429: A Visual History of the Community of Christ (RLDS) Pt. 4: The Transformation from Reorganization to Community of Christ

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.5 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2013

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Part 4, John Hamer tells the remarkable story of the RLDS Church’s transformation from a inward-looking sect with a negative, exclusive identity to a progressive denomination with a positive, inclusive identity. Although both the RLDS Church and the LDS Church were faced with the same basic challenges in the societal transformation in North America after World War 2, the churches had completely opposite responses. In the wake of the challenges posed by professional scholarship of the "New Mormon History," RLDS leaders chose to "embrace truth and do what is right, let the consequence follow," rather than to retrench, deny, and retreat into territory that is intellectually indefensible. The path has not been an easy one, but it has led Community of Christ to become a church whose values include "unity in diversity," "the worth of all persons," and the principle that "all are called." Today, women serve at every level of church leadership, up to the First Presidency. Community of Christ has had apostles from Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Pacific Islands, in addition to North America. LGBT members have full priesthood participation in North America and Australia, and in states and countries where it is legal, priesthood members may perform same-sex marriages as a sacrament in Community of Christ.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Mormon Stories Podcast is a production of the Open Stories Foundation.
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0:16.4	the podcast alive and towards building a community of support for Mormons like you.
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0:26.6	MormonStories.org.
0:29.0	Hello and welcome back to Mormon Stories Podcast.
0:31.7	We're on part four of an in-depth look at the community of Christ with the wonderful
0:37.3	John Hammer.
0:39.2	We've talked about Joseph Smith, we've talked about the succession crisis, we've talked
0:46.0	about kind of the time period between the succession crisis and the formation of the
0:50.8	reorganized church and then we've talked about the reorganized church up until the death
0:55.7	of Joseph Smith III.
0:59.1	This is all on YouTube, so please check out these wonderful visuals that John Hammer
1:04.0	has and let's pick up where we left off.
1:08.5	When Joseph Smith III died, was that a pretty big sad moment and a big blow to the reorganized
1:14.3	church?
1:16.3	I'm sure absolutely, I mean it's like contemporary or a little earlier contemporary to have
1:25.2	gone in the British Empire where Queen Elizabeth was reigned for 50 whatever years, right?
1:30.0	At a certain point you don't remember anything other than that, and that's what Victoria
1:35.7	is who you imagine the queen to be or in this case, Joseph III is after 50 or 57 years.
1:42.8	What I said anyway, after 54 years you don't know anybody else to be profit other than
1:48.2	Joseph.
	...

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