Editor:
In reading the article “Mormons Discuss Racial Inequality,” I became quite confused. I am an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints, and I’m white.Were those panelists all members of this church? Were they all in good standing? If they are all currently faithful members of the church, were their comments taken out of context? Perhaps the Chronicle staff should research these points before writing their articles. I don’t think that any active member of the church would ever attack the church or its leadership in this way.Now, I view myself as a person who can get along with any person of any ethnicity or religion or whatever, and I respect any person’s right to say what they honestly think. I have no problem with anyone on that panel or what they said. My complaint is that the Chronicle, and indeed the campus (by setting up a panel like this in the first place) billed this panel as Mormons discussing their beliefs. I think that is ridiculous if the panel was made up of people who are not Mormons or who are not in good standing. The overwhelming majority of church members would never question the leaders of the church, because they believe that the men who currently stand at the head of the church were divinely selected, even predestined, by God himself. Believe me, there are hundreds of thousands of active members of the church that are of different ethnicities that just don’t care about the race issue. In fact, they actually support and sustain the church leaders! In short, if Osama bin Laden came to campus and spoke, everyone who wasn’t a member of Islam would think, “Wow, those Muslims are all crazy!” I’m sure that, due to this article, there are a lot of feelings like that floating around today about Mormons.I would appreciate it if the Chronicle would, in the future, tell the truth. From what I read, due either to misrepresentation of who the panelists were or misrepresentation of their remarks, those panelists certainly don’t share my values. Even though the faithful members of the church have only ever tried to do what’s right and make the world a better place, the press loves to give us bad wrap. I’m not going to ask for it to stop – I mean, bad Mormon stories sell newspapers in Utah, don’t they? And bad press is warranted if the church really did do something wrong – I’m just asking you to research your topics and report the truth. That’s what you’re paid for, isn’t it?
Natalie Horton, Alumnus, Music