Testing 1-2-3. Testing 1-2-3. This is Radio Free Mormon on the air, broadcasting behind enemy lines. Tonight's

episode, new insights into the priesthood and temple ban. Last Wednesday night, on August 23,

2003, we did a show that dealt with some parts of this issue of the priesthood and temple ban. This was

Bill's show. He had a certain

direction he wanted to go. He gets to determine the framing and the content of the shows where he is

in charge. And I think it's an excellent show. And I would encourage everybody to go back and

listen to that. That's Mormonism Live from last Wednesday, August 23rd, 2023.

The point I'm making here is that I also do a great deal of research for the Mormonism live show, even when it's not my show, even when I'm not in charge of the show, like Bill

was last week.

And as part of my research for that show, I went back and I obtained and printed out the

famous and influential

Lester E. Bush Jr. paper from the 1973 August edition of Dialogue titled Mormonism's Negro

Doctrine and Historical Overview. The reason this article ended up being so important is because

it laid forth a basis for

untethering the LDS Church from the temple ban and priesthood ban that it had imposed upon

black people since the earliest days of Brigham Young's presidency. And indeed, we were to find

out much later from President Kimball's son or grandson, I think it was his grandson, that he located among President Kimball's papers after his death a copy of this dialogue article, and that indeed President Kimball had not only read it, he had marked it up and annotated it in his own hand. So it does appear that this article played an

important role in the lifting of the priesthood and temple band by President Kimball, five years after

the publication of this article, which of course was in June of 1978, the same year that I

joined the church. As I say, though, in preparation for last Wednesday's

Mormonism live show, I read through this entire document. I had never read through it before,

so I was grateful for the opportunity and the impetus to make me sit down and read it. And as I

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