25 years ago today - Apr 4, 1988

Arizona-s state senate convicts Governor Evan Mecham of "high crimes and misdemeanors," thus removing him from office. Mecham is first Mormon office-holder to be impeached (February 1988), and first to be convicted by senate and constitutionally removed from office. Every LDS legislator (all Republicans) voted against his impeachment; there were no Mormons in Arizona senate at this time. BYU's College Republicans invite Mecham to speak on their campus but it i denied by the faculty advisor because of BYU's speaker policy which states: "The speaker must not in his personal life (as reflected in the news media and common understanding of the public) have committed acts of immorality, dishonesty, or other conduct that would make it inappropriate for the Church Educational System to feature him as a speaker and thus as a person whose life and advice are an appropriate model for students in an educational system with our ideals."

Apr 4,1992 -- Apostle Richard G Scott tells general conference that LDS women should avoid "morbid probing into details of past acts, long buried and mercifully forgotten," and that "the Lord may prompt a victim to recognize a degree of responsibility for abuse." Among his concluding remarks: "Remember, false accusation is also a sin," and 'bury the past." Unspoken background to his remarks is that in recent years current stake presidents and temple workers have been accused of child abuse by their now adult children. SALT LAKE TRIBUNE reports that suicide prevention lines are swamped with telephone calls by women in days after Scott's remarks.

[Source: On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com]

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