Is “White and Delightsome” Racist? (Matt Harris 2 of 6)

Is "white and delightsome" a racist scripture? Dr Matt Harris discusses the evolution of the priesthood/temple ban in the 19th century. He discusses black men who held the priesthood, and why Brigham Young removed their possibility of attending the temple. We'll also discuss the controversial passages "white & delightsome" vs "pure & delightsome" in the Book of Mormon. Check out our conversation with Matt Harris... https://youtu.be/OK5AeAAvrIY Don't miss our other conversations with Matt: https://gospeltangents.com/people/matt-harris/ Copyright © 2024 Gospel Tangents All Rights Reserved Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission. GT  0:49  So what I'd like to first do, I remember when we spoke, in fact, this was our first interview, it was about this book. Matt  0:58  Which hadn't been named yet. GT  1:01  Yeah, it hadn't been named. But what I'd like to do, because you do, I think in chapter one, you spend a very short chapter on the priesthood ban in the 19th century, and you noted that there were some black men who held the priesthood. Could you just give us a thumbnail of 19th century policies within the Church and blacks? Matt  1:27  Yes. For years and years and years, the Church narrative was that the ban began with the Prophet Joseph Smith. In 1922, Andrew Jensen, who was the Assistant Church Historian published, I think it was a four volume encyclopedia biography. And just what it is, you just go through alphabetically to different subjects you could look up. And there was one subject in there that came back to bite the Church, and that the subject was Elijah Abel. GT  1:57  Yes. Matt  1:58  And so this is the first time that the Saints are reading that there was an early black priesthood holder. Oh, let me tell you, they wrote letters to the First Presidency, to the Quorum of the Twelve. How could there be a ban with Joseph Smith and Elijah Abel. Joseph Fielding Smith said, who was then the Church Historian, Joseph Fielding Smith said that that question has come back to haunt us. I wish he never would have included it. [He wished] Jensen wouldn't have included Elijah Abel in the biography. So, they didn't know how to answer it. How can you say the ban began with the Prophet, the founding Prophet, if a black man's ordained to the priesthood. Joseph Fielding Smith was interesting in his responses. One Latter-day Saint inquisitor, he wrote back, and he said, "There were actually two Elijah Ables in Nauvoo, one was white and one was black.” I mean, there's no evidence for any of this stuff, but he's trying to work out this narrative. And then a little while later, he gave a different answer, and he said that it was a mistake. There's no evidence for that either. GT  3:07  Right. Matt  3:08  And I'm not here to pick on Joseph Fielding Smith. I'm just merely telling the story that the brethren are trying to understand this and comprehend it. And J. Reuben Clark of the First Presidency was scheduled to give a general conference talk in October of 1954 and it's the only time I've noticed where the brethren, where at least Clark had acknowledged that there were a few priesthood holders, black priesthood holders. Mostly Elijah Abel was known because of Andrew Jensen. But he acknowledges that there were a few priesthood holders of black African ancestry who held the priesthood. President McKay nixed the talk. "Don't give it." GT  3:54  Really? Matt  3:55  Yeah for two reasons. One, I think it was less about the acknowledgement of three black--well, that was part of it. That's not true. Part of it was, we don't want the Church [members] to know that there are three black priesthood holders. The other part was it, a lot of the talk talked about civil rights, which I'm sure we'll get into in a minute. But President McKay didn't want President Clark talking about civil rights and bringing attention to it when the civil rights movement was heatin...