Join us today as we discuss the priesthood and temple ban with historian Matt Harris. Joseph F. Smith and Joseph Fielding Smith, both Mormon leaders, could not find any doctrinal bases for the priesthood and temple ban and yet it still remained for decades. Members of the church performed blackface and wrote racist poems published in church periodicals. Many of the Mormon leaders did not agree with the ban and some were even removed from their callings because of their different opinions.
We are thrilled to announce that we have reached our donation goal to compensate Dr. Matt Harris for his contributions to this series. We sincerely thank everyone who supported this effort. While the goal to pay Matt has been met, producing this series incurred significant costs for the Open Stories Foundation. If you find value in this content and want to help cover these expenses and support future productions, we encourage you to donate at https://www.mormonstories.org/donate/ Your generosity makes a difference—thank you!
Purchase Matt Harris’ book “Second Class Saints”
https://www.amazon.com/Second-Class-Saints-Mormons-Struggle-Equality/dp/019769571X/
Show Notes: https://mormonstoristg.wpengine.com/from-policy-to-doctrine/
Chapters
00:00:00 Intro
00:02:50 Background of Matt Harris
00:05:35 Quick recap of the last episode
00:13:50 Interracial marriage laws
00:14:40 Susa Young Gates
00:21:20 Interactions with Elijah Abel
00:27:10 Joseph Fielding Smith
00:36:00 There was NO doctrinal bases for the priesthood and temple ban
00:39:17 Reading from the book
00:42:55 Was the priesthood ban ever doctrine?
00:45:25 “The Way to Perfection” by Joseph Fielding Smith
00:50:25 Black bodies were seen as inferior to whites
01:00:35 Black skin would revert back to white
01:01:05 Symbolic metaphor
01:16:30 Talking to Greg Prince
01:24:30 “The Little N Baby” poem by Frank Steele
01:29:05 Saints putting on Black Face
01:35:50 The prophet speaks to and for God
01:43:20 What he says to church leaders - they try to hide things
01:51:34 The story of Lowry Nelson is next
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