My grandfather ETB refused to describe to me what it was like to be in the Salt Lake temple the day Pres. Kimball announced that the Blacks would be getting the priesthood, but he was ever ready to go public on Woodfuff meeting the Founders in the St. George the St. George temple.

Just a few months after my grandfather refused to share with me in any detail what it was like to be told behind temple walls that Black men could now wield power and authority in God’s name (telling me it was too "sacred" to talk about), ETB was freely talking about famous disembodied spirits appearing in the House of the Lord:

“When I became President of the Twelve and Spencer W. Kimball became President of the Church, we met, just the two of us, every week in our Thursday meetings in the temple, just to be sure that things were properly coordinated between the Twelve and the First Presidency.

“After one of those first meetings, we talked about the man sacred documents in some of the older temples. St. George was mentioned in particular . . . and it was agreed that I would go into the archives--the walk-in vault--of that great temple and review the sacred documents that were there. . . .

“And there in the St. George Temple I saw what I had always hoped and prayed that someday I would see. Ever since I returned as a humble missionary and first learned that the Founding Fathers had appeared in that temple, I wanted to see the record. And I saw the record. They did appear to Wilford Woodruff twice and asked why the work hadn’t been done for them. They had founded this country and the Constitution of this land, and they had been true to those principles. Later the work was done for them.”

(Ezra Taft Benson, address delivered in Sandy, Utah, 30 December 1978, reprinted in Benson, "The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson" [Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1988], p. 603)
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But that wasn't the whole of it. In earlier remarks at the re-dedication of the St. George Temple entitled “Our Founding Fathers Stood in This Holy Place,” my grandfather again spoke openly of these “sacred” experiences in the temple vault.

(Ezra Taft Benson, “Our Founding Fathers Stood in This Holy Place,” St. George Temple Re-dedication, 12 September 1975, LDS Church Archives; see also, Benson, “The Faith of Our Founding Fathers,” in "Faith" [Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1983], pp. 21-22).
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Go figure. Both were imaginary experiences. Like Apostle Bruce R. McConkie said of the priesthood announcement to the Twelve by Kimball in the Salt Lake temple, there was nothing “miraculous” about Kimball’s announcement to the assembled Quorum members:

“The Lord could have sent messengers from the other side to deliver it, but he did not. He gave the revelation by the power of the Holy Ghost.

“Latter-day Saints have a complex: many of them desire to magnify and build upon what has occurred, and they delight to think of miraculous things. And maybe some of them would like to believe that the Lord himself was there, or that the Prophet Joseph Smith came to deliver the revelation, which was one of the possibilities.

“Well, these things did not happen. The stories that go around to the contrary are not factual or realistic or true, and you as teachers in the Church Educational System will be in a position to explain and to tell your students that this thing came by the power of the Holy Ghost, and that all the Brethren involved, the thirteen who were present, are independent personal witnesses of the truth and divinity of what occurred. . . .”

McConkie then did some more confessing. This glorious in-temple event was increasingly becoming comparable to experiencing that inexplicably happy feeling during a typical fast and testimony meeting when believing Mormons “know” that the Church is true. McConkie explained:

“To carnal people who do not understand the operating of the Holy Spirit of God upon the souls of man, this may sound like gibberish or jargon or uncertainty or ambiguity; but to those who are enlightened by the power of the Spirit and who have themselves felt its power, it will have a ring of veracity and truth, and they will know of its verity. I cannot describe in words what happened; I can only say that it happened and that it can be known and understood only by the feeling that can come into the heart of man. You cannot describe a testimony to someone. No one can really know what a testimony is--the feeling and the joy and the rejoicing and the happiness that comes into the heart of man when he gets one--except another person who has received a testimony. Some things can be known only by revelation, ‘The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.’ (1 Corinthians 2:11)”

(Bruce R. McConkie, "All Are Alike unto God," general assembly address to Book of Mormon Symposium for Seminary and Institute teachers, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 18 August 1978, manuscript copy in my possession)


No "miraculous" appearance of Joseph or Jesus the day the priesthood ban was lifted in the Salt Lake temple, but all my grandfather needed to see in the St. George temple were the "sacred documents" claiming that the Founders had appeared to Woodruff about being baptized for the dead and he was ready to talk, write and testify.

Never could figure that out.
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To add another wrinkle to the puzzle, ETB wouldn't talk about the Mormon God's command to the temple-assembled apostles to grant priesthood membership to Black men because it was "too sacred;" but yet he openly talked about ironing the sacred and secret Mormon underwear.

Let me get this straight: You can't talk about the Blacks in the temple but you can talk about the spirits of the Founding Fathers materializing in the temple--and about watching your mother heat-press Mormonism’s secret temple clothes before going into the temple.

ETB's account of this latter event was published during his lifetime--accompanied, no less, by an illustration depicting his mother pressing this intimate apparel as a young Ezra stood by watching and asking questions:

“With the Benson parents, religion was of highest importance. One day when just a young boy, Ezra was coming in from the field, and as he came close to the old farm house, he could hear his mother sing, ‘Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?’ She was bending over the ironing board, papers spread over the floor around it. It was very warm and beads of perspiration stood on her forehead as she ironed long strips of white cloth.

“’What are you doing, Mother?’ asked Ezra.

“She answered, ‘These are temple robes, son. Your father and I are going to the temple in Logan. Then she put her old flatiron on the back of the stove and said, ‘Sit here by me, Ezra. I want to tell you about the temple.’ She explained to