Mormons Are Racist?

One of the common accusations against Latter-day Saints is that we are racist. That word is thrown around so much that it's meaning has become perverted. I'm sure that this perversion is beneficial to some groups, but for my purposes I will restrict the definition of racism to a form of bigotry that has race as the sole reason for that bigotry.

I know that bigots exist. Certainly one of the reasons Mitt Romney lost the South Carolina was the result of religious bigots - people who refused to vote for him simply because of his religion. If they didn't vote for him because of his political views, they are not bigots. But many South Carolinians actually agreed with his views; they simply hated his religion. That makes them religious bigots.

Lets examine the question of LDS bigotry in regards to race. This matter often comes up in connection with men of African descent being denied the priesthood for so many years. This is arguably racial bigotry. But was race the sole reason for this denial? I don't think so.

Harold B. Lee probably said it best when answering the question of a member of the press upon being named President of the Church. He said essentially the following "For those who understand revelation, there is no problem. For those who do not, there is no answer." Was Joseph Smith a bigot for teaching that black men were ineligible for the priesthood or did he have some other reason. Was he, or the Church by extension, racist? It all depends on the reason(s) for doing so. If race was the only factor, then yes he was a racist. If there were other reasons, then the answer is no.

The position of the Church from the 1830's thru the present is that God rules in the heavens and guides the leaders of this Church through revelation. We have scripture in the Pearl of Great Price that explains this doctrine. If the Pearl of Great Price is true, then the issue is God's. Ultimately this issue has always been one of belief. Is that bigotry? Racist? I don't think so.

I believe that God had his own reasons for this restriction; reasons that He has never shared with his children. If He doesn't guide us, if we are deceived in that way, then we are no different than the rest of Christendom and it doesn't matter. Enemies of the Church have never been able to provide any evidence of personal anomous based on race by any Church leader, or the Church as an institution. They always complain about what is in the end, a religious belief, extrapolating from it racial intent that simply is not there. The problem with race is theirs, not ours. We simply accepted it on faith because we were not given any reason.

At worst, we were misguided by uninspired leaders (which would also be true today). At best we were following divine counsel without ever getting an explanation why. Bigotry (or racism) was never the issue.