In 2014 the LDS Church released an essay entitled "Race and the Priesthood" as part of its Gospel Topics Essays Initiative. Matthew L. Harris is professor of history at Colorado State University-Pueblo. I served a church mission to Idaho from 1989-1991. 1366: Whiteness Theology and the Evolution of Mormon Racial Teachings - Matt Harris. Matthew L. Harris is a professor of history at Colorado State University-Pueblo. Matt Harris, an active, believing Latter-day Saint historian, was asked by John Dehlin about access to contemporary material in Mormon Stories interview #1350, October 5, 2020, at 47:43.Interjections (non-lexical conversational sounds) and some other minor missteps have been removed from the transcript. Colorado State University professor Matthew L. Harris documents Benson’s service in government while concurrently serving as an apostle of the LDS church, and continued political involvement in extreme right wing ideologies and conspiracy theories. [Harris] Unfortunately they are not. Anyway, when they decided to publish the Joseph Smith Papers which is going to be 24 volumes when it’s all said and done, and also when they allowed people to see the Brigham Young Papers. View the profiles of people named Matt Harris. Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25. He is the coauthor of The Founding Fathers and the Debate over Religion in Revolutionary America. 1385: The Legal Case for Mormon Church Fraud - Gaddy vs. But right now that’s not the case. And when their father or grandfather dies—cause it’s usually the kids that inherit all this stuff. One of my mission presidents was next-door neighbor’s with Ezra Taft Benson in Midway, Utah, so we heard a lot of stories about President Benson. “Better than any scholar I know, Armand was able to balance church and scholarship,” said Matt Harris, a history professor at Colorado State University … 2 He married Lucy Harris in 1808, and the couple had five children, three of whom lived to be adults. [Dehlin] Okay awesome. Resources, research, and thoughts related to the truth-claims, teachings, and culture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka the Mormon Church). Thanks to Matt Harris's outstanding book, we can now make better sense of Benson's far-right political ideology and activism, substantial influence on the church, and consequential legacy. It used to be that when church leaders were asked difficult “gospel questions” by Latter-day Saints, they counselled them to have faith and not worry about it. 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. Thus, they decided to incorporate the Essays into church manuals, the CES curriculum, and the Saints’ series. There’s just carnage everywhere, he goes to Warsaw where he sees these crematoriums where Jews have been slaughtered. You don’t even keep a diary; I just resist on principle. In that context, I asked my good friend Newell Bringhurst to join me in editing a collection of essays exploring the strengths and weaknesses of the Gospel Topics Essays. He is the author of The Founding Fathers and the Debate over Religion in Revolutionary America. So you see it, all of these, in Mormon language, faith promoting things in his journal before 1953, and then after 1953 I’m going to conjecture you’ll probably start to see more controversial things with his views and some of his government policies and most especially in his association with the John Birch society and the polarization that occurs in high church leadership. We assembled an all-star cast of scholars from the Latter-day Saint tradition, Community of Christ, Evangelical, and Catholic. Matthew L. Harris: A couple years after the Essays were released Elder Ballard gave a fireside address to college-aged Latter-day Saints in which he counseled them to know the Essays like the back of their hands. Dr. Matt Harris & Dr. Newell Bringhurst will weigh in. Matt Harris, an active, believing Latter-day Saint historian, was asked by John Dehlin about access to contemporary material in Mormon Stories interview #1350, October 5, 2020, at 47:43. Your email address will not be published. Join me now as I interview historian Dr. Matt Harris about his new book entitled "The LDS Gospel Topics Series: A Scholarly Engagement" published by Signature Books. Matt and Newell will share Armand’s conclusions, and will discuss their memories of Dr. Mauss, who passed away just 4 months ago in August of 2020. The LDS Church has a long history of being disingenuous and of lying for the Lord. My major focus in graduate school was early American history. Required fields are marked *. 1386: The Miracle of Forgiveness: Why It Should Be Removed From Desert Book, and How You Can Help. Ed Kimball, the late Ed Kimball, facilitated my access into his father’s papers in the Church History Library, and I went through his journals unredacted, and I saw all kinds of things. Matt: I want to start with the positive, first, I suppose. All of the Essays were signed off by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. B. Haws. "Ezra Taft Benson was one of the most significant and controversial figures in the twentieth-century Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In other words, the Church’s attempt to be more transparent could cause harm to some Latter-day Saints who were unaware or unfamiliar with challenging hot spots in the Church’s history. They were supposed to be a bulwark