I was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 49 years. I believed that the Book of Mormon was true and my perceptions of American Indians were shaped by that belief.

Then everything began to change. For me it wasn't the DNA issues or the archaeology that started my journey into reality, it was the changing attitudes and ideas of members about the "Lamanites". I first learned of this through interactions with apologists. The folks at FAIR were instrumental in motivating me to open my eyes, but what I saw was not what they were trying to show me.

As soon as I became aware that the LDS church allowed the idea of pre-Adamites to explain the lack of Near Eastern DNA in the Americas(1), it was all over and I terminated my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

My final out letter is a very important personal document for me. It authenticates that I left the church by my own choice and that I am no longer affiliated with that religion.

Things have happened after I resigned that reinforce to me that I made the correct moral choice. For example:

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples(2) specifies that American Indians are equal to all other people, that they have a right to be different and to be respected for being different. The Book of Mormon teaches that they are cursed and not delightsome until they accept that Book of Mormon stories are true. They must believe that their ancestors had once been Christian but had degraded themselves and fallen into wickedness and sin. Mormonism teaches that they will blossom by becoming LDS members. That is contrary to the UN Declaration that was adopted by the United States after I resigned.

In 2010, Dr. Ugo Perego gave a public talk(3) in which he speculated that people living in the Americas earlier than 6,000 years ago probably did not have spirits like ours and were animals. His thoughts on pre-Adamites turned my stomach inside out. At that same time there were legal disputes by American Indians over human remains that according to Perego's dehumanizing thoughts were nothing more than animal ancestors. Dr. Perego's published works on the peopling of America are valuable contributions to science, but his opinion of such an incredible people confirmed to me that my leaving the LDS church was the right choice. Apparently the LDS church has no problem with his ideas because he is currently employed by them.

In 2011, Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association claimed that Native Americans had morally disqualified themselves from the land(4). His article created so much controversy that it was taken down from the AFA website. If you think about it, he didn't say anything different than what the LDS members are taught out of the Book of Mormon.

I had been taught in my childhood and throughout my adult life that Columbus had been guided by God and that God's wrath was on American Indians and His spirit was with Europeans. "Gentiles" (Europeans) were entitled to America's lands as a new "Promised Land" and that the restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith was part of that sequence of events. After I rejected those teachings and resigned, the World Council of Churches denounced such ideas "as fundamentally opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ and as a violation of the inherent human rights that all individuals and peoples have received from God"(5). The idea that nations were entitled by God to claim lands already inhabited was the theme for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2012.(6) That reinforced to me that my moral outrage over the Book of Mormon and LDS teachings was justified.

In 2013 a trial was held in Guatemala for the genocide of Mayan peoples that occurred in the 1980s.(7) The massacres occurred with a political belief that Guatemala's people of European descent had rights to lands and wealth based on a doctrine of superiority.(8) It is a familiar theme to me, because it is found in teachings in the Book of Mormon. Mormonism's canonized racism can be dangerous in countries like Guatemala.

During the genocidal period of the 1980s, Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated a Guatemala temple with these words: "Thou kind and gracious Father, our hearts swell with gratitude for Thy remembrance of the sons and daughters of Lehi, the many generations of our fathers and mothers who suffered so greatly and who walked for so long in darkness".(9) This labeling of the Maya peoples was repeated after I resigned, in a 2011 Guatemala temple dedication with Elder Uchtdorf's words: "Thou kind and gracious Father, our hearts are filled with gratitude for Thy remembrance of the sons and daughters of Lehi. Thou hast heard their cries and seen their tears. Thou hast accepted their righteous sacrifices."(10) I was sick to my stomach when I read Uchtdorf's dedicatory prayer and was even further resolved that my resignation was justified.

The world's human rights movement is strengthening and growing(11) while at the same time the morally condemnable teachings found in the Book of Mormon are stagnating in a cesspool of outdated ideas.

The LDS church has still not been able to successfully put the race and priesthood controversy into the past,(12) and the general authorities are not addressing the Book of Mormon's racist doctrine. They have no choice but to ignore the developing problems with the Book of Mormon and indigenous rights because it cannot be fixed unless they renounce and discard the keystone scripture of their religion. Perhaps they never will deal with it but I did.

1 http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/dna-and-the-book-of-mormon
2 http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf
3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ilin4lt0nQ
4 http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/02/18/radio-evangelist-preaches-ugly-message
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2011/summer/hate-in-the-mainstream
5 http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/executive-committee/bossey-february-2012/statement-on-the-doctrine-of-discovery-and-its-enduring-impact-on-indigenous-peoples.html
6 http://www.un-ngls.org/spip.php?page=article_s&id_article=3866
7 http://www.riosmontt-trial.org
8 https://hrdag.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/CEHreport-english.pdf


9 http://www.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/articles/61702/Guatemala-City-Guatemala-Temple-Now-the-yearnings-of-our-hearts-for-the-higher-blessings-of-the-gospel-may-be-realized.html
10 http://www.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/articles/61840/Quetzaltenango-Guatemala-Temple-Accept-our-thanks.html
11 http://files.amnesty.org/air13/AmnestyInternational_AnnualReport2013_complete_en.pdf
12 http://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2014 06:52PM by Susan I/S.