Bonus: Richard D. Poll -- Mormon Historian and Liahona Mormon

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.5 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2008

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In early 1994 the distinguished career of Richard D. Poll, historian, professor, writer, husband and friend, came full circle. His Liahona/Iron-rod dichotomy, borrowed from the Book of Mormon, had entered the lexicon of Mormon thought almost 30 years earlier in his landmark essay"What the Church Means to People Like Me" (Dialogue 2:4, Winter 1967). His"Pillars of My Faith" sermon in Sunstone called for committed LDS worshipers and writers to join a mighty Christian chorus"in which almost all the singers hear the dissonant sounds of the alternate voices as polyphonic enrichment of the message of the gospel music." For people like him,"neither dogmatic fundamentalism nor dogmatic humanism provides convincing answers to life's most basic questions." He defined history as"human strivings to discover divine realities." Like Paul, Richard Poll lived his life as part of the leaven that"leaveneth the whole lump" (Galatians 5:9), offering his Liahona questioning in the spirit of"charity, humility, persistence." In a time when men and women are being called sinners for a word (or many words); when the terms"alternate" and"dissident" are being redefined as sinister; when some seek apostasy, while others have apostasy thrust upon them, Richard Poll's calm, reasoned, compassionate voice rings with a clarity that will live on in our hearts and minds.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Richard Paul is a retired history teacher from BYU and is a history teacher from BYU
0:06.4	who is now retired from Western Illinois University where he was a vice president.
0:12.6	He received his BDA from Texas Christian University and his PhD from the University of California
0:17.7	at Berkeley.
0:20.2	He has edited Utah's history, which is a college text, and he's co-authored a biography
0:24.8	of Huey Brown.
0:26.9	And he wrote a volume of essays called History and Faith.
0:30.5	And within that volume was probably the essay for which he is best known, called What
0:35.8	the Church Means to People Like Me, where he articulated the viewpoint of the Lyahona
0:46.4	or the Iron Rod believer, and many of you are familiar with that.
0:50.8	He's married, has three daughters, seven grandchildren, he lives in Provo.
0:57.4	One of the delightful things about living in the middle west was getting to know the
1:01.5	community of Saints at Grayson College and others in the RLVS Fellowship.
1:07.3	And I've had the privilege of spending some informal sessions, not only with Bill Russell,
1:14.7	but with Bill Russell.
1:17.0	Takes himself, and I have had value of this friendship.
1:20.6	I've not had the same opportunity to get acquainted with Mr. Tokes, but I'm looking forward
1:25.0	to hearing what he has to say, even as I'm looking forward to seeing how this comes out.
1:35.4	For me, Faith is what an earlier Paul said it is.
1:39.9	The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
1:45.4	It transcends empirical knowledge, and because what humanity learns by reason and experience
1:52.0	is both finite and fallible, it may even contradict such knowledge.
	...

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