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On Fire in Baltimore: Black Mormon Women and Conversion in a Raging City
When Laura Strickling moved to Baltimore as a doctoral student at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, she became acquainted with the Black women in her congregation. She began interviewing the women of On Fire in Baltimore as a linguistic study, but soon discovered that their conversion narratives emerged from racially-entangled events. These devout women of color tell stories of drug addiction and rape, of nights spent in jail and days looking for work, of single motherhood and grief for lost children. Yet, their stories are also filled with visitations from heavenly beings, dreams of deceased mothers, protection from violence, and missionary messengers. They share how they reconcile their membership in a historically White church that once denied them full membership. Strickling takes the reader on an intimate journey where Black and White racialized lives meet, where she is compelled to question how her own whiteness has impacted her perspective, and where an unquenchable spiritual fire burns bright in a raging city.
- GenresNonfictionReligion
197 pages, Paperback
Published October 9, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 15, 2018
This book offered more than just conversion stories. I especially appreciated the author providing the historical and societal context that gave me a better understanding of the world in which these sisters lived. My one frustration with the book is that I wanted to know more about each and every one of these exceptional women.
I know that I have incredible advantages being a white, educated, middle income woman in America. Reading these stories made me acutely conscience of the divided America in which we live. While I’ve been living the American Dream, these sisters have been oppressed from all fronts, including but not limited to government policy and racism, yet each of them were able to find the silver lining in their circumstances. Their testimonies of Jesus Christ, put mine to shame.
Ms. Strickland said, “I came to feel that these Black sisters possessed a burning trust-an unquenchable spiritual fire—that I was not acquainted with. It was this fire, this spiritual strength that I sought to understand.”
It is true that unless you’ve walked in another’s shoes, you can never understand their struggles, obstacles, challenges and view point.
Thanks to Laura Strickliing’s book I am a little bit closer to understanding.
I know that I have incredible advantages being a white, educated, middle income woman in America. Reading these stories made me acutely conscience of the divided America in which we live. While I’ve been living the American Dream, these sisters have been oppressed from all fronts, including but not limited to government policy and racism, yet each of them were able to find the silver lining in their circumstances. Their testimonies of Jesus Christ, put mine to shame.
Ms. Strickland said, “I came to feel that these Black sisters possessed a burning trust-an unquenchable spiritual fire—that I was not acquainted with. It was this fire, this spiritual strength that I sought to understand.”
It is true that unless you’ve walked in another’s shoes, you can never understand their struggles, obstacles, challenges and view point.
Thanks to Laura Strickliing’s book I am a little bit closer to understanding.
October 21, 2018
Beautifully written; painful to read of these sisters' trials, but inspires to be better.
March 22, 2023
A fantastic resource—Strickling centers the voices and experiences of Black Latter-day Saint women living in Baltimore, sharing their faith and also their perspectives on race in both the church and the city they inhabit. Strickling does a great job of contextualizing their experiences within a greater social and historical landscape. It gives a great introduction to those newer to studying the relationships between race and religion in an un-intimidating way.
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November 18, 2019I’m not sure what to rate this, but reading it was a positive experience for me.
My church has a fraught racial history, and so does Baltimore. Strickling learned more about this while doing a doctorate in linguistics while living in Baltimore. She started a project to record Black Mormon women’s stories of how they converted to the church, despite its history with Black people, and as part of their broader life stories. The result is a diverse collection of stories. The conversion element is present, and this book is grounded in the church experiences of the women involved, but it also spends a lot of time talking about other parts of these women’s lives.
Strickling is present as a narrator and compiler, and while she does a good job of being nuanced, thoughtful, and compassionate, I was very conscious of her as a white gatekeeper for these experiences. She doesn’t shy away from talking about racial and socioeconomic politics, but ultimately I think this book is a step toward something we still need: Black Mormon experiences as told and presented by Black people. I don’t think Strickling’s point of view is invalid or shouldn’t be considered, I just don’t think it should be the final destination. I think her whiteness—and her reckoning with it—could be especially helpful for white Mormons who are unfamiliar with a racial narrative, or are wondering what to do about their own privilege.
The book also got me thinking a lot about how the whole cultural foundation of Mormonism is built on expectations of whiteness. That was where the linguistic analysis (which seemed like it had mostly been removed during conversion into book format, but was oddly present in a few places) was the most interesting to me. Strickling’s descriptions of testimonies, or even prayers, given by Black women, reflect a different narration style than I’m familiar with, given my white religious upbringing in Utah (historically one of the most racially homogeneous places in the US). It’s fascinating and messy to think about established things that are accepted as holy or significant, reflect racial and cultural expectations. I also enjoyed reading about how different congregations dealt with this issue, although that wasn’t the focus of the book.