against disaffection. Praise and Reviews:"Ezra Taft Benson was one of the most significant and controversial figures in the twentieth-century Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When people donate, when General Authorities donate, their papers they generally put stipulations, like Spencer W. Kimball’s papers were supposed to be open to research—that was the stipulation that his son Ed, the custodian of these papers, when his father died in 1985, Ed Kimball inherited the papers and he made it very clear to the archivist that they are supposed to be open to research, and if you need to redact some sensitive things from his diaries whether it’s temple or finances or something of the sort, but they need to be open. A couple of quick stories with this, John: [Harris] When George Albert Smith passed away of course in the [19]40s his children had sold their father’s papers to the University of Utah. But some of it would be sacred as the Church would say, or sensitive, or if you’re dealing with a Church court or an excommunication, that’s a real thing. "Ezra Taft Benson was one of the most significant and controversial figures in the twentieth-century Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And when Apostle Packer, Boyd K. Packer learned about this, he said something like “they sold their souls for a mess of pottage.” And he was upset, Elder Packer was upset that the Smith children didn’t donate their father’s papers–this was a church president, mind you, in the 1940s–they didn’t give the papers to the Church archivist, and so they sold them to the University of Utah with the stipulation that they would be open to scholars like me and others, and so they didn’t like that. Matthew L. Harris: Elder Boyd K. Packer commissioned the Essays. [Harris] Well, no, I think, let’s so, so what happens is, a couple of thoughts. All of the Essays were signed off by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. Description. Follow Mormon Stories - LDS to never miss another show. And I think that some of it is just they have so much material, they don’t even know what they have. Thanks to Matt Harris’s outstanding book, we can now make better sense of Benson’s far-right political ideology and activism, substantial influence on the church, and consequential legacy. [Harris] I’ve heard that too, that they don’t keep current journals, because they’ve been burned by these journals getting out in the open after their loved ones have died. Likewise, if they learn details about polygamy or plural marriage at a young age, it won’t affect them when they encounter stories about Joseph Smith or Brigham Young’s teachings on this challenging doctrine. The Church PR always put out a statement to do your civic duty and vote, and suggests they don't take sides, but have they ever acknowledged you could vote for the Communist party if you're not from the US? They didn’t want the Essays to do more harm than good. This important document denounced the Church’s former race teachings, which I decided I needed to include in the book. Today on Mormon Stories Podcast we interview Dr. Matt Harris who recently published an analysis of the Race and Priesthood essay. Matthew L. Harris: I grew up in central Maine in the 1980s during Ezra Taft Benson’s church presidency. In effect, the Essays would be a resource for church leaders to help answer these questions. Early on, before our fledging branch grew to become a ward, we met in an old Masonic Hall over a pizza shop. Dr. Armand Mauss is a well-known LDS scholar that wrote the conclusion of the LDS Gospel Topics Series by Dr. Matt Harris and Dr. Newell Bringhurst. Plus, my father would have scolded me! Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window). This Essay makes it clear that such teachings are no longer acceptable in the Church. We also wanted the anthology to include a wide array of voices. [Harris] They have been enormously transparent in recent years when they published the Joseph Smith Papers, which they are still doing, which is a wonderful work of scholarship it’s an an incredible, intensive undertaking that the archivists have been doing in Salt Lake, they’ve done really great work. So, really what it is, is, the Church doesn’t want the papers of contemporary Apostles to be available to scholars. Matt Harris, an active, believing Latter-day Saint historian, was asked by John Dehlin about access to contemporary material in Mormon Stories interview #1350, October 5, 2020, at 47:43. But Elder Hanks did have one, and his diary is now in the Church archives. The Brethren have come to the conclusion that if they can “inoculate” Latter-day Saints early, it will lessen the probability of a faith crisis when they encounter challenging material on the internet during a later stage of life. Ezra Taft Benson is perhaps the most controversial apostle-president in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Latter-day Saint scholars wrote the initial drafts, then church historians reviewed them, then it went up the chain to General Authorities, who vetted them for tone, content, and message. This … Matthew L. Harris is Professor of History and Director of Legal Studies at Colorado State University-Pueblo. By J Stuart February 2, 2021. Discover Mormon Stories - LDS 1351: Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right (Matt Harris) - Pt. This is why Elder Ballard counseled CES instructors