Priesthood
Shooting down Priesthood Ban Myths
On February 25, Scott Gordon president of the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) sent out a newsletter to subscribers noting that February is Black History Month.  Gordon explained why black history matters, and explained 3 myths about the ban.  Just 3 days later, Professor Randy Bott created a stir when he tried to explain […]
Events Leading Up to the 1978 Revelation
I’ve really enjoyed reading Newell Bringhurst’s book Saints, Slaves, and Blacks: The Changing Place of Black People Within Mormonism. The epilogue has some really interesting events in the 1960s and 1970s. There were some people inside the church that were more confrontational in their approach to the priesthood ban. Bringhurst notes on page 185,
Current Race Relations Within the LDS Church
Armand Mauss is an LDS sociologist from Washington State University. Â He wrote a chapter in the book Black and Mormon, where he discusses race relations within the church. Â He has both positive and negative things to say about race relations. Â I’ll start with the positive. Â Mauss notes that the LDS church has been involved in […]
Using Scriptures to Debunk the Priesthood Ban
Alma Allred wrote a chapter in the book titled Black and Mormon. On page 37, he states: I don’t believe that LDS scripture allows for a restriction against blacks’ holding the priesthood. Nor do I think that LDS theology can reasonably maintain that today’s blacks are descendants of Cain or that ancient intermarriage with Canaanites perpetuated […]
Stapley/Wright Discuss Healings by Mormon Women
Last October, I wrote a post titled, Mormon Women Blessing the Sick, as a follow up to my post on Women with Priesthood in Ancient Christianity. Jonathon Stapley was the first to comment, saying Equating early Mormon female healing with evidence of female priesthood is folly. Kris’ and my paper on female ritual healing is […]
Women with the Priesthood in Ancient Christianity
I attended Sunstone back in August. Bridget Jack Jeffries (who runs a blog called Clobberblog), gave a fascinating presentation on female priesthood holders in the ancient Christian church. Bridget is a “never Mormon” that attended BYU, graduating in 2005. She “seduced” (her words, not mine) and married a BYU priesthood holder while there, and she is […]
Helvecio Martins: First Black General Authority
Mark L Grover gave a fascinating biography on Helvecio Martins, the first black general authority in the LDS church in the latest issue of the Journal of Mormon History (Summer 2010.) Elder Martins was ordained to the Second Quorum of Seventy in 1990 under President Ezra Taft Benson. In 1995 he was released, and he […]
Sunstone Recap 2010
I wanted to get this post up sooner, but I’ve been really busy correcting final exams. I really enjoyed the last day of Sunstone, since I was able to attend all day, rather than a session here or there. Don Bradley gave a presentation titled “Dating Fanny Alger”, a bit of a play on words. […]
Hanging Out With Apostles at Sunstone
caption id=”attachment_1147″ align=”alignright” width=”150″ caption=”Apostle Paul Savage of the Church of Christ with Elijah Message”][/caption] Sunstone has been going on since Wednesday here in Salt Lake City. It ends tomorrow, and I thought I would give a few words about the conference. I have been blogging at Mormon Matters for about a year and a […]
Mormon Heretic 