The book also dealt with some of the most authentic and compassionate ministry I’ve ever seen or read about. I’m sure these congregations experience ministry on a spectrum, but Strickling also records members dealing with unbelievably hard things (many of which are directly tied to racism and poverty, and as such were unfamiliar to me given my demographic background and its influence on my religious experience) with grace and insight.
On Fire in Baltimore raised a lot of interesting questions that will be good jumping-off points for further research.
My church has a fraught racial history, and so does Baltimore. Strickling learned more about this while doing a doctorate in linguistics while living in Baltimore. She started a project to record Black Mormon women’s stories of how they converted to the church, despite its history with Black people, and as part of their broader life stories. The result is a diverse collection of stories. The conversion element is present, and this book is grounded in the church experiences of the women involved, but it also spends a lot of time talking about other parts of these women’s lives.
Strickling is present as a narrator and compiler, and while she does a good job of being nuanced, thoughtful, and compassionate, I was very conscious of her as a white gatekeeper for these experiences. She doesn’t shy away from talking about racial and socioeconomic politics, but ultimately I think this book is a step toward something we still need: Black Mormon experiences as told and presented by Black people. I don’t think Strickling’s point of view is invalid or shouldn’t be considered, I just don’t think it should be the final destination. I think her whiteness—and her reckoning with it—could be especially helpful for white Mormons who are unfamiliar with a racial narrative, or are wondering what to do about their own privilege.
The book also got me thinking a lot about how the whole cultural foundation of Mormonism is built on expectations of whiteness. That was where the linguistic analysis (which seemed like it had mostly been removed during conversion into book format, but was oddly present in a few places) was the most interesting to me. Strickling’s descriptions of testimonies, or even prayers, given by Black women, reflect a different narration style than I’m familiar with, given my white religious upbringing in Utah (historically one of the most racially homogeneous places in the US). It’s fascinating and messy to think about established things that are accepted as holy or significant, reflect racial and cultural expectations. I also enjoyed reading about how different congregations dealt with this issue, although that wasn’t the focus of the book.
The book also dealt with some of the most authentic and compassionate ministry I’ve ever seen or read about. I’m sure these congregations experience ministry on a spectrum, but Strickling also records members dealing with unbelievably hard things (many of which are directly tied to racism and poverty, and as such were unfamiliar to me given my demographic background and its influence on my religious experience) with grace and insight.
On Fire in Baltimore raised a lot of interesting questions that will be good jumping-off points for further research.
December 28, 2019
Laura Rutter Strickling sat down with the Black women of her Mormon congregation in Baltimore to hear and record their conversion stories.
I'm not quite sure what to think of this book. At times it felt like this book wasn't quite sure what it wanted to be. On the one hand, the stories these women tell are eye-opening, devastating, and hopeful. On the other hand, the book is very academic, but in a fairly accessible way. I really did learn a lot about the history of Baltimore, and the academic theory Strickling uses did help me to see racial issues through a new lens.
The big elephant in the room is that Strickling is white. She frames the book in a way that is very conscious of her whiteness and identifies how her biases impacted the interview process, which I think could be a helpful avenue for white people who are trying to understand and engage with racial issues. However, some of my fellow book club members felt that Strickling was too front and center in the book, and that her own story overshadowed the stories of the women she interviewed, and I think they make a good point as well. We had one woman at book club who knew some of the women interviewed personally, and she was the biggest critic of the book there, which I think is worth noting.
Basically, what I think I'm trying to say is that this isn't a perfect book. Go in knowing that.
I'm not quite sure what to think of this book. At times it felt like this book wasn't quite sure what it wanted to be. On the one hand, the stories these women tell are eye-opening, devastating, and hopeful. On the other hand, the book is very academic, but in a fairly accessible way. I really did learn a lot about the history of Baltimore, and the academic theory Strickling uses did help me to see racial issues through a new lens.
The big elephant in the room is that Strickling is white. She frames the book in a way that is very conscious of her whiteness and identifies how her biases impacted the interview process, which I think could be a helpful avenue for white people who are trying to understand and engage with racial issues. However, some of my fellow book club members felt that Strickling was too front and center in the book, and that her own story overshadowed the stories of the women she interviewed, and I think they make a good point as well. We had one woman at book club who knew some of the women interviewed personally, and she was the biggest critic of the book there, which I think is worth noting.
Basically, what I think I'm trying to say is that this isn't a perfect book. Go in knowing that.
November 25, 2018
The book is a collection of conversion stories of African-American women presented by Laura Rutter Strickling, who is a white woman. However, Strickling engages with her whiteness in a conscious way and identifies the ways her race has an impact on the interview process. For white readers, this can serve as a valuable and gentle introduction to thinking about whiteness and engaging with race. Although the author is white, she privileges the voices of the women that she interviews and each chapter includes long transcriptions of black women talking about their own experiences. In a church that tends to elide over racial identity and avoids acknowledging racist history, this book offers a welcome addition to a home gospel library.