and students to become conversant with the Essays. Enter your email address to subscribe to FromtheDesk and receive notifications of new posts. ... Armand was able to balance church and scholarship,” said Matt Harris… Matthew L. Harris: The greatest strengths are the Church’s willingness to acknowledge thorny episodes in its past. Interjections (non-lexical conversational sounds) and some other minor missteps have been removed from the transcript. The Essays acknowledge thorny aspects of church doctrine and practice that previous general authorities had either downplayed or ignored, so the Brethren had to be very careful about how they discussed plural marriage, race and priesthood, the Book of Mormon translation, etc. Play Pause. because it’s my diary, and the second one was Pual Dunn and the story of course goes, why did you resist Elder Dunn? I mean, he writes his wife, and this is in his journal, he says, I’m going to paraphrase, it’s in the book the exact quote, but he says, he said, if I wasn’t here I couldn’t believe that this is happening, I just couldn’t believe it, but I’m here and I see it and it’s so profoundly moving and the suffering that these people are going through. Just heard Matt Harris interview on Mormon Stories. Newell G. Bringhurst is a professor emeritus of history and political science at College of the Sequoias. But that strategy hasn’t worked very well in the age of the internet, so the Brethren recognized that the Church had to do a better job addressing members’ concerns. Play Pause Play later Play later Lists Like Liked . Ezra Taft Benson is perhaps the most controversial apostle-president in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We will talk about some of these books that he has published, as well as his future books. His bishop had never heard of the Essays and thus believed that he was teaching from unauthorized sources. So if somebody writes a letter to President Kimball that I want to quote in my book, I’ll just write you know “Stake President in Florida to Presiden Kimball.” I don’t need to mention their name, it’s not important to mention their name, maybe their title. This essay has been highly controversial. Thanks to Matt Harris's outstanding book, we can now make better sense of Benson's far-right political ideology and activism, substantial influence on the church, and consequential legacy. I was tempted to join him, but I was a pretty good straight arrow so I demurred. 1 and 1,400 more episodes by Mormon Stories - LDS, free! Martin Harris (May 18, 1783 – July 10, 1875) was an early convert to the Latter Day Saint movement who financially guaranteed the first printing of the Book of Mormon and also served as one of Three Witnesses who testified that they had seen the golden plates from which Joseph Smith said the Book of Mormon had been translated. Matthew L. Harris: Within the first year or so of the publication of the Gospel Topics Essays, few Latter-day Saints knew about them. Some of these people might still be alive, and I just have a policy when I write about, I don’t mention their names. Share. By 1827, Martin Harris had built a comfortable life for himself in Palmyra, New York. Matt’s essay is entitled “Whiteness Theology and the Evolution of Mormon Racial Teachings.” This essay is contained within the newly released book entitled “ The LDS Gospel Topics Series: A Scholarly Engagement ” published by Signature Books (edited by Matt Harris … 3:02:53 . 1 – Just finished listening to Matt Harris on Mormon Stories (re: Benson) and loved him – excited to hear more from him. Early on, before our fledging branch grew to become a ward, we met in an old Masonic Hall over a pizza shop. The contributors are all names that you will know if you ready scholarly Mormon history: Brian Q. Cannon, Gary James Bergera, Robert A. Goldberg, Newell G. Bringhurst, Matthew Bowman, Andrea G. Radke-Moss, and J. [Harris] I worked in his papers, Edgar Lyon. 2 He married Lucy Harris in 1808, and the couple had five children, three of whom lived to be adults. And some of these people that I’ll write about in my research, both in this Benson book and maybe in my next book project which is on blacks and Mormons. Thanks to Kurt Manwaring for making us aware of this interview with Dr. Matthew Harris, on The LDS Gospel Topics Series: A Scholarly Engagement!You can read the rest of the interview HERE.. What type of vetting process did the essays go through? However, they don’t feel that way about contemporary Church leaders, and maybe it’s because we’re too close in the moment to their ministry, I don’t know, but probably 50, 60, 70, 80 years from now maybe Joseph Fielding Smith’s papers or Spencer Kimball’s papers or the full collection of Ezra Taft Benson’s papers will be available. A scholar named John Turner who has written a biography of Brigham Young. Henry Moyle’s papers that were donated in 1979, they were supposed to be open by 1984. He served as president of both the Mormon History Association, 1999–2000, and the John Whitmer Historical Association, 2005–06. Who was the Real Billy the Kid? A story is that Marion Hanks, Elder Hanks, was a member of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy, … Marion D. Hanks is in the 1st Quorum of the seventy which is the 3rd highest governing body. [Dehlin] Love it, thank you so much, and I guess, you know some will try and push back and say corporations don’t always make available their private records, and then I’m thinking about the FBI and the CIA—there’s that freedom of information act—but it’s very common for the federal government to sort of put a seal on government records for a certain number of decades, and then you know to make things available decades later. