Mormon leader: Racism has no place in faith

Mormon leader issued another plea for members to be welcoming to people of all faiths and ethnicities.

A leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued another plea Saturday for members to be welcoming to people of all faiths and ethnicities on the heels of recent attacks on Asians and following a recent reckoning over racial justice around the world.

The remarks came during a twice-annual church conference that is being held without attendees for a third consecutive time as the faith continues to take precautions amid the pandemic.

“The Lord expects us to teach that inclusion is a positive means towards unity, and that exclusion leads to division,” said Gary Stevenson, a member of a top governing panel called the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. “We have been heartbroken to hear of recent attacks on people who are Black, Asian, Latino, or of any other group. Prejudice, racial tension, or violence should never have any place in our neighborhoods, communities, or within the church.”

He also called on young members to stop cyberbullying, which can lead to anxiety and depression, and for adults to model “kindness, inclusion and civility.”

Stevenson’s plea follows comments by fellow church leaders at the last conference in October who urged members to root out racism and make the faith an “oasis of unity.”

Members of the Utahbased faith known widely as the Mormon church are watching speeches during the two-day conference this Easter weekend on TVs, computers and tablets from their homes around the world. Church leaders are giving the speeches from inside a building at church headquarters in Salt Lake City, where they are sitting socially distanced and wearing masks.

Before the pandemic, the two-day conference would bring about 100,000 people to the church’s headquarters in Salt Lake City to listen to five sessions over two days.