[James E. Talmage]
Today's Deseret News carries a news item, which is to be followed by an editorial, on the recent election of Dr. John A. Widtsoe, one of the Council of the Twelve, to membership in the Victoria Institute, or Philosophical Society of Great Britain. I know I am more delighted over this election than I was over my own in 1899. It was my pleasure to nominate Brother Widtsoe for membership in this distinctively Christian body of men and women of science, philosophy, and letters, and this I did long before he was called into the Council of the Twelve. To my great annoyance he was black-balled, doubtless because he was known to be a 'Mormon'. When next I was invited to make a nomination I referred to the adverse action taken in the case of Dr. Widtsoe, and nominated him again. The Victoria Institute is unique among learned bodies, in that the requirements for membership include, beside unquestioned standing in scholarship, a real belief in Christianity. To me it is significant that while some who understand us not say that the Latter-day Saints are not Christians, this body has elected two members of our Church'myself and Dr. Widtsoe'with full knowledge that we are 'Mormons'.
[Source: James E. Talmage, Diary, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]
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