma Johnson, who had meaning to me than ever before. That this her more stress. So I settled for the privilege loved fishing there. woman, whose crippled body we were caring of caring for her. However, I have faith and In my dream, my grandmother was for, would walk and run again without pain hope that after this life, we will be able to ex- walking toward me along the river bank felt right and true to me. As we lifted and press and do many things that were left un- where I had played as a child, and I hurried dressed her body in temple clothes, as she said or undone. to meet her. As we met, she reached her arms had requested, I felt some of my fear of death out to me, took hold of mine, and looked me leave me. And I felt blessed to serve this ENE and I were married three days straight in the eyes. She said clearly, woman I had never known. It has often been before Christmas, l953. It was a “Charlotte, you can do anything you want to small, quiet acts of service like this one that G peaceful day with only a few couples do.” I was overwhelmed with the love that have supported my faith. in the Salt Lake Temple, something almost washed over me and with pure faith—a gift I was not prepared, however, to face my impossible to find now. But “peaceful” is not from my grandmother with whom I had not own mother’s death some years later. When the adjective I would choose to describe our conversed for more than six decades. my mother was dying of cancer and living in life together since that day. “Predictably un- Her words mean so much because they our home so that I could care for her, I found predictable” is more accurate. I suppose my give me faith to overcome my insecurities myself wanting to ask so many questions life would have been more predictable if I and fears, which I have struggled with all my only she could answer. I never asked the hadn’t married Gene (and his also if he hadn’t life. Among my fears are: facing death; questions though, because I feared showing married me, I would add), but, as one of my finding faith sufficient to sustain me—espe- any lack of faith in her recovery. Talking daughters suggested the other day, I chose cially when others depend on me; and about life without her would have been like the rollercoaster over the carousel ride. I have having to articulate and share my faith and admitting defeat. By acting so stoically, I been hoping for a few rides on the carousel doubt to an audience greater than zero. missed a great opportunity. I had also wanted now that Gene’s retired, but that just hasn’t Throughout my life, my soul has been en- to send messages to others she would soon happened yet. larged and my faith confirmed when I’ve meet. I had wanted to ask her to embrace my At the center of the cover illustration for faced rather than ignored these fears. dear sister, Dorothy Bee, who a few years ear- the issue of the Student Review honoring lier had taken her own life. Gene on his BYU retirement, our son, Mark, ERVING others and focusing on their My sister’s suicide has been the greatest placed a heroic-looking couple in a small needs have helped me put aside some challenge my faith has had. Every day since boat in the middle of a storm-tossed sea. A S of my worst fears, including that of her death, I have grieved her loss, wished she bearded Brigham Young looms in the back- death. Years ago, shortly after we moved to were here, and wondered how she is. When ground. Mark leaves his work open to inter- Northfield, Minnesota, for Gene’s job at St. caring for my mother, I didn’t know how to pretation, but I think he is suggesting that his Olaf’s College, I was asked to dress the body approach either my sister’s death or of parents have weathered together waves of of an elderly woman who had died after Mother’s own likely death without causing controversy and led adventurous lives. True, many years of lying crip- pled in a bed at the Odd Fellows home. Terrified, I was certain they made a mistake in calling me, and I said so: “There must be a Relief Society sister that could do the job.” “Yes, there is,” the mission presi- dent’s wife answered, “It is you.” At least I would not be alone. Another woman in the branch, who would become a dear friend over the years, helped me. Together, we prayed for guidance in handling this fragile, crippled body with respect and love. That help came as the sweetest spirit filled the room with the three of us.
