Dr. Matthew Harris Talks about Temple and Priesthood Ban
Dr. Matthew Harris Talks about Temple and Priesthood Ban

Author: Gospel Tangents Interview

Publisher:

Published: 2018-06-02

Total Pages: 83

ISBN-13: 9781983064289

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I'd like to introduce Dr. Matt Harris. He has done a lot of Mormon history work and he's not very well-known, but I think he will be, especially after he finishes his upcoming books. We will talk about some of these books that he has published, as well as his future books. We're also going to talk about the history of the ban. With the 40th anniversary of the removal of the ban coming up here in just a few weeks, this will be a very timely interview. Dr. Matt Harris has some really interesting insights and it is going to reveal some really cool, historical information. We will talk about President McKay's first thoughts to end the ban in 1955, Elder Hugh B. Brown's attempts to end the ban in the 1960s (and almost succeeding in 1969), some behind the curtain conversations with President Kimball, and how he persuaded the apostles to lift the ban. We will also talk about who wrote Official Declaration 2, ending the ban. It's one of my favorite interviews yet. Check out our conversation.....

Watchman on the Tower
Watchman on the Tower

Author: Matthew L. Harris

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9781607817574

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Ezra Taft Benson is perhaps the most controversial apostle-president in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For nearly fifty years he delivered impassioned sermons in Utah and elsewhere, mixing religion with ultraconservative right-wing political views and conspiracy theories. His teachings inspired Mormon extremists to stockpile weapons, predict the end of the world, and commit acts of violence against their government. The First Presidency rebuked him, his fellow apostles wanted him disciplined, and grassroots Mormons called for his removal from the Quorum of the Twelve. Yet Benson was beloved by millions of Latter-day Saints, who praised him for his stances against communism, socialism, and the welfare state, and admired his service as secretary of agriculture under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Using previously restricted documents from archives across the United States, Matthew L. Harris breaks new ground as the first to evaluate why Benson embraced a radical form of conservatism, and how under his leadership Mormons became the most reliable supporters of the Republican Party of any religious group in America.

The Lds Gospel Topics Series: A Scholarly Engagement
The Lds Gospel Topics Series: A Scholarly Engagement

Author: Matthew L Harris

Publisher:

Published: 2020-09-15

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 9781560852872

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This anthology provides a scholarly, in-depth analysis of the thirteen Gospel Topics essays issued by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from December 2013 to October 2015. The contributors reflect a variety of faith traditions, including the LDS Church, Community of Christ, Catholic, and Evangelical Christian. Each contributor is an experienced, thoughtful scholar, many having written widely on religious thought in general and Mormon history in particular. The writers probe the strengths and weaknesses of each of the Gospel Topics essays, providing a forthright discussion on the relevant issues in LDS history and doctrine. The editors hope that these analyses will spark a healthy discussion about the Gospel Topics essays, as well as stimulate further discussion in the field of Mormon Studies.

The Mormon Church and Blacks
The Mormon Church and Blacks

Author: Matthew L Harris

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2015-11-04

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780252039744

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The year 1978 marked a watershed year in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as it lifted a 126-year ban on ordaining black males for the priesthood. This departure from past practice focused new attention on Brigham Young's decision to abandon Joseph Smith's more inclusive original teachings. The Mormon Church and Blacks presents thirty official or authoritative Church statements on the status of African Americans in the Mormon Church. Matthew L. Harris and Newell G. Bringhurst comment on the individual documents, analyzing how they reflected uniquely Mormon characteristics and contextualizing each within the larger scope of the history of race and religion in the United States. Their analyses consider how lifting the ban shifted the status of African Americans within Mormonism, including the fact that African Americans, once denied access to certain temple rituals considered essential for Mormon salvation, could finally be considered full-fledged Latter-day Saints in both this world and the next. Throughout, Harris and Bringhurst offer an informed view of behind-the-scenes Church politicking before and after the ban. The result is an essential resource for experts and laymen alike on a much-misunderstood aspect of Mormon history and belief.

Your Sister in the Gospel
Your Sister in the Gospel

Author: Quincy D. Newell

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-04-05

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0199338671

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"Dear Brother," Jane Manning James wrote to Joseph F. Smith in 1903, "I take this opportunity of writing to ask you if I can get my endowments and also finish the work I have begun for my dead.... Your sister in the Gospel, Jane E. James." A faithful Latter-day Saint since her conversion sixty years earlier, James had made this request several times before, to no avail, and this time she would be just as unsuccessful, even though most Latter-day Saints were allowed to participate in the endowment ritual in the temple as a matter of course. James, unlike most Mormons, was black. For that reason, she was barred from performing the temple rituals that Latter-day Saints believe are necessary to reach the highest degrees of glory after death. A free black woman from Connecticut, James positioned herself at the center of LDS history with uncanny precision. After her conversion, she traveled with her family and other converts from the region to Nauvoo, Illinois, where the LDS church was then based. There, she took a job as a servant in the home of Joseph Smith, the founder and first prophet of the LDS church. When Smith was killed in 1844, Jane found employment as a servant in Brigham Young's home. These positions placed Jane in proximity to Mormonism's most powerful figures, but did not protect her from the church's racially discriminatory policies. Nevertheless, she remained a faithful member until her death in 1908. Your Sister in the Gospel is the first scholarly biography of Jane Manning James or, for that matter, any black Mormon. Quincy D. Newell chronicles the life of this remarkable yet largely unknown figure and reveals why James's story changes our understanding of American history.

