President Russell M. Nelson receives the Gandi-King-Mandela Peace Prize from Dr. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., professor and founding dean of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Worldwide Chapel, on the annual Worldhouse Interfaith & Interdenominational Meeting on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Worldwide Chapel at Morehouse Faculty in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Laura Seitz, Deseret Information
An oil portrait of President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, left, hangs within the Worldwide Corridor of Honor with Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Ira Helfand on the Martin Luther King Jr. Worldwide Chapel at Morehouse Faculty in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Laura Seitz, Deseret Information
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff speaks on the annual Worldhouse Interfaith & Interdenominational Meeting on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Worldwide Chapel at Morehouse Faculty in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Laura Seitz, Deseret Information
Dr. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., professor and founding dean of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Worldwide Chapel, honors President Russell M. Nelson with the Gandi-King-Mandela Peace Prize on the annual Worldhouse Interfaith & Interdenominational Meeting on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Worldwide Chapel at Morehouse Faculty in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Laura Seitz, Deseret Information
ATLANTA — A traditionally Black faculty honored President Russell M. Nelson right here on Thursday evening, awarding the Latter-day Saint chief a peace prize named for 3 legends of nonviolence — Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.
Morehouse Faculty additionally unveiled side-by-side new portraits of President Nelson and Abraham Lincoln on a wall within the Martin Luther King Jr. Worldwide Chapel constructing on campus.
“Since you, Russell Marion Nelson Sr., carry the sunshine of fact within the nice Morehouse management custom, which acknowledges the common Christ and works for common justice, we're honored to announce you because the inaugural laureate of the Morehouse Faculty Gandhi-King-Mandela Peace Prize,” stated the dean of the chapel, the Rev. Lawrence Carter.
An oil portrait of President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, left, hangs within the Worldwide Corridor of Honor with Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Ira Helfand on the Martin Luther King Jr. Worldwide Chapel at Morehouse Faculty in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
Laura Seitz, Deseret Information
The prize honors an individual who promotes peace and optimistic social transformation by nonviolent means.
The Rev. Carter stated President Nelson had impressed radical inclusivity and solidarity in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and had remarkably linked arms with the Black neighborhood.
President Nelson watched a livestream of the occasion from Utah. In a prerecorded video, he stated he was deeply honored by the award.
“The people for whom this honor is called set up its significance,” he stated. “Every of those brave people was a pioneer. Every championed human dignity for all women and men. Every lived as much as the mission of this famend chapel that stands as a citadel of peace.”
I used to be privileged to be the recipient of the Morehouse Faculty inaugural Gandhi-King-Mandela Peace Prize this night. I used to be unable to journey to Atlanta to be on the ceremony, however I recorded a brief message that was proven on the occasion. I've included a part of my video message… pic.twitter.com/mAlYOimbOq
— Russell M. Nelson (@NelsonRussellM) April 14, 2023
The awards ceremony was held 11 days after President Nelson delivered a landmark discuss on peacemaking on the 193rd Annual Basic Convention of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Rivalry is a alternative,” he stated then. “Peacemaking is a alternative. You've your company to decide on competition or reconciliation. I urge you to decide on to be a peacemaker, now and at all times.”
U.S. Sen. John Ossoff, D-Georgia, a shock addition to this system, additionally acknowledged President Nelson.
“The extent of hate and division in America is untenable and can't proceed,” Ossoff added. “We can't be a society that divides itself based mostly on our political affiliations or our race. The extent of hatred that we’ve seen rising on this nation within the final 10 years is a path to our personal destruction.”
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff speaks on the annual Worldhouse Interfaith & Interdenominational Meeting on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Worldwide Chapel at Morehouse Faculty in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
Laura Seitz, Deseret Information
President Nelson obtained the peace prize 5 years right into a vigorous administration marked by the way in which he has linked arms — in what many have known as unlikely collaborations — with the NAACP, the UNCF (United Negro Faculty Fund) and Black pastors.
Along with his new buddies, President Nelson each has issued joint calls for racial concord and acted on them, saying church donations of $6 million to assist inner-city Black communities and $3 million for scholarships for Black faculty college students in Atlanta.
