E99: Mormonism and Race, part two

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:05)
Hey, listen, I like a rabbit hole as good as the next guy. And Bryan and I were talking about the World's Strongest Man Competitions, have you heard of this? Which Bryan considers top shelf guilty viewing.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:18)
I would take that word guilty out.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:20)
Okay, top shelf viewing.
I'm more of a reality television show that involves some sort of desert island. That's really the only component you need. But I thought I would be open-minded. I would give your thing a shot.
So, you know, I decided to watch this. I have some friends that do bodybuilding, so no shame. It's a very dedicated sport. You have to eat very particularly and wear a lot of spray tan and work really hard. But this strongman competition is a whole next level. It's like really beef swole dudes with the Palumbo Roidgut doing the weirdest shiz to show how much horsepower they contain. And I don't want to yuck anyone's yum.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:01)
Thank you.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:02)
And honestly, who doesn't want to watch some guy from Finland picking up 300 pound cement balls or flipping gigantic tires a million times? Apparently, nobody.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:14)
Magnus for Magnuson, for president.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:17)
And nothing can compare to pulling a plane using a rope attached to your nipples or whatever it is that they do. The thing is, inertia is a little bit. There's a lesson in these competitions, even for little Utah house moms like myself.
Once something gets going, it's just so much easier to keep it moving. And the converse is true as well. Have you ever gotten something out of a moving truck and part way down the ramp, realize it's going just, oh no, a little too fast?
As Isaac Newton famously wrote, bro, once that bling is moving, it's real hard to stop. That brings us, of course, to our favorite bling brother, Royd Gutt Brigham Young himself.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:00)
The Game Master.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:01)
Leave his nipples out of it. Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:07)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:08)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:36)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:41)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:49)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.
In the first part of this trilogy, we talked about the Gills of Smith era. Nothing was in place during that time to prevent black man from holding the priesthood. We repeat, nothing, but Gills of Smith is now dead. And like so many other things after his death, this question of where black people fit into Mormonism would change and change quickly.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:46)
First, a word from our friends at Signature Books. Leonard Arrington was born an Idaho chicken rancher whose early interests seemed not to extend much beyond the American West. Throughout his life, he tended to project a folksy persona, although nothing was farther from the truth. He was in fact an intellectually oriented, academically driven young man, determined to explore the historical, economic, cultural and religious issues of his time.
After distinguishing himself at the University of North Carolina and serving in the army during World War II in North Africa and Italy, Arrington accepted a professorship at Utah State University. In 1972, he was called as the LDS Church Historian, an office he held for 10 years until following a stormy tenure full of controversy over whether the new Mormon history he had championed was appropriate for the church. He was quietly released and transferred, along with the entire church history division, to Brigham Young University. It was hoped that this would remove the impression in people's minds that his writings were church-approved. His personal diaries reveal a man who was firmly committed to his church as well as to rigorous historical scholarship. His eye for detail made him an important observer of church headquarters culture. Confessions of a Mormon Historian, The Diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, edited by friend of the podcast, Gary Bruggera. Now on sale, they're less than half-price people from benchmark books or whatever lesser kingdom of glory you buy your books.
All right, friends, let's get back to work, shall we? We need to discuss two different events, one in the Boston area and one back in winter quarters. Hey, right where we left off before we started on this journey. Both are relevant here, so pay attention.