By Jerald and Sandra Tanner

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The following statement appeared in an article in Time Magazine:

Outwardly secure and successful, the unique religion created by Joseph Smith and carried to Utah by Brigham Young is none the less at a testing time. Much as in the churches of mainstream Christianity, Mormonism is being prodded out of its old ways by a new generation of believers who temper loyalty to the faith with a conviction that its doctrines need updating. Worried about the relevance of Mormonism, some of them are all but openly critical of the policies fostered by the church’s venerable, conservative hierarchy, . . . The doctrine most under fire within the church is the traditional teaching that Negroes, the cursed sons of Cain, are not eligible for the priesthood, . . . Williams [J. D. Williams] calls it “un-Christian and theologically unsound,” says that the teaching “looks so anachronistic that it engenders hostility in the world around us.”

Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, a Mormon who describes himself as “deeply troubled by the issue,” says that the church’s policy “is like granting citizenship and saying ‘you can’t hold office.’ ” (Time, April 14, 1967, page 104)

Paul Hughes, publisher’s consultant of Reveille Magazine, wrote an article in which he stated:

George Romney has precipitated a crisis in the Mormon Church that may well rank with the plague of the locusts, and this time there are no providential gulls in sight.

As a liberal Republican aspiring to the presidency, Romney can point to a commendable civil rights record during his governorship in Michigan. As one of the Latter-day Saints, Romney is compelled at the same time to point to a church which officially sanctifies race prejudice and which declares today, as it has for over a century, that people with black skins are inferior creatures because that’s just the way the Lord wants them.

This may eventually fragment Romney into warring halves. More important, it could trust the Mormons, who have always referred proudly to themselves as a “peculiar people,” completely outside the pale of American life. There is, however, a third threat which is not nearly as well known: Interior tensions, accelerating now for many years, may shatter the church beyond all redemption. . . . the Mormons themselves do not know exactly how they painted themselves into this suffocating corner. They quote vague traditions. They refer to conflicting scriptural justifications. They consult their highest officers, and the truth is that they don’t really know, either. (The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, April 2, 1967)

In the last Messenger we showed that the Mormon Church has had a steady decline in the number of converts from 1962 to 1965. The figures for 1966 are now available (see graphs below). They show that the decline has continued in spite of the fact that there were more full-time missionaries than ever before.

With the number of converts decreasing and the dissatisfaction within, the Church is truly facing a crisis.

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