436: Elijah Abel - Early Black Mormon Priesthood Holder Pt. 1
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.5 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 12 September 2013
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As an independent historian, Russell Stevenson has been studying Mormon history for nearly two decades. His first book, Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables, tells the vexing story of race in nineteenth-century Mormonism through experiences of Elijah Ables, a biracial man ordained to the priesthood during Joseph Smith’s lifetime. Drawing on documents unused in other treatments, Black Mormon is the first effort to understand Elijah Ables in all of his identities: black, male, Mormon, and priesthood holder.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Music |
| 0:07.0 | Mormon Stories Podcast is a production of the Open Stories Foundation. All donations to Mormon Stories are fully tax deductible and go directly towards keeping the podcast alive and towards building a community of support for Mormons like you. |
| 0:21.0 | To support the podcast or to join the community, please become a monthly subscriber today at MormonStories.org. |
| 0:29.0 | Hello and welcome to another edition of both Mormon Stories Podcast and A Thoughtful Faith Podcast. This is a joint production. I am your host, John Delin. |
| 0:42.0 | And today I'm very excited to have with us an old friend, an old family friend. His name is Russell Stevenson. |
| 0:52.0 | And I'm not Russell because he was best friends with my nephew Arthur Hatton when he was at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, getting a master's degree in history. |
| 1:03.0 | But Russ has gone on to distinguish himself both as a graduate of the University of Kentucky, but also as a teacher of American history and world history. |
| 1:19.0 | And other interesting courses in history in Utah, he's taught at BYU, he's taught at Salt Lake Community College and at the Art Institute of Salt Lake. |
| 1:30.0 | He has a blog called the Mormon History Guy, is that right Russ? |
| 1:35.0 | That's correct. |
| 1:36.0 | What's the URL for that? |
| 1:39.0 | Right. |
| 1:41.0 | And most interestingly, in the reason why we have him on today, he is just finished self publishing a book entitled Black Mormon, The Story of Elijah Ables. |
| 1:59.0 | Now, that name is going to sound a little bit different to some of you because Elijah Ables is known to many of you as Elijah Ables or one of the first, maybe the first member of the church of African descent to not only join the church, but to hold the priesthood and become a 70. |
| 2:23.0 | Now, I may have some of my historical facts already mixed up, but don't worry Russ, I'm going to give you the full chance to clear this up. |
| 2:30.0 | But today, we are going to be talking about the story of Elijah Ables and it's going to be based on Russell's book. |
| 2:41.0 | So Russell, welcome to a thoughtful faith and Mormon stories. |
| 2:47.0 | Good to be here, John. I'm excited to have a conversation with you. |
| 2:51.0 | Yeah, so I learned about Elijah Ables. |
| 2:56.0 | Should I call him, are we going to call him Ables or Ables? |
| 2:58.0 | I'm going to call him Elijah Ables. |
| 3:01.0 | Okay, all right. |
... |
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