Mormons excommunicated Navajo polygamist

The excommunication of Elder George P. Lee

By Clair BarrusIn 1975, after Lee served as a mission president in Arizona, he became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, one of the presiding bodies of the LDS church. Lee was 32. His autobiography proved to be popular. "Silent Courage: An Indian Story: The Autobiography of George P. Lee, a Navajo" went through nine printings.

Lee felt a kinship with former president of the church Spencer W. Kimball, who had lived with a Navajo family while growing up and had many American Indian friends. President Kimball championed the American Indian during his presidency and created various programs to assist the American Indian.

After serving as a general authority for fourteen years, ten of those years under Spencer W. Kimball, Elder Lee was excommunicated on September 1st, 1989 for "apostasy and other conduct unbecoming a member of the church." Lee was the 1st general authority to be excommunicated since 1943, when Apostle Richard R. Lyman was excommunicated for living in a secret polygamous relationship.

While the public was unaware at the time of the excommunication, Lee had been molesting a twelve-year old neighbor under the pretension of polygamy.

After his excommunication Lee publicly released letters illustrating differences he had with church leaders. They expressed concern with the church's termination or phasing out of Indian programs during Mormon Church President Ezra Taft Benson's administration, including the church's Indian Committee, missionary programs, education programs, & financial assistance.

Lee also believed Lamanites would play a prominent role in establishing the "New Jerusalem" in the last days, with white church leaders playing a secondary role.

Most Mormons believe American Indians are Lamanites who descended from Book of Mormon peoples (Israelites that colonized ancient America). American Indians were therefore considered direct descents from the tribes of Israel, whereas those of European decent were typically thought to be "adopted" into the house of Israel when baptized into the LDS church.

Lee felt the Book of Mormon taught the Lamanites would play the dominant role in the last days with assistance from those adopted into the house of Israel. His promotion of this belief was apparently one of the issue surrounding his excommunication.Comment:  I haven't seen any data on the subject, but I gather Mormons have taken a keen interest in their Indian neighbors in the West. Sending missions, building churches, providing charitable aid, etc. A lot of Indians have converted to Mormonism as a result.

This article suggests why. As we've discussed before, many Mormons believe Indians are Lamanites, a lost tribe of Israel. That makes them special: more directly tied to the "chosen people" than Euro-Americans.

Elder Lee apparently took this belief to heart. He became a bigshot: a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. A sense of entitlement may have led him to molest a 12-year-old girl.

Changing times

Then something changed in the Mormon Church. President Ezra Taft Benson started canceling Indian programs. They modified their belief that Lamanites "are the principal ancestors of the American Indians." I don't know which came first or whether the two are connected, but it's tempting to speculate. If the Church decided Indians were no longer so special, that might've triggered the cancellation programs. "They're not Lamanites," Benson might've said. "They're just Indians. Why are we wasting our money on them?"

This historical sequence suggests the problem with stereotyping. As long as the Mormons thought Indians were special--the Lamanites or "chosen people"--they helped them. The aid wasn't based on any intrinsic wish to follow Jesus's teachings or it wouldn't have stopped. It was based on a stereotype--a positive one, to be sure, but still a false or misleading representation of reality. When the stereotype started to crumble, so did the aid.

That's why it's best to see people as they really are, free from myths and stereotypes. Then your views won't change when the myths and stereotypes. Your views will be true because they're based on the truth.

Mormons are still helping Indians, though the aid may not be as extensive as it was before. It would be interesting to correlate the level of aid with the strength of belief. Do Mormon groups that still believe the Lamanite myths give more to Indians than others? I'm guessing they do.

For more on the subject, see Lamanites = "Filthy People" and Mormon Leaders Made a Mistake.

Below:  Elder George P. Lee.