103: Bryndis Roberts – Processing the Charleston Church Murders

On the 17th of June 2015 a young white man attended the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church Wednesday night bible study class on Calhoun Street, Charleston, South Carolina.  He allegedly sat with the community in their study before pulling out a fire arm and shooting dead nine worshippers – all Black.

In this podcast I discuss this incident with Bryndis Roberts, in the context of a long history of racism and racial incidents in the United States.  We talk about Bryndis’ own experience of being black in the education system growing up in Georgia, along with her critical reflections on how an incident like this could and should wake up the LDS church to its own forms of systemic and discursive white racial privilege.  Ultimately Bryndis’ position is one of faith and hope, but not without the necessary pain that is required for all of us to arrive at a healthy understanding of what it really means to be a follower of Christ.