Each chapter introduces a woman of color (in one chapter the sister self-identifies as bi-racial, half-White and half-Native American). The author describes the interview environment and then includes portions of the interview that explain the sister’s background...
to read the rest of this review, please visit the Exponent blog at www.the-Exponent.com
Each chapter introduces a woman of color (in one chapter the sister self-identifies as bi-racial, half-White and half-Native American). The author describes the interview environment and then includes portions of the interview that explain the sister’s background...
to read the rest of this review, please visit the Exponent blog at www.the-Exponent.com
October 16, 2018
This book has been a deep emotional journey, to get to know the sufferings and great challenges of these women related to poverty, abuse, racism, illnes and even death and how in spite of such adverse circumstances, they still maintained their unchangeable commitment to their families, to their Church and their faith to Jesus Christ. That has been a source of strength and also a wake-up call to my personal complaints and my very small trials and challenges. There is a fire in Baltimore and that spiritual fire is so bright that it burns our hearts.
The sincere words of these women make the reading a personal experience and Laura Rutter Strickling has compiled them with great capacity without fleeing from the difficult parts and in doing so, she has offered us the opportunity to be an extra guest in such intimate and life changing conversations.
The sincere words of these women make the reading a personal experience and Laura Rutter Strickling has compiled them with great capacity without fleeing from the difficult parts and in doing so, she has offered us the opportunity to be an extra guest in such intimate and life changing conversations.
October 10, 2018
This book gives insight into a very underserved population, and allows those of us who do not have the opportunity to know these women ourselves. It shows respect for a wide variety of paths to God and for human beings who do the best they can with what they have. The author is very honest and willing to admit her own inadequacies, while clearly has a loving and generous heart. I think there are issues with her framing of the book as a whole, her assertion of her theoretical basis without any explication, and a few parts seem superficial and slanted. Only a few, and it is valuable to have historical summaries included -- but should be noted that these are not definitive histories and there are many other interpretations of the history covered. Still, the stories themselves can open hearts and lead us all to better understanding.
December 16, 2021
Oh, I loved this book. Because I live in nearby Prince George's county, and have had similar experiences to many of the author's, I felt such a connection to this book. I love how this book helps me understand my Black neighbors better, but didn't leave me feeling shamed or blamed as a white person. It was positive, uplifting, inspirational, and yes, heartbreaking. The writing was fabulous and engaging. I intended to read this book gradually on Sunday afternoons, but I finished it in 4 days because I was enjoying it so much. :) Although this book is particularly interesting to a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the book does not expect understanding of church terms and systems to be able to read it. Anyone with an interest in better understanding Black culture, urban issues, or poverty will enjoy this, too.
April 21, 2019
An excellently researched and written book
I was very impressed at how much research the author did on race relations in Baltimore. I was also impressed at the beautiful poetic style that she wrote in, and the interesting and touching stories she shared. I found this book enlightening as I haven't had much interaction with the African American community here in Utah, so it was interesting seeing how these members of the church lived their faith in the midst of struggles I can't comprehend. On that note, I feel reading this book exposed me to the magnitude of the struggles African Americans have faced and still face, so reading this book had multiple benefits for me.
I was very impressed at how much research the author did on race relations in Baltimore. I was also impressed at the beautiful poetic style that she wrote in, and the interesting and touching stories she shared. I found this book enlightening as I haven't had much interaction with the African American community here in Utah, so it was interesting seeing how these members of the church lived their faith in the midst of struggles I can't comprehend. On that note, I feel reading this book exposed me to the magnitude of the struggles African Americans have faced and still face, so reading this book had multiple benefits for me.
October 22, 2018
On Fire in Baltimore: Black Mormon Women and Conversion in a Raging City by Laura Rutter Strickling was a book so worth my time because of the compassion and love that my heart felt from the true stories the author so eloquently told from interviews of 15 Black Mormon women in Baltimore. I love a book where I can lose myself, forget about me, and have a desire to be a lot better than I was before I read it. On Fire in Baltimore did not disappoint! I highly recommend it.
August 22, 2018
I found myself bawling in public while reading through this. Strickling does an excellent job of providing the racial contexts to these women's heart-wrenching experiences.
December 15, 2018
What a fascinating book. It is so wonderful to hear the stories of such strong, amazing women. To see how they find peace in their faith is such a beautiful thing.
October 31, 2018
Laura Strickling has been a thoughtful and aware conduit for women whose lives call out to be known and understood. More urgently, we need to hear their stories. Her approach to race and the many ways it plays into the concept and creation of this book are refreshing and reflective. I only wish err were more stories. Her notes and bibliography are deserving of publication in themselves.
March 10, 2019
I liked the actual stories of their lives. Thought the parts about where & when she interviewed them and the backstory of how she knew them to be too long.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews