Podcast appearances and mentions of elijah ables

Later-day Saint historian Russell Stevenson joins The Drive to talk about the history of the LDS church, and the history of the church and the African American community.To learn and read more about Russell, be sure to check out his books here:1. Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables-https://www.amazon.com/Black-Mormon-Story-Elijah-Ables/dp/150084313X/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?dchild=1&keywords=black+mormon&qid=1593184803&sprefix=black+Mormon&sr=8-132. For the Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism, 1830-2013 https://www.amazon.com/Cause-Righteousness-History-Mormonism-1830-2013/dp/1589585291/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=for+the+cause+of+righteousness&qid=1593184711&sprefix=for+the+caus&sr=8-1

Russell Stevenson - Author of "For The Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism, 1830-2013 Welcome to the LDS MissionCast a podcast to educate and inspire in the great cause of Missionary Work. This episode is all about Race and the Mormon Church. Some of the episodes of the LDS MissionCast feature content for those preparing to serve a full-time mission, some episodes are directed towards those that have returned home, or are wanting to be more inspired in member-missionary work. Episodes like this one are unique in that we occasionally need to take the time to learn the gospel, to learn our history better, so that we can better members of the church, better ministers to those around us. On June 1st, 2018 there will be a celebration in the conference center in Salt Lake City, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1978 revelation on the Priesthood, or Official Declaration #2. This could rightly be called the restoration of the opportunity for priesthood ordination to all worthy males, and the opportunity for all people to receive all temple blessings regardless of race or color. It is common for people to feel marginalized or to hold issue with a past policy of the church that was in place, and this is certainly an issue that missionaries in the field face on a semi-regular basis. In an effort to explain or even justify this policy, it is also common for members of the church to say things about this issue that are either wrong, possibly hurtful, incorrect, you name it. So we will spend some time in this episode learning the history, and coming to some understanding of this often controversial topic. I know in the south on my mission this issue of race and the LDS Church came up on a regular basis and was something I had to face almost every week. The information that will be shared by our guest today is vitally important in our society, if we are going to be successful in building bridges and bringing souls unto Christ and His church. Our guest, Russell Stevenson, has dedicated years of his life to the study and understanding of the issues surrounding Race and the Mormon Church. He talks about how his mission experience inspired this work, and informs much of what he does in his academic studies. Other sources for this episode: Race and the Priesthood Essay @ LDS.org Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables by Russell Stevenson LDS MissionCast Questions and Answers: Are Mormons Racist? Are there Black Mormons? Latter-day Lives Segment features Shawn Rapier who interviews Brittany Whiscombe, the director and producer of the upcoming "In Emma's Footsteps" movie. She tells are great story of how not all missionary stories go the storybook way. Shawn Rapier and Brittany Whiscombe in Emmas Footsteps

It's Black History Month at Gospel Tangents.  This is our final conversation with Russell Stevenson and we'll talk the LDS Church in Africa.  Did you know that Nigerians in the 1960s and even in the 1950s I learned have asked for LDS missionaries to come teach the gospel to them.  It's pretty surprising that they did this without any LDS presence in Nigeria.  Russell Stevenson will talk more about this in our next conversation. https://youtu.be/QG4Oab2VMDI Russell:  Throughout the 1950s, a number of church leaders are getting letters from various Nigerians across the river in Igboland, elsewhere begging for missionaries, asking for some kind of missionary presence.  The initial response by David O. McKay and others was some level of skepticism.  Maybe they are just looking for an opportunity to make money.  They are just looking for white people to give them business, maybe looking for a new source of patronage now that the British influence was beginning to recede.  By 1960 it was officially turned over to Nigerians. In 1960 David O. McKay and the First Presidency, they send Glen Fisher, who has once been a mission president in South Africa to see what's happening on the ground.  Are these potential converts legitimate?  Do they in fact want to join the LDS Church, or are they just looking for some kind of business opportunity?  Glen Fisher returned with a report that was gushing by saying these people are the real deal.  They crave Mormonism.  They crave the LDS Church. ... So they go there and they come away with the same conclusion that Glen Fisher had come away with, that these people are the real deal.  They are legitimate.  They in fact crave Mormonism.  In fact Lamar Williams went further.  He said, “Ultimately we cannot keep the priesthood from these people.”  Essentially it's only a matter of time. GT:  What year is this? Russell:  This is in 1961. GT chuckles:  '61.  That's pretty prophetic! Russell:  Yes.  I should note too, this isn't the very first time you have Nigerians communicating this kind of thing to missionaries.  We have evidence all the way back to 1950 of a Nigerian reverend approaching missionaries in New York City asking for a missionary presence.  This is all throughout the post-war period.  I'm only talking about the period in which the activity is most sustained. Find out more about what happened with the LDS Church in Africa!  I hope enjoyed our previous conversations with Russell on Elijah Ables, his mission, the temple/priesthood ban, and his attempts to get his endowment.  Check out all of these episodes for #BlackHistoryMonth!…..  

We're continuing our discussion of Black History Month with Russell Stevenson.  He's the biographer of Elijah Ables, and we'll talk about the end of Elijah's life.  Did Elijah Ables affiliate with any other groups like James Strang, William Smith, or Sidney Rigdon? https://youtu.be/cGWc6FD_YBE Russell:  Going with that, we can maybe conclude that Elijah was certainly diplomatic and kind and charitable.  If you really want to go further out on a limb, more than the evidence that we have suggests, you can say that he affiliated with William Smith, the movement.  I'm not inclined to say that we have evidence to suggest that. We'll also talk about how Elijah worked on the Salt Lake Temple, but was never allowed to get his endowment.  Did he continue to try through the end of his life? Now in 1879, he does petition to receive his temple endowment.  By this point his wife has passed away.  We do have some evidence that he petitioned Brigham Young at some point, but again that's pretty late and we don't have any contemporary documentation to back that up. Check out our conversation….. (Don't forget to check out our previous conversations about Elijah Abel's early life, his mission to Canada, and his troubles in Cincinnati.)  You also might want to check out what Paul Reeve said on this topic! Photo from dedication of the Salt Lake Temple dedication in 1892 [paypal-donation]

Brigham Young is often seen as the person responsible for instituting the ban on black members from LDS temples and from the priesthood for male members.  It turns out that the story is a little more complicated than that.  Russell Stevenson, biographer of Elijah Ables, talks about a few incidences with some other early contemporaries of Elijah Ables, in which Brigham praised black ordination, specifically a faithful black elder in Massachusetts. https://youtu.be/60BHIZD8GMU Russell:  When Brigham Young is addressing William McCary, he mentions explicitly the example of Walker Lewis in Massachusetts, and [Brigham] says [Walker] is one of the best elders that we have.  This is in the context that William McCary is talking about how unwelcome he is feeling within the Latter-day Saint community.  All of these different people are using the n-word to describe him.  They say, “There goes that old {n-word} and his white wife,” referring to Lucy Stanton who was the daughter of a former stake president. Now the fact that Brigham Young would invoke the example of Walker Lewis as a way of assuring and maybe trying to make William McCary feel better about being within the Latter-day Saint community, that tells you that Brigham Young saw William McCary and Walker Lewis as being more or less equivalent in some regard or another, and certainly within the realm of holding the priesthood. We will talk more about this man, named Walker Lewis, as well as a few other black people, and talk about why the ban was instituted in the first place.   This is a really important conversation and I hope you check it out….. (Don't forget to check out our previous conversations about Elijah Abel's early life, his mission to Canada, and his troubles in Cincinnati.) [paypal-donation]

Following Elijah Ables' Canadian mission, he returned for a short time to Nauvoo where he helped Joseph Smith escape from a mob from Missouri.  Then he went to Ohio and encountered more Trouble in Cincinnati!  Russell Stevenson continues our focus on #BlackHistoryMonth, and discusses some of the race riots and other difficulties Elijah Ables encountered in Ohio. https://youtu.be/UKPYgDJnKNo Russell:  In about 1842, or it might have even been the fall of 1841, there had been a massive race riot break out in Cincinnati between local white workers and the African-American community.  It was quite violent.  Many prominent abolitionists found themselves under fire.  Their homes, their offices, their businesses were all targeted for mob attack, and it's reasonable to suppose that Rees E. Price would have found under attack as well. So the fact that Elijah could navigate these white spaces, it tells you he had the skill to be in both worlds.  And yet, in spite of this ability, in spite of this comfortability with white spaces, we know that in 1843, I speculate due to some of these heightened tensions that had developed due to this race riot, that locally, three apostles:  Heber C. Kimball, Lorenzo Snow, and Orson Pratt, they banned Elijah from preaching to people not of African ancestry. GT:  Ok, so approximately what year was that? Russell:  Not approximately, it was 1843. GT:  1843, so he had some restrictions placed on him. Russell:  Yes.  I can't emphasize enough, though, it was not a priesthood restriction.  They had the opportunity.  If they wanted to take the priesthood from Elijah at that time, they could have.  That was the perfect opportunity to do so.  They did not.  In the minutes that tell us about this episode, he is explicitly identified as a Seventy and there is no comment made about him losing priesthood, and two years later, there is a newspaper article again referring to Elijah's workings in that branch where he is also referred to as a Seventy. Russell also talks about speculation Elijah may have helped with the Underground Railroad to free blacks from slavery! Russell:  Now did that lead to some sort of collaboration in helping with the Underground Railroad?  That's a very interesting speculation.  It also goes beyond the evidence.  Trust me, I would love to know that Elijah played an active role in assisting with the Underground Railroad.  We just don't know that. Don't forget to learn more about Elijah's Canadian mission, and his work on the Kirtland Temple.  Check out our conversation….. [paypal-donation]

February is Black History Month and we're continuing our conversation with Russell Stevenson.  He's the biographer of Elijah Ables and in this next episode, we'll talk about Ables' Canadian mission.  Did you know that he had to escape from a mob? https://youtu.be/Z4ilCkk84kM Russell:  I don't think it's a coincidence that at approximately the same time, Elijah is being chased by a tar and feather mob.  He runs to the home of Sarah Beckstead.  Who is it that ends up defending Elijah's life?  It isn't the man of the house, but it is Sarah Beckstead, who comes out with a rifle in hand and opens fire on the mob and they quickly disperse. GT:  Oh wow. Russell:  Sarah Beckstead saved Elijah's life that night. GT:  Wow, that's crazy.  I'm trying to remember, but I believe that there was a charge of murder against Elijah Ables.  Is that right? Russell:  Yes, yes that is correct.  There were rumors being spread that he had committed several murders in fact.  It's likely that played a role in his persecution as well. Here's a couple of other noteworthy moments from Able's Canadian mission. Russell:  We know that he played a role in ordaining another man to the priesthood, William McIntire.  That is again clear from very good contemporary evidence. GT:  So this is a black man ordaining a white man to the priesthood? Russell:  Yes. GT:  Wow, that's pretty cool. Russell:  Yes.  We know that Elijah had success in converting a woman by the name of Eunice Kinney.  Eunice Kinney was a woman living in Madrid, New York and she said as she heard Elijah speak, even though he didn't have the same ability to read and to engage written texts as others did, she felt the spirit so powerfully when he preached.  She wanted badly to affiliate with the saints and to become acquainted with the saints, based on his testimony alone. Don't forget to learn more about Elijah's Ohio conversion and work on the Kirtland Temple.  Check out our conversation….. [paypal-donation]

February is #BlackHistoryMonth and we're starting off with Russell Stevenson, a Ph.D. candidate at Michigan State University in African-American studies.  He has written a biography of Elijah Ables, and we're going to learn more about the first documented black man to hold the priesthood.  I'll ask if Elijah Ables was born a slave, and we'll learn as much as we can about his life before he joined the LDS Church. https://youtu.be/JwiuLUSa4aY Russell:  We do not have a lot of hard data on Elijah's upbringing.  We know something about where he's from.  We know that he was born in western Maryland.  There are a number of potential counties according to different documents where he could have been born in some say Frederick, others say Washington, others say Hancock.  We know that he was born at some point between 1808-1812. As far as his religious upbringing, we know basically nothing about that.  We don't even know with certainty that he was a slave.  Statistically speaking that part of Maryland, the free African-American versus the slave African-American ratio, it broke in favor of slaves.  Statistically speaking he was probably a slave at some point, but beyond that speculation we don't know with certainty. Really the first hard documentation we have of Elijah's life comes through a photograph that we have, George A. Smith family photograph collection and it identifies his baptism year as being 1832.  Thanks to that photo, we have some sense of how old he was, which is again, somewhere between 20-24 years old, but the documentation is pretty limited. Was he light enough to pass for white?  What was his occupation?  Russell answers these questions!  Check out our conversation….. Don't forget to check out our interviews with Margaret Young, Dr. Paul Reeve, Dr. Mark Staker, and Dr. Darron Smith as part of your studies of #BlackHistoryMonth! [paypal-donation]

As an independent historian, Russell Stevenson has been studying Mormon history for nearly two decades. His first book, Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables, tells the vexing story of race in nineteenth-century Mormonism through experiences of Elijah Ables, a biracial man ordained to the priesthood during Joseph Smith’s lifetime. Drawing on documents unused in other treatments, Black Mormon is the first effort to understand Elijah Ables in all of his identities: black, male, Mormon, and priesthood holder.

In this podcast, Kate Kelly Harline takes on the role of interviewer and discusses Russell Stevenson (author of Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables and author of the forthcoming, For the Cause of Righteousness: A Documentary History of Blacks and Mormonism,  1830-2013). We discuss the meaning and ramifications of the LDS Church’s new statement on “Race and the […] The post Podcast #2: Race and the Priesthood appeared first on Mormon History Guy.

As an independent historian, Russell Stevenson has been studying Mormon history for nearly two decades. His first book, Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables, tells the vexing story of race in nineteenth-century Mormonism through experiences of Elijah Ables, a biracial man ordained to the priesthood during Joseph Smith's lifetime. Drawing on documents unused in other treatments, Black Mormon is the first effort to understand Elijah Ables in all of his identities: black, male, Mormon, and priesthood holder.

As an independent historian, Russell Stevenson has been studying Mormon history for nearly two decades. His first book, Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables, tells the vexing story of race in nineteenth-century Mormonism through experiences of Elijah Ables, a biracial man ordained to the priesthood during Joseph Smith's lifetime. Drawing on documents unused in other treatments, Black Mormon is the first effort to understand Elijah Ables in all of his identities: black, male, Mormon, and priesthood holder.

As an independent historian, Russell Stevenson has been studying Mormon history for nearly two decades. His first book, Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables, tells the vexing story of race in nineteenth-century Mormonism through experiences of Elijah Ables, a biracial man ordained to the priesthood during Joseph Smith’s lifetime. Drawing on documents unused in other treatments, Black Mormon is the first effort to understand Elijah Ables in all of his identities: black, male, Mormon, and priesthood holder.