Excursus: Quetzalcoatl: A Malleable Mythology

The LDS fascination with the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl, perhaps more popularly  known as the “white god,” has very deep roots. No less a figure than Church president John Taylor, wrote of Quetzalcoatl: “The story of the life of the Mexican divinity, Quetzalcoatl, closely resembles that of the Savior; so closely, indeed, that we can come to no other conclusion than that Quetzalcoatl and Christ are the same being. But the history of the former has been handed down to us through an impure Lamanitish source, which has sadly disfigured and perverted the original incidents and teachings of the Savior’s life and ministry.”