This tiny, lifeless body be- Treasures of Half-Truth) came a person to Jean and me as we imagined what
her life had been like. PAT BAGLEY (from At that moment, the Savior’s promise of the Resurrection had greater
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some controversies have taken their toll, but was feeling. Becky was in the process of dis- I love the gospel, and I stand all amazed at never has an individual or institution dimin- covery. As I saw the light go on for her, the my Savior’s love. I believe he accepts and ished my core belief in the gospel and the darkness left my mind. My plea had been loves me and wants me to do the same, for Savior. My marriage and family life with heard, and the answer came in a small myself and others—as different as we might Gene and our children is another pillar of my whisper. My tasks weren’t taken from me, be from one another—even within our im- faith—another pillar built piece by piece but I saw that individuals—each of us—find mediate families. through our shared adventures and experi- truth in our own best way. This incident, Gene and I, our children, and their ences. though not dramatic, was an answer to my spouses, are a tight family, but still we allow The adventures in our marriage have prayer. God hears and loves us. This faith for our differences. When feelings get hurt, made me confront some fears and rely on my helps me struggle through my doubts and phones soon ring, and the hurt gets talked faith in God. Six months into our marriage, fears. out. The other day, my daughter Katherine we began serving as missionaries in Samoa, called upon her arrival in Costa Rica just to where we found ourselves strangers in a AM uncomfortable sharing some things apologize for her abrupt manner at her de- strange and beautiful land, without the com- that are personal. I appreciate people parture. She had not wanted me to feel unap- fort of friends and family. In a village on the I who have the ability to stand in a preciated even one day. She expressed her top of an extinct volcano, Gene and I taught meeting and bare their lives and beliefs and love for me. school in an old building used also for experiences—the pieces that make up the I’m pleased how my children often show church meetings and village gatherings. In pillars of their faith. My children know that it patience and tolerance for those with whom this small, remote, beautiful village, I first felt would be easier for me to build a cabin than they don’t see eye to eye, in everything from my faith confirmed. to give this talk. As a builder and artist, I’m doctrine to politics to art. They even tolerate Gene contracted an infection in his hand fearless. Since childhood, I’ve been able to at- me and my sometimes antiquated ideas. I that we treated with a few basic supplies, but tack what seem like impossible problems if have re-examined my own faith as I see them the hand would not heal. I used all my reme- they have anything to do with building, struggle with theirs. Even if many questions dies and then tried some Samoan ones tearing down, or redoing. I am not one to remain unanswered, the questions matter, es- without improvement. One morning as I was spend a lot of time thinking and talking pecially if they are, as Leonard Arrington fre- bathing his hand in a basin of water, I no- about a problem once I have a clear idea quently said, questions of human and divine ticed the veins in his arm had turned red. about how to tackle it. meaning and purpose. Fear grabbed me: I realized it was blood poi- There are times when Gene and my chil- When all else fails, humor helps me keep soning. How was I to get Gene proper care in dren wonder if this faith and self-confidence the faith. Voltaire states that comedy provides such an isolated place, far from a doctor or are a blessing or just a pain in the neck. An the best of all possible mirrors to the life it hospital? I ruled out the long horseback trip example is the time early in our marriage mocks. Thank goodness for Robert Kirby down the mountain and boat ride to the when we bought an old, fix-up house in Palo and Elouise Bell and James Arrington for other island. I pleaded with God to help me, Alto, California, near Stanford. Old houses holding up wonderful, unflattering mirrors to guide me to do the right things for Gene. can have problems with the use of space. to our Utah Mormon culture. Their affection After making him as comfortable as possible, This one had no passage between the kitchen for our culture, even as they poke fun at all of I gathered anything that might help. I felt and dining room. This design was very im- us, has pulled me out of many a too-serious guided to do simple tasks, such as boiling practical, and I quickly tired of going from theological jam. My family and I often share a our water supply that collected from the roof the kitchen through the wash room to get to laugh over their irreverent humor. into the rain barrel—something we never the dining room. So one day, I took a Our family recently shared laughter in did, but it kept me busy. I watched, prayed, crowbar and knocked the wall down, pre- our joy over the birth of Isaac, a new and fasted for three days. On the fourth day, I serving only the studs and wiring. When grandson. His arrival seemed a miracle to our was overjoyed to find the redness gone and Gene came home and saw the gaping hole in family. Though for several years our daughter Gene feeling stronger. I don’t understand the wall, he was speechless—for just the first Jennifer had nurtured a menagerie of birds, a miracles—how or why they happen on some time in his life. He would repeat that look tortoise, rabbit, cat, dog, parrot, fish, and occasions but not others. I didn’t question it; many times during our marriage. duck, she was feeling a little shaky in this I just said, “Thank You.” My creative talent and energy have served new job. And so I happily responded to her I remember feeling overwhelmed as a as an expression of my faith. The post-and- request to come sooner than I had planned, young mother: I was caring for a new baby beam construction used in the cabins and spending two weeks caring for mother and and five other young children, supporting house Gene and I have built might actually child. Seeing Isaac struggle awkwardly to Gene in his efforts to get Dialogue: A Journal be a better metaphor than pillars for the cre- adapt to this life, and yet finding him so re- of Mormon Thought off the ground and finish ative dimension of my faith. Our home and ceptive to our love, renewed my faith. He his doctorate, and trying to squeeze in time cabin are informal and have been places will grow up surrounded by love. Whatever to practice my violin and to paint. One day where people from all over the world— doubts he might eventually struggle with, I while rocking our new baby Jane and family, friends, and strangers—have gathered hope he will experience and accept the per- watching our two-year-old Becky playing on and found warmth, food, beds, acceptance, fect love that Christ gives all of us, if we will the floor, I silently prayed for help in carrying and often lively discussion. I have been chal- receive it. I share these pillars, posts, and these responsibilities. Tears welled up as I lenged and nourished by many people who beams with you in the name of our Savior, asked for the strength and ability to meet my have shared our home with us. Experiences Jesus Christ. challenges. I looked down at Becky patiently with diverse people throughout my life are trying to solve a puzzle, and something hap- the spiritual posts and beams I have used to To comment or read comments by others, pened that pulled me away from the burden I construct my cabin of faith. visit
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