Mormon Heretic

I attended Sunstone back in August.  Bridget Jack Jeffries (who runs a blog called Clobberblog), gave a fascinating presentation on female priesthood holders in the ancient Christian church.  Bridget is a “never Mormon” that attended BYU, graduating in 2005.  She “seduced” (her words, not mine) and married a BYU priesthood holder while there, and she is currently studying the History of Christianity in America at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School near Chicago.  She has done some fascinating research on women and the priesthood in early Christianity that I wanted to share.

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Mark L Grover gave a fascinating biography on Helvecio Martins, the first black general authority in the LDS church in the latest issue of the Journal of Mormon History (Summer 2010.) Elder Martins was ordained to the Second Quorum of Seventy in 1990 under President Ezra Taft Benson. In 1995 he was released, and he passed away in 2005

Martins joined the LDS church in 1972 with his wife Ruda and son Marcus. Grover describes in detail race relations in Brazil. From page 36, Read more…

I wanted to get this post up sooner, but I’ve been really busy correcting final exams.  I really enjoyed the last day of Sunstone, since I was able to attend all day, rather than a session here or there.  Don Bradley gave a presentation titled “Dating Fanny Alger”, a bit of a play on words.  I remember he gave a funny line to the effect of “By all accounts, she was hot!”  Anyway, Bradley tried to pin down when the “affair” happened.  Apparently, Emma discovered Joseph and Fanny late at night in the barn.  According to Bradley, Alger appeared pregnant.  Emma threw a fit, and threw Alger out of the house.  (Apparently Alger had been working as a sort of nanny.)

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I have some good news, and some bad news.  First the good news–I got a new job!  Now the bad news–my new job will interfere with my frequent blogging, so there will definitely be a decrease in activity.

My book club has been reading a book called Establishing Zion by Eugene Campbell.  I couldn’t find it in the library, but Signature Books has posted the entire book online and you can read it right here!   Briefly, Campbell is a former history professor from BYU.  I learned tons from it, though I did find the first 5 chapters a little slow.  However, chapters 6-7 were very interesting, and I want to talk about them.

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With little fanfare over the weekend, President Uchdorf announced the call of only the second black general authority, Joseph Sitate of Nairobi, Kenya.  He was called to the First Quorum of 70, as well as Yoon Hwan Choi of Seoul, Korea.

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I recently purchased Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons. It is an outstanding documentary produced by Margaret Young, BYU faculty member, and Darius Gray, one of the original members of The Genesis Group. Under President Joseph Fielding Smith, this group was supervised in 1971 by junior apostles Gordon B Hinckley, Thomas S Monson, and Boyd K Packer to try to fellowship black LDS church members.

Since I had already seen the movie at the LDS Film Festival, I was really looking forward to the special features on the DVD, and I was not disappointed. Connell O’Donovan, an independent genealogist and Mormon Historian outlines 7 early black church members who held the priesthood prior to 1847–one of them was even a Branch President! I’d like to give a brief outline of some of these early black Mormon pioneers.

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While there is much ado about the Sundance Film Festival, here in Park City, Utah, there is another film festival which starts today in Orem, called the LDS Film Festival.  I went last year, and loved some of the movies.  The festival runs through Saturday.

Certainly, many of the movies here are not up to Hollywood standards, but they can leave some lasting impressions.  I thought I would review some of last year’s favorites, and add some that I hope to see this year.  Unfortunately, I have to work, so I can’t see all the ones I would like to see.

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Ok, I am interested in politics, but don’t feel I’m an expert.  I love to look at history, and this past weekend found out some interesting things about the father of our country.  I was reading in the Wall Street Journal.  There was an article about possible election fraud, and it talked about some election fraud history in America.  I learned that George Washington actually offered alcohol for votes.  The article also states that James Madison lost for not offering alcohol.  Votes have been for sale in America since 1757, when George Washington bought alcohol for every voter in his district, Baumgartner says.

Now it was so interesting to me that I mentioned it to my brother in law.  He immediately called the Wall Street Journal biased, and said it was just tearing down Washington’s legacy, and he did not believe it was credible.  He even compared it to anti-mormon attacks, and called it revisionist history.  I found this stance interesting, because I have been accused of thinking poorly of Brigham Young.

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Wow, this is a really long post, and I didn’t cover everything, but what I did cover is quite considerable. I hope to hear some comments. I decided to update this post on 9/16 with some of Greg Prince’s insights into this topic. These updates are highlighted in orange. UPDATE Mar 10, 2009. Black Pete and William McCary were erroneously referred to as the same people. I made revisions to correct this inaccuracy, and this is shown in purple.  I have also added some new information from Connell O’Donovan, who is one of the premier experts on this subject.

We have had an interesting discussion in a previous blog post on Joshua’s Unholy War. In this discussion, we have discussed the idea as to whether God commanded Joshua (and Moses) to commit genocide in wiping out the Canaanites in various cities, such as Jericho. I am claiming that the command to extinguish the Canaanites in the Book of Joshua was not inspired. As part of the discussion, we have explored two other topics: the priesthood ban, and Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. I would like to focus this post on the priesthood ban, and will devote another post to the subject of Abraham.

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I saw a sneak preview of the upcoming movie, “Emma Smith: My Story” at the LDS Film Festival in January. It is due to be released in about a week–April 11 here in Utah. I highly recommend it. It was commissioned by the Joseph Smith Historical Society, and has many of the same actors and actresses who appeared in “Legacy“, which used to show at the Joseph Smith Building. The producers even received permission to use some of the unused footage from Legacy. For those of you in Utah, I really encourage you to attend during the opening weekend. This makes a big impact on how long the film will run. It is a highly professional production, and it is a truly inspiring story. Read more…

Most Mormons believe that President Kimball’s revelation in 1978 was the first time black church members were able to hold the priesthood. However, in 1836, Elijah Abel was ordained an elder, probably by Joseph Smith himself. Elijah helped build the Nauvoo Temple, tried to rescue Joseph from jail, and served several missions for the church. His sons and grandsons also received the priesthood as late as 1934.

Darius Gray makes the case that there have always been a few black members holding the priesthood since Elijah Abel was first ordained. He granted an interview on Mormon Stories podcast that I think many will find interesting. He documents early black church members including Green Flake, and Jane Manning James. To me, these stories are very inspiring. Read more…

I looked up “Infallibility”, and according to encyclopedia.com, “Roman Catholics hold that the infallibility of the church is vested in the pope…on matters of faith and morals. Definitive pronouncements resulting from an ecumenical council, when ratified by the pope, are also held to be infallible.”

In Official Declaration 1:12, Wilford Woodruff writes, “The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as President of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the programme. It is not in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out of my place, and so He will any other man who attempts to lead the children of men astray from the oracles of God and from their duty.”

Is there a fundamental difference between these? Read more…