A common LDS response to criticisms about polygamy, underage marriages, temple rituals involving throat-slitting gestures, racism, and other controversial practices is often: We don’t believe in those things anymore. Why can’t you just leave the past behind?”

However, the LDS Church claims to be the one true church of God, with Joseph Smith asserting that God declared all other religions to be false. If God is unchanging, as LDS theology maintains, one might reasonably ask: Why were such practices acceptable in the past? How could God ever approve of actions that now seem morally abhorrent?