“You've led your church to take a position mightily sooner or later growth of African American, servant-scholar management at Morehouse Faculty and our sister establishment, Spelman Faculty,” the Rev. Carter stated.
A number of scholarship recipients from every faculty attended the ceremony.
“Each once in a while,” the Rev. Carter informed President Nelson in a less-scripted second, “individuals ought to do what you probably did, and that's get out of the field and shock some folks, do one thing very completely different, what is required to unite individuals, to convey concord.”
“Thanks for being you,” he added.
President Nelson, 98, participated within the occasion nearly. In a prerecorded video, he stated that as a coronary heart surgeon, he actually had held the hearts of individuals of many races and nationalities all around the world. He stated he discovered all of them are alike.
“In these working rooms the place life hung within the steadiness, I got here to know that our Heavenly Father cares deeply for each certainly one of his youngsters,” President Nelson stated. “That’s as a result of we're his youngsters. Variations in nationality, coloration and tradition don't change the truth that we're actually little children of God, and as a follower and witness of Jesus Christ I've solely come to grasp that divine fact extra deeply.”
Dr. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., professor and founding dean of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Worldwide Chapel, honors President Russell M. Nelson with the Gandi-King-Mandela Peace Prize on the annual Worldhouse Interfaith & Interdenominational Meeting on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Worldwide Chapel at Morehouse Faculty in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
Laura Seitz, Deseret Information
Why Morehouse Faculty honored President Nelson
The Rev. Carter stated the award committee selected President Nelson because the award’s first recipient as a result of he has led “noble efforts to heal and reunite the damaged physique of Christ.”
He additionally stated President Nelson has championed “the ethical cosmopolitan worldview of the faith of Jesus that may be a hallowed blueprint” for worldwide nonviolent human rights struggles and known as him an instance of brave, virtuous and moral twenty first century management.
- “You've impressed your church to radical inclusivity and solidarity by taking a stand for the rights of girls and youngsters and to protect the mental, private, social and non secular freedoms and safety of all humankind,” the Rev. Carter stated.
He introduced President Nelson with a medallion bearing the profiles of Gandhi, the Rev. King and Mandela, and with a crystal obelisk representing God’s inventive energy and bearing three Biblical phrases:
- “Let there be mild.”
- “And there was mild.”
- “And the sunshine was good.”
The Rev. Carter stated President Nelson had “labored tirelessly to construct bridges of understanding quite than create partitions of segregation” and is a worthy successor to Joseph Smith.
As an internationally acknowledged medical scientist, revered president, prophet, seer and revelator for the 17-million-member church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you might have continued the legacy of Joseph Smith, founding father of the Latter-day Saints motion and the primary nationally acknowledged spiritual chief in the USA to advocate for the liberty of enslaved Africans by affirming racial and ethnic equality and operating for the American presidency on a political platform of compensation emancipation, Carter stated.
What President Nelson stated
President Nelson, who has known as on Latter-day Saints to guide out in abandoning racism and prejudice, stated the church honors Joseph Smith’s imaginative and prescient.
“I’ve acknowledged earlier than and repeat right this moment, that racism, sexism and a number of different -isms are universally and tragically limiting in the way in which we regard and deal with one another,” he stated. “Any abuse or prejudice towards one other due to race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, tradition, or another identifiers is offensive to our maker, and defies the primary and second nice commandments, that we must always love God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves.
“We firmly imagine within the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.”
President Nelson repeated certainly one of his fixed themes, that every one individuals are youngsters of an inclusive God.
“Could we as little children of God, as everlasting brothers and sisters, do all inside our energy to construct up one another, study from one another and show respect for all of God’s youngsters,” he stated.
“We shouldn't have to behave alike or look alike to like one another,” he added. “We are able to disagree on a matter with out being unpleasant.”
The record-setting scene on the chapel
A cloudy afternoon grew darkish early as rain fell, however Latter-day Saints from throughout Georgia flocked to the occasion, which started late to accommodate these caught in visitors. A file 2,600 crammed the Martin Luther King Jr. Worldwide Chapel’s auditorium and overflow seating.
