Mormon Allies

Andrew Callahan has written on the Daily Kos about Mormons resigning from the LDS church in response to its overwhelming support for Prop 8, posting some of the letters written to the church from its ex-members.

Along with the letters is a video from the local ABC TV news station:



This reminded me of an email conversation that I had with my friend Regan today, an African American lesbian. She said:

More..."Mormons supported slavery AND Jim Crow and discrimination outright against blacks in their religion. And if blacks reject THEM to this day....would they be so surprised and dismayed? They treat gay people THE SAME WAY...if not worse.... So what changed Mormons on blacks, that can't also change on gay people?"

To be more specific, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has a more pronounced history of racism. See Wikipedia. But even the Book of Mormon for all Mormon denominations speaks of the curse of black people. See here.

If the majority of Mormons have changed their view on African Americans, is it possible in time for their views to change on gays? Not that I expect a big change within the Mormon church anytime soon, but change comes with small, first steps - hopefully we can take encouragement, even from these few resignations.