Following the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal government tried to put pressure on the LDS Church to quit discriminating against blacks with regards to the ban on priesthood. A Civil Rights investigation was
In the late 1960s & early 1970s, there were many protests by colleges over the racial ban on priesthood in the LDS Church. Some schools, such as Stanford, refused to play BYU in athletic competitions
Over the years, BYU is known as being predominantly white, and overwhelmingly Mormon. How do black and non-LDS students fare at BYU? In our next conversation with Dr. Matt Harris, we’ll talk about how well
An under-appreciated story in explaining the priesthood and temple ban was President Spencer W. Kimball’s announcement of a new temple in Brazil. In our next conversation with Dr. Matt Harris, we’ll talk about the significant
There have been lots of rumors on the internet that the reason the LDS Church got rid of the temple/priesthood ban was because they were going to lose their tax-exempt status. Is that true? Dr.
It’s not just the LDS Church that has had a difficult time dealing with gay rights. The Christian right is struggling with the issue as well. Dr. Greg Prince serves on the Board of Directors
If you’d like to check out this episode, please sign up for my newsletter. It’s completely free. Go to GospelTangents.com/newsletter  to find out what J. Edgar Hoover thought of Ezra Taft Benson! Here’s what we’ll talk
Ezra Taft Benson clearly wasn’t a fan of civil rights and called it a communist conspiracy. But his counselor in the First Presidency, Gordon B. Hinckley, made peace with the NAACP and helped name a
Ezra Taft Benson wanted to run for U.S. President. Dr. Matt Harris describes a few attempts by Benson to run for POTUS, and how Church leaders finally put an end to Benson’s political aspirations. Matt:
Dr. Matthew Harris’ focus is on religion and the law, church, and state and Mormon Studies. He received a BA and MA in history from Brigham Young University and an MPhil and Ph.D. in history from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Dr. Harris has appeared on Gospel Tangents many times and is the author of many books and articles. He won the Vera Jean and J. Talmage Jones Award from the Mormon History Association in 2014. His work has been featured on C-SPAN.
