[Jeff Lebowski]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

This letter confirms much of what we knew, but there are two revelations to be gleaned from it. First, the purveyors of the priesthood ban including BY took their lead and instruction from Joseph Smith's sayings. This was not evil introduced by Smith's successors after his demise.

Oops. Or maybe it was.

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

Second, Delbert Stapely was not a stupid man, at least in terms of education and IQ. The letter is well written, and evinces an understanding of the nuanced issues surrounding the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Though today we take for granted that the government can prohibit discrimination by private individuals in private property, in truth it was to some a radical idea in 1964, and there was a lot of associated controversy. (The Bill of Rights does not apply to private conduct, which is regulated by the states, generally, unless the Constitution makes an exception.) You may recall that Robert Bork opposed the Act on essentially strict construction and libertarian principles. Indeed, Congress had to strain to find a basis in the Constitution for the federal government banning segregation by private persons in private property. Ultimately, the whole basis for the Civil Rights Act was the Constitution's grant to Congress of the power to regulate "interstate commerce."

Really these two facts--that Joseph's utterances led to the ban, and Delbert Stapely was an educated, intelligent man--are pretty chilling. The second fact demonstrates religion at its worst. People believe what they want to believe regardless of intelligence and education.

Clearly there was much for LDS racists such as Stapely to fear from the ban. The next step would be denying tax exempt status to the LDS church or similar punitive measure because of the ban. Today it's illegal for a religion to smoke marijuana as a sacrament despite the First Amendment.

SU, old buddy, sometimes less is more. This letter speaks for itself. You don't need to editorialize or elucidate in order to make a case here. Further, your claim that the letter is evidence of Stapley's intellect really has me scratching my head. Wow.