Mormonism and White Supremacy
Mormonism and White Supremacy

Author: Joanna Brooks

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0190081767

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"This book examines the role of white American Christianity in fostering and sustaining white supremacy. It draws from theology, critical race theory, and American religious history to make the argument that predominantly white Christian denominations have served as a venue for establishing white privilege and have conveyed to white believers a sense of moral innocence without requiring moral reckoning with the costs of anti-Black racism. To demonstrate these arguments, Brooks draws from Mormon history from the 1830s to the present, from an archive that includes speeches, historical documents, theological treatises, Sunday School curricula, and other documents of religious life"--

Tabernacles of Clay
Tabernacles of Clay

Author: Taylor G. Petrey

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2020-04-17

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 146965623X

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Taylor G. Petrey's trenchant history takes a landmark step forward in documenting and theorizing about Latter-day Saints (LDS) teachings on gender, sexual difference, and marriage. Drawing on deep archival research, Petrey situates LDS doctrines in gender theory and American religious history since World War II. His challenging conclusion is that Mormonism is conflicted between ontologies of gender essentialism and gender fluidity, illustrating a broader tension in the history of sexuality in modernity itself. As Petrey details, LDS leaders have embraced the idea of fixed identities representing a natural and divine order, but their teachings also acknowledge that sexual difference is persistently contingent and unstable. While queer theorists have built an ethics and politics based on celebrating such sexual fluidity, LDS leaders view it as a source of anxiety and a tool for the shaping of a heterosexual social order. Through public preaching and teaching, the deployment of psychological approaches to "cure" homosexuality, and political activism against equal rights for women and same-sex marriage, Mormon leaders hoped to manage sexuality and faith for those who have strayed from heteronormativity.

Thunder from the Right
Thunder from the Right

Author: Matthew L Harris

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2019-03-02

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 0252051084

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Ezra Taft Benson's ultra-conservative vision made him one of the most polarizing leaders in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His willingness to mix religion with extreme right-wing politics troubled many. Yet his fierce defense of the traditional family, unabashed love of country, and deep knowledge of the faith endeared him to millions. In Thunder from the Right, a group of veteran Mormon scholars probe aspects of Benson's extraordinary life. Topics include: how Benson's views influenced his actions as Secretary of Agriculture in the Eisenhower Administration; his dedication to the conservative movement, from alliances with Barry Goldwater and the John Birch Society to his condemnation of the civil rights movement as a communist front; how his concept of the principal of free agency became central to Mormon theology; his advocacy of traditional gender roles as a counterbalance to liberalism; and the events and implications of Benson's term as Church president. Contributors: Gary James Bergera, Matthew Bowman, Newell G. Bringhurst, Brian Q. Cannon, Robert A. Goldberg, Matthew L. Harris, J. B. Haws, and Andrea G. Radke-Moss

The Power of Godliness
The Power of Godliness

Author: Jonathan A. Stapley

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 0190844434

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A church's liturgy is its ritualized system of worship, the services and patterns in which believers regularly participate. While the term often refers to a specific formal ritual like the Roman Catholic Mass, events surrounding major life events--birth, coming of age, marriage, death--are often celebrated through church liturgies. By documenting and analyzing Mormon liturgical history, Jonathan Stapley is able to explore the nuances of Mormon belief and practice. More important, he can demonstrate that the Mormon ordering of heaven and earth is not a mere philosophical or theological exercise. The Power of Godliness is the first work to establish histories for these unique liturgies and to provide interpretive frameworks for them.

View of the Hebrews
View of the Hebrews

Author: Ethan Smith

Publisher: Left of Brain Onboarding Pty Limited

Published: 2021-11-03

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 9781396322228

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In the nineteenth century, it was a common belief that Native Americans were the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Ethan Smith wrote on this topic, and in so doing, challenged the dismissal of the Indigenous Americans by European settlers. Smith used biblical scripture, similarities in the Hebrew and Native American languages and their name for God, and other points of evidence to prove the connection between Israel and the First Nations. From there he showed how the reunited Hebrew tribes would be restored to Zion before the end of the world. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Smith's book is that it is said to have influenced the Book of Mormon, which was published about seven years after later. As a child, Smith moved away from religion after his parents died but found his way back before he turned 20 and worked in the ministry until his death. Smith wrote several books while serving in the ministry in which he explored prophecies and baptism, among other subjects. But this book remains one of the most controversial of all his publications.