This last week marked the passing of a sad figure in LDS history, George P. Lee.
At one time he was a bright star in the LDS world. A handsome, articulate, and talented Native American, he grew up as a foster child in the Church's Indian Placement Program (ISPP), served an LDS mission, and before long was a General Authority: Elder George P. Lee of the First Council of the Seventy (the group which reports directly to the LDS apostles).
But Lee said that the LDS Church was “slowly causing a silent and subtle scriptural and spiritual slaughter of the Indians and other Lamanites.”[i] Lee, the first Native American General Authority of the Mormon Church and himself a product of the ISPP, was escorted out of his office within mere minutes[ii] of sending his superiors a letter accusing them of “superior race, white supremacy, racist attitude, pride, arrogance”[iii] and other sins.
Lee was later publicly accused, and convicted in a court of law, of the crime of child molestation; and some people speculate that this contributed as much to his excommunication from the LDS Church as did his public criticism. Lee reportedly returned to his Native American religion and served jail time for his crime. The ISPP was discontinued in 1996.
[i] Salt Lake Tribune, September 2, 1989.
[ii] Salt Lake Tribune, September 10, 1989, 14B.
[iii] Salt Lake City Messenger #73, October 1989; online at utlm.org/newsletters/no73.htm
For more information on Lee's obituary, see here and here.
For more information, see The Mormon Mirage 3rd Edition: A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today(Zondervan, 2009). Also available as an audiobook and as an expanded-text E-book for Nook, Kindle and other reading devices.
