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Letter: Racism has always been part of LDS doctrine

(Courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) LDS Church President Russell M. Nelson and his wife, Wendy, are greeted by NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson at the NAACP's 110th annual national convention in Detroit on Sunday, July 21, 2019.

Responding to Holly Richardson’s column of Jan. 18.

Let’s, first of all, address euphemisms. Part of the hypocrisy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its followers is the use of stupid euphemisms to convey sentiments of outrage. Like "oh my heck" for hell, "darn" for damn and "what the freak" for what the f---.

This phoniness is apparent in your column when you say that the racist curse of dark skin in LDS teachings is gone. It is still and will always be there. I was raised Mormon in the 1940s to 1960s, and I was taught it, my father was taught it and so was my great aunt Hilda, the last pioneer in Utah who came across to Zion in 1868.

You talk about the efforts of the modern church leaders reaching out to the NAACP in 2018, Wow, how convenient. For the "One True Faith," as it calls itself, to make such bombastic mistakes such as racism, baptizing dead Jews into the faith, rewriting the Book of Mormon endlessly (pull out the copies we were taught from in the 1940s), correcting the concepts of how the Book of Mormon was translated (Does the “white salamander” ring a bell?), correcting the temperature of your caffeine and suddenly changing your spoken doctrines regarding the LGBTQ community because of outrage by your members.

Truth does not need correction, only lies do.

The vast majority of the church’s members support a racist, hate-mongering, misogynistic U.S. president, so, please, for "heck’s sake" stop making excuses and own it.

Roger Strand, Park City

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