YouTube Mormon Messages For Youth: Junior Reyes Brings Many Of His Florida Peers To Christ

This week, LDS Media Talk calls our attention to the story of Junior Reyes, a teenager in Florida. He found himself the only person of his age group in his small branch. He could have reacted in two different ways; he could have complained, kicked against the pricks, and left the Church in a huff.

Instead, Reyes took the higher road. He decided to increase the number of people in his age group -- by taking the Gospel to them and inviting them to come to Christ. His story -- and its success -- are chronicled in the video embedded below:



While I don't normally care to discuss racial issues on this blog, the number of Black faces in the video is noteworthy. This is exactly what President Spencer W. Kimball envisioned happening when he earnestly entreated with the Lord to lift the Priesthood ban, and his prayers answered affirmatively in 1978.

Why 1978? Because the Lord knew the time was right. He knew that despite the sacrifices of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and others during the civil rights era, that Dr. King's dream would be hijacked by opportunists and social engineers who would seek to enmesh the Black community afresh in the chains of entitlement. Lawmakers and bureaucrats would pass entitlement programs which served to break up Black families and emasculate Black men. When confronted with legitimate Black concerns and illegitimate Black misbehavior alike, panic-stricken White officials would rush out to name another street after Martin Luther King, then return to their trophy homes in mostly-White neighborhoods and pat themselves on the back for a "job well done". Of course, nothing really changed.

Junior Reyes didn't set out to get a street named after anyone. Instead, he set out to bring the Gospel to people -- and change lives in the process. While government emasculates, the Gospel emancipates. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints preaches empowerment rather than entitlement.