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. The Lds Gospel Topics Series: A Scholarly Engagement by Matthew L Harris, 9781560852872, available at Book Depository with free delivery worldwide. [Harris] Benson, they wanted to keep his papers quiet or unavailable, because we’re getting into controversial things when we talk agbout his government service and when we talk about his role in the Birch Society and I know we’ll talk about that in a minute. On one Sabbath day during fast Sunday, one of my Sunday School classmates decided to sneak down and buy a pizza. Let me provide one example. Listen to 1350: Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right (Matt Harris) - Pt. 1366: Whiteness Theology and the Evolution of Mormon Racial Teachings - Matt Harris 3:02:53. Matthew L. Harris is Professor of History and Director of Legal Studies at Colorado State University-Pueblo. --Mormon Studies Review "Thunder from the Right is a fascinating volume on the life, political career, and ministry of the most famous Mormon in politics prior to Mitt Romney, as well as on the inner workings of the LDS Church during the apostleship and presidency of Ezra Taft Benson. Of all the things he could have said, he appealed to something that was comfortable and familiar to him. I disagree with Dr. Harris’s analysis of why all essays are unattributed and undated. Each scholar brought different skills and perspectives to bear as they evaluated the Gospel Topics Essays. Does anyone know what the official LDS position is on Communism? I mean, I don’t know how else to say it. I’ve heard that from the Church before, “we’re concerned about privacy issues”, but it’s hard to make that claim, though, when you’re talking about a letter from 1939 and some adult was writing and—cause they’re dead—they’re not alive to experience these privacy invasions, if you will, but certainly with President Kimball when people were writing him when he was Church President, these folks are still alive, at least some of them, so I think there’s a need to be circumspect and sensitive with those kinds of things. Matthew L. Harris: Elder Boyd K. Packer commissioned the Essays. I would love to see the Church grapple with issues of gender and sexuality and also provide a more in-depth discussion of how Masonry influenced the Brethren’s understanding of the cosmos, scripture, and afterlife. So there are privacy issues that I think that are real. 1 by Mormon Stories - LDS for free. In the “Race and Priesthood” Essay, the church repudiates its past teachings about the “curse of Cain” and “less valiancy” assertions. It was quite difficult to fast as a young boy when we could all smell the sweet aroma of pizza wafting in the air. David O. McKay, his papers—you mentioned Greg Prince a minute ago wrote a great biography on David O. McKay—much of that work was based upon papers that David O. McKay’s secretary, Clare Middlemiss, had kept over a period of several years, and these papers had, after President McKay died in 1970, Middlemiss took dozens and dozens of these volumes of these journals that she had kept and transcribed—there are phone conversations in there; it’s really great stuff if you’re a scholar—and they were in her basement for a number of years and as Greg Prince has talked about that he got ahold of these materials and was able to construct his book along those lines. It seemed like a logical way to end the book, because it was the first time the Church had come to grips with its teachings that blacks were cursed and/or less valiant. Later in my career I turned to Mormon history where I’ve been ever since. Matthew L. Harris: The Brethren didn’t want to advertise the Essays in General Conference or the Ensign because they feared that if the Essays had a wide circulation it might cause a faith crisis for some Latter-day Saints who weren’t familiar with the content of the Essays. 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. Probably they are not because they just don’t want their contemporaries, they are too close to their ministries, and I don’t think it has, I’ve heard the corporate line too, “corporations don’t make their papers available.” It’s not a matter of whether they have the authority to not make it available it’s a matter of “should they?” And obviously as a historian I think they should because I think that transparency is important. Matthew L. Harris: I was in the middle of researching a book called The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History (2015) when the church released “The Race and Priesthood” Essay. But a lot of this stuff that I’ve seen—I’ve been privileged to see lots of restricted material, I should say this—and that’s a different conversation for maybe another day, but I’ve seen lots of restricted diaries and journals. Let me share a quick story and then a thought. Matthew L. Harris: I grew up in central Maine in the 1980s during Ezra Taft Benson’s church presidency. This was a problem because when Latter-day Saints began teaching from them in Sunday School classes, some local leaders rebuked them for teaching