I am not sure Steven Showers is enough of an historian to be able to study Morman doctrine on blacks in the context of history.
The Mormon’s do have a history of racism, but I don’t know that I would paint Romney with that same brush, unless he has given us reason to.
Romney has given us many other reasons not to like him. But if someone has evidence of Romney being racist, please share.
If you maintain that your religion is the result of a direct divine revelation, then you can’t very well appeal to historical context to explain away your doctrines.
An unfortunate fact of race about Bishop Romney, is that he was issued a race based draft deferment by his religion (they were in charge of issuing their own deferments for the draft board to sign off on).
The Mormon draft deferments could not be given to black Mormons, only to non black Mormons. The idea that a black Mormon served in Vietnam for Mitt, or even died because of it, is a possibility.
Not a single black Mormon was given the Mormon draft deferment, ever.