51. The Real Story of the Priesthood-Temple Ban - Terryl Givens with Paul Reeve

Faith Matters

Faith Matters Foundation

Christianity, Ethics, Latter-day Saint, The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints, Mormon, Mormonism, Morality, Lds, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2020

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, Terryl Givens and Paul Reeve explore the history of the Church’s priesthood-temple ban that concluded in 1978.

Paul is the Simmons Professor of Mormon Studies at the University of Utah. His award-winning book, Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness, is considered by many the best book written to date on the subject.

Dr. Reeve has also written a fantastic essay that addresses how to make sense of our history of denying priesthood and temple blessings to our Black brothers and sisters. It’s a fascinating read—and you really shouldn’t miss it. You can view it on our website here:

https://faithmatters.org/making-sense-of-the-churchs-history-on-race/

In this episode, Paul and Terryl go both wide and deep on the priesthood-temple ban. Among other historical details, they discuss how the church was broadly criticized as being too inclusive in its early years—not white enough. This became a factor in Brigham Young’s 1852 decision to ban Black people from the priesthood and temple.

They also explore some of the explanations that developed in the church to explain the ban during its 126 year duration—and how each of these explanations have since been rejected and disavowed by the church.

We think this is an incredibly important and insightful episode. We suspect you’ll enjoy it.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody, before we get started I just wanted to let you know that the first book from Faith Matters publishing is now available.
0:06.0	It's called All Things New and was written by Fiona and Terrell Givens.
0:09.0	When I finished the book, I just thought this has so much potential to actually change lives. They go
0:14.8	through and trace the roots of our religious vocabulary and show how so many of
0:18.6	these words have become totally unmoored from their original foundation and
0:21.8	how a lot of those traditions have been
0:24.1	carried forward for hundreds and even thousands of years and are in a lot of ways still damaging
0:28.5	us today.
0:29.5	And then they dive into how we can reformulate our language in healthy and inspiring ways. This book is so
0:34.3	healing, it's hopeful, it's a totally paradigm shifting book that you will not be able to
0:38.4	put down. You can pick up a copy for yourself or for friends and family. It's available
0:42.4	at Desert Book on Amazon, Audible and
0:44.8	Apple Books. We're so grateful for Terrell and Fiona and all of the amazing work
0:48.3	that they've done here. All right that's all for the book for now but we have a lot more
0:51.4	to come. Thanks as always and here's the
0:53.2	episode.
0:55.4	Hey everybody this is Tim Chavez with Faith Matters. In this episode
0:59.7	Terrell Gibbons and Paul Reeve explore the history of the Church's priesthood temple band that concluded in 1978.
1:06.0	Paul is the Simmons professor of Mormon studies at the University of Utah.
1:09.7	His award-winning book, Religion of a Different Color,
1:12.6	Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness,
1:14.8	is considered by many to be the best book written to date on the subject.
	...

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