“You'll be able to at all times rely on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” the Rev. Carter stated to cheers and applause. Afterward he stated he was grateful it additionally was record-setting for being the most important Caucasian viewers ever to attend a Morehouse occasion, a objective he had for the annual WorldHouse Interfaith and Interdenominational Meeting.
The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Sq. carried out “Come, Come Ye Saints” and “Come, Thou Fount of Each Blessing” in prerecorded movies.
The viewers stood as a mixed choir of the Morehouse and Spelman faculty glee golf equipment carried out the Negro nationwide anthem, “Carry Ev’ry Voice and Sing.” That choir additionally sang highly effective renditions of “Good Bother” and “We Shall Overcome.”
The Rev. Carter, a longtime fan of the Tabernacle Choir, stated the choir and the 2 glee golf equipment are exploring a future efficiency collectively. Tabernacle Choir president Mike Leavitt stated all three events have an interest and dealing on particulars and logistics.
An imam sang a gap prayer in Arabic, adopted by a chant for peace and happiness by a Buddhist and Baptist prayer.
Close to the top of the night, seven new portraits had been introduced. Painted by Dewayne Mitchell, they included Lincoln and President Nelson. These two portraits had been positioned on wall within the chapel constructing facet by facet.
“I intentionally positioned them by one another. That is actually vital,” stated the Rev. Carter, who beforehand has stated Joseph Smith was 20 years forward of Lincoln on abolition.
He stated the location additionally symbolized his need to make use of the annual interfaith meeting, what he known as Martin Luther King Jr.’s spiritual memorial platform, to reunite the damaged physique of Christ.
Among the many different new portraits had been the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the evening’s different award recipient, Nobel Prize laureate Ira Helfand, who obtained the 2023 Gandhi-King-Ikeda Neighborhood Builder’s Prize.
Previous winners have included Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Helfand is the previous president of the Worldwide Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear Conflict. Helfand obtained the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017, 32 years after the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Worldwide Marketing campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, of which he's a founding companion.
Helfand warned that the hazard of nuclear battle is rising and requested listeners to work for peace.
“Every of us has to determine what it's that we will do to coach our communities, to construct the political actions that might be crucial in order that our leaders can do the fitting factor and get rid of these weapons earlier than they illuminate us,” he stated.
Morehouse Faculty President David Thomas and new Spelman Faculty President Helene Gayle attended the ceremony. Thomas famous throughout a morning occasion that Thursday marked one week after the fifty fifth anniversary the assassination of the Rev. King, a Morehouse alumnus.
The Rev. Carter stated the prize President Nelson obtained doesn't include a money award. As a substitute, it got here with a small library of books.
Among the many books had been:
- “Gandhi: The Years That Modified the World: 1914-1948,” by Ramachandra Guha.
- “The Gandhi Reader: A Sourcebook of His Life and Writings.”
- “The Arc of Fact: The Considering of Martin Luther King Jr.,” by Lewis Baldwin.
- “A Testomony of Hope: The Important Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.”
- “Nelson Mandela: Conversations With Myself.”
- “Nelson Mandela: Lengthy Stroll to Freedom.”
The occasion program included a web page with two verses from the Ebook of Mormon, 2 Nephi 26:32-33 — the Rev. Carter stated President Nelson informed him that he and Joseph Smith had been impressed by these verses. The web page additionally included a quote from President Nelson’s convention handle, “Peacemakers Wanted,” concerning the private alternative between competition and peacemaking.
Earlier within the day, the Rev. Carter inducted Elder Jack N. Gerard, a Basic Authority Seventy, and Leavitt, the choir president, and 90 others into the Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers, Sponsors and Collegium of Students.
“It’s a humbling honor to be acknowledged with all these different people who wish to carry forth the mission to actually deal with all equally within the eyes of God,” Elder Gerard stated. “President Nelson has set a excessive bar, and all of us search to aspire to that.”
Leavitt stated he loved studying extra concerning the Rev. Dr. King throughout a day on the Morehouse campus.
“It’s a fantastic honor,” he stated. “I’m deeply appreciative.”
Different Latter-day Saints on the occasion included members of the church’s North America Southeast Space Presidency, Elder Vern P. Stanfill and Elder Matthew S. Holland, and Elder Peter M. Johnson, a Basic Authority Seventy.