False Revelation,1969

Home teaching was a Mormon expectation. Once a month, a member of the Melchizedek priesthood quorum would visit designated neighbors, usually with a younger companion. It was a way to become aware of the neighbors’ needs. Home teaching meant meals prepared for the sick, walks shoveled for the elderly, casseroles delivered to new parents. It was a noble program.

It was also a way to disseminate gossip, scandal, and fear.

I recall only one home teaching visit. How interesting! I had dozens of home teachers, but I remember only one. Fifty-six years later, I still remember his slender frame, earnest stance, and prominent Adam’s apple, but not his name. He was probably a BYU student. He had come to give us crucial, urgent news: The Negroes were coming. They were set to invade.

He opened a binder and read the letter—a transcription of a century-old prophecy. It was written by the long dead church President and Prophet, John Taylor, and had been miraculously discovered just in time for us to prepare for the big attack and—apparently—to buy deer rifles for the men.

“Blood will run down the streets,” he read. Coming in gangs, the Negroes would tear down the gates of the temple, ravage the women within, and destroy and desecrate the ordinance rooms. “Then the Mormon boys will pick up their deer rifles and destroy the Negroes, and that’s when the blood will run down the street.” This part, the home teacher read verbatim from the letter.

It was September of 1969. I was fourteen years old. I knew that John Taylor had been a prophet, but something about this particular prophecy felt weird.  And—could I say it?–wrong. Something in me whispered, “Careful, there.”

Indeed, in March 1970, our LDS bishop read us a letter from the church presidency:

Dear Brethren:

We have had called to our attention by several people, a purported revelation, or dream, or vision, which President John Taylor, the third president of the Church, allegedly had received and communicated to a housewife in her kitchen while at the home where he had been resting between conference sessions while attending meetings in Cedar City, Utah.

This purported statement, if ever given under such unheard of circumstances, was never presented to any of his associates or in any council of the Church and no record whatsoever is to be found in the historian’s office.

So, maybe this prophecy was a fraud.

The big question was, how did we fall for it?

It remains a big question fifty-seven years later.

The next biggest question is, WHO invented this false prophecy and why?

I’m still pondering that.

There are new conspiracy theories today which incorporate racism. Are we doing any better now than we did in 1968?

In a few places, yes. But not so much in red, red Utah.

If our representatives actually believe that the 2020 election was “stolen,” that people of color should re-migrate to their native countries, that certain people are “garbage,” then we are in trouble.

Repent.

Find people who represent what you really believe and elect them.

Following is a video I recorded with Darius Gray during Covid. In this snippet, he talks about the effect these theories had on him.

The first shot is from the film we are completing, titled “Joseph and Simeon.” It’s the story of Joseph of Egypt and Simeon, the brother whom he held hostage for 14 months, and their reconciliation. After this shot is the Darius Gray part.

This is Darius, 2020. Filmed by Ralph Blair.