Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Michigan

                                                                                       Recent articles in the Deseret News on both protests against the current way the Honor Code at Brigham Young University is handled and coverage of Brother Utt's statements about how the Honor Code Office operates has caused me to reflect on the matter.      While there is probably room for better interactions with students by the Honor Code Office, this does not seem to be the source of the complaints. Some protestors were asking for accomadations that are just not going to happen. The ban on same-sex dating, which in practice means a ban on same-sex kissing is not going to be lifted. If we are going to see reforms here it would be more stringent rules about all extr...

Well, I have learned a little more on Elder Johnson. His wife is white. How did I learn this because ComeuntoChrist.org has this video  https://www.mormon.org/video-peter-johnson-on-prophets I also learned a little more of his children. A recent Deseret News article on Elder Johnson linked to this article  https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865673983/Two-sisters-at-SUU-a-walk-on-at-USU-and-other-returned-Mormon-missionaries-in-college-basketball.html  That article does mention "Peter Johnson" as the father of Whitney and Kiana Johnson on the SUU basketball team, and mentions both were returned missionaries, serving in Mexico and Cape Verde. The photos make it clear that the Johnson sisters are at least partly African-American. Still with Peter a marginally common name and Johnson being one of the three most common names in the US without the link from the other Deseret News article I would not have been positive there was a link.

The most exciting development with new general authorities is the first African-American general authority, Peter Matthew Johnson. Elder Johnson is not the first black general authority. That was Elder Helvicio Martins from Brazil. Elder Martins however is dead. Elder Johnson is not even the only current black general authority. Elder Joseph W. Sitati from Kenya and Elder Edward Dube from Zimbabwe are both black. Elder Johnson grew up in the borough of Queens in New York City. I believe he is the first gneral authority to have grown up there since Elder Hales. That is where similarities end. Elder Johnson and his brother were in a rap group. They would perform at weddings, high school dances and block parties. When he was 14 a violent event happened at a rap gathering he was at. In this talk  https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/peter-m-johnson_faith-family-friendship/  he does not go into it. Shortly after that he moved to live with his mother in Hawaii. In Hawaii Elder Johns...