Sen. Harry Reid: Right-wing LDS leaders have taken members down 'the wrong path'

Deseret News:

Reid said Ezra Taft Benson, active in very conservative politics before he became a president of the LDS Church, and Ernest L. Wilkinson, the president of BYU from 1951–71, were among past church leaders "who were very right-wing people politically."

"Members of the church are obedient," Reid said, "they are followers in the truest sense of the word, and I think they've taken members of the church down a path that is the wrong path. Look at Joseph Smith. Here's a man who was progressive, to say the least. He broke from the pack. He did things differently than they'd been done. He was against slavery. He wanted to start a national bank.

"I think people in the church have to understand there are issues more important than abortion and gay marriage."

Also see coverage in the Tribune.