Quote:
Originally Posted by SeattleUte
Seriously, to say that racist views were a product of a time and place cuts no ice with me. There have always been large numbers of Americans who condemned slavery, Jim Crow, separate but equal, what have you. The leaders of the LDS Church represent themselves as the foremost moral authorities in the world, for crying out loud.
By 1964, a large majority of ordinary Americans knew racism in any form was wrong. Hence the mandate for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That the priesthood ban ever existed is an utter disgrace. That it took until 1978 to get rid of it is an ugly stain on the LDS Church. That the LDS Church won't candidly address this sordid part of its history and acknowledge that wrong is beyond disgraceful. Like changing one word in the Introduction to the Book of Mormon, there is always coy evasion, never a candid and straightforward reckoning and settling of past wrondoing.
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I think there is truth to this. But I take a slightly different view. The Lord perhaps has sent out his messengers to speak the truth. Like
Armaund Mass and Lester Bush. Like
Darron Smith, who first introduced me to what seemed like a radical idea when I was 21--that the ban had nothing to do with God. And
Prince and Wright and many others.
When I first started talking about this issue in 2001 on cougarboard, I was very close to being alone in my views. In 2007, on cougarboard, my point of view is not uncommon at all. The point is that the Lord works in mysterious ways, lest we doubt that he is working.