This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
This letter is in response to Robert Kirby's Dec. 18 column, "Past church-sanctioned discrimination means Mormons will never be free from racial scrutiny."
While The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not need me to come to its defense, I do have an issue with liberal double standards and Kirby's column checked that box.
All religions in America and around the world have had some level of racial discrimination in their past. Today, the lens through which a church's past is discussed in the media has everything to do with whether that church is seen as religiously conservative or progressive. For example, LDS Church membership went from being primarily all white in the 1800s to a majority of its 15.6 million members being nonwhite today. And if the LDS Church was seen as progressive, it would be heralded as a champion of racial inclusion for this fact alone. But since it is seen as religiously conservative, this fact is overlooked and we end up with articles like Kirby's.
So a more accurate title for this article would have been "Past church-sanctioned discrimination means Mormons will never be free from racial scrutiny until they become a progressive church."
James M. Evans
Salt Lake City