In the past seven years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has tackled some of the faith’s most controversial aspects of its history — polygamy, scriptural translation using a “seer stone,” a divine mother, the all-male priesthood, and, of course, race.
The Utah-based faith engaged scores of professional historians to tell the story in an evenhanded but positive way, hoping to add context, clarity and transparency for believers and critics alike.
At the center of the effort stood Steven E. Snow, a genial St. George attorney turned Latter-day Saint general authority, who served as the church’s official “historian and recorder” from August 2012 until Aug.