The Indian people are loved by LDS Church leaders and the church has, and will continue to have, strong and significant programs for them, a church spokesman said Friday night.
The comments came after George P. Lee, who was excommunicated from The Churchof Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Friday morning, said church leaders are racially biased against Indians.Lee, a Navajo Indian and formerly a member of the church's First Quorum of the Seventy, accused church leaders of "sinning against God" by distorting doctrine, relegating Indians to second-class citizens and keeping them from their rightful place in church theology.
The excommunication was announced in a one-paragraph statement from church headquarters in Salt Lake City Friday at noon.
"The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints excommunicated Elder George P. Lee of the First Quorum of the Seventy for apostasy and other conduct unbecoming a member of the church. This action was taken at a meeting at which George P. Lee was present on Friday morning, September 1, 1989," the statement said.
In two lengthy handwritten letters - one sent to church authorities a few months ago and the second delivered Friday morning - Lee told church leaders:
"You are slowly causing a silent subtle scriptural and spiritual slaughter of the Indians and other Lamanites. While physical extermination may have been one of (the) Federal government's policies long ago, your current scriptural and spiritual extermination of Indians and other Lamanites is the greater sin and great shall be your condemnation for this."
Lee presented the second letter in an hourlong meeting with church President Ezra Taft Benson and his two counselors, President Gordon B. Hinckley and President Thomas S. Monson, and the Quorum of the Twelve.
He also distributed copies of the letters to news media after he was excommunicated.
Church officials declined to comment on the specifics of the excommunication, saying that such actions are private and they desire to avoid further embarrassment to Lee or his family. But they said the action was taken only after lengthy and considerable study, thought and deliberation. It was not a precipitous action, they said.
Church leaders also emphasized their commitment to Indian or "Lamanite" people, not just in the United States but all over the world.
"The work among the Lamanite people of the world has accelerated, and great progress is being made," said Bruce L. Olsen, managing director of public communications for the church.
In response to a reporter's question, Lee said the excommunication had nothing to do with "moral misconduct." Rather, he said the excommunication stemmed from his accusations that church leaders are materialistic, have displaced Indians, have set themselves up as superior to the Lamanites and have neg-lected the poor.
"You have taught that the Book of Mormon is not written to the Lamanites but to the Gentiles in our day. You have come very close to denying that the Book of Mormon is about Lamanites," Lee wrote. "You have cut out Indian or Lamanite programs and are attempting to cut them out of the Book of Mormon. You are trying to discredit or downplay the role of Lamanites in these last days."
Lee said prophecies in the Book of Mormon are clear in defining Indians and Jews as literal descendants of the House of Israel and all others as "gentiles," or "adopted Israel."
However, he said that in recent years general authorities have been preaching that non-Indian members are literal descendants of Ephraim, a grandson of Israel in the Old Testament, "thereby displacing the true seed of Israel" and giving non-Indian Mormons an excuse to ignore their Indian brothers.
"This type of teaching encourages an attitude of superior race, white supremacy, racist attitude, pride, arrogance, love of power and no sense of obligation to the poor, needy and afflicted," Lee wrote.
"In short, you (are) betraying and turning your backs on the very people on whom your own salvation hangs," he wrote. "I cannot be a party to this kind of teaching which runs counter to the Lord's instructions in the scripture."
Lee, the first Indian ever appointed to the church hierarchy, is also the first general authority to be excommunicated in 46 years. The last general authority to be excommunicated was a member of the Quorum of Twelve, Richard R. Lyman. He was excommunicated in 1943 for adultery but was rebaptized 11 years later. He died in 1963 at age 93.
Lee, who was one of 12 children raised in a dirt-floored hogan by parents who couldn't speak English, graduated from church-owned Brigham Young University, received a master's degree from Utah State University and a doctorate in educational administration from BYU.
He is former president of the College of Ganado on the Navajo Reservation and once served as president of the church's Arizona Holbrook Mission. He was a recipient of the Spencer W. Kimball Lamanite Leadership Award and is a native of Towaoc, Colo.