from “unauthorized sources.” The Salt Lake Tribune published a story about a brother in Hawaii who was released from his youth Sunday School calling because he used the “Race and Priesthood” Essay as a supplement to his lesson. I say that minus some of the spiritual things. No signup or install needed. I’d like to introduce Dr. Matt Harris. [Dehlin] But they are not, you’re saying they are not. Dr. Matt Harris is a specialist in US history with a particular focus in religion and the law, church and state, American religious history, civil rights, and Mormon Studies. President Oaks was brought into the Quorum in large part for his legal experience and I suspect the same is true of Elder Cook. 1357: Why Some Mormons and Post-Mormons are Voting for Joe Biden. The Essays were truly a collaborative project of many hands and many sharp pencils. With stories like that circulating, the Brethren realized that the Essays needed to be promoted within the church. The Edgar Lyon Papers. The LDS Gospel Topics Series: A Scholarly Engagement, ‘Saints’ editor discusses new history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Saints” Addresses Seer Stones, Polygamy, and More, Elder McConkie Recounts 1978 Priesthood Revelation. Matthew L. Harris: The Brethren didn’t want to create a faith crisis for members. Matthew L. Harris is professor of history at Colorado State University-Pueblo. Maybe the church is kind of modeling its archives on that? Courtesy photo By December of 1961, Benson gave his first General Conference talk on the Book of Mormon in which he … The key word is sold—they didn’t give them, they sold them. 2. 16d ago 3:02:53. So, Ted Lyon, his son, T. Edgar’s son, told me that at some point the Church told Apostles that they are no longer allowed to keep journals, and I’ve had some people push back and tell me that I’m full of crap there, so I guess it’s a two part question, and I don’t want to get derailed, so we can just touch this briefly. Can you just tell listeners who are not LDS, why in the world is the Church not giving you access to Elder Benson’s full journal—not just up until a certain point—and then do you think I’m crazy or that I have bad information or Ted Lyon was lying to me or misinformed when he told me that the Church has informed current apostles no longer to keep journals? Matt's essay is entitled "Whiteness Theology and the Evolution of Mormon Racial Teachings." Following my mission, I earned BA and MA degrees in history from BYU. A quick glance at Latter-day Saint blog sites demonstrates that the Brethren had cause for concern. Matthew L. Harris: Following the publication of the “Race and Priesthood” Essay, I noticed that the church produced additional Essays. Matthew L. Harris is professor of history at Colorado State University-Pueblo. [Dehlin] Really quickly, this is kind of a tiny bit of a tangent, but since we just recently talked about his journals and your access to it in the archives, I remember a conversation once with Ted Lyon who was the interpreter for Jeffery R. Holland while Holland lived in Chile for 3 years, and Ted Lyon was a professor of mine at BYU and he was the son of T. Edgar Lyon, a really important figure in the history of the church, he was buddies with Lowell Bennion, and. 2 – I didn’t know the gospel topics essays were prompted by the Swedish Rescue (well, I didn’t know anything about the Swedish Rescue at the time). It seems to me that the church could benefit from a deeper examination of Masonry on early Mormon thought and practice. This essay was groundbreaking in that it officially renounced past LDS racist teachings regarding blacks and the LDS Priesthood. Following BYU, I earned MPhil and PhD degrees in history at Syracuse University. Matthew L. Harris: No, I don’t. Editors Matthew L. Harris (fresh off his just-published political biography of Ezra Taft Benson, which RNS profiled here earlier this month) and Newell G. … Clearly, Masonry gripped the early church leaders at Nauvoo, for Joseph Smith’s last words derived from a Masonic distress symbol. 1351: Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right (Matt Harris) - Pt. Listen to 1350: Ezra Taft Benson And The Making Of The Mormon Right (Matt Harris) - Pt. It was quite difficult to fast as a young boy when we could all smell the sweet aroma of pizza wafting in the air. 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. He’s extremely controversial and polarizing and we’ll see that in his journals, and before he’s called into the 12 in 1943 up until I guess 1953, that 10 year period, I mean there’s really nothing controversial, it’s really a series of touching moments about his life, his family, and his mission to war-torn Europe; he’s got some incredibly moving passages in there about walking the streets of Europe and he sees these people who are emaciated, some of whom are Latter-day Saints, they haven’t eat in days. Latter-day Saint scholars wrote the initial drafts, then church historians reviewed them, then it went up the chain to General Authorities, who vetted them for tone, content, and message. I was in graduate school when I first became acquainted with Dialogue and Sunstone—two seminal publications that would deepen my study of LDS church history. It struck me that the Essays would be a useful medium to explore important themes in Church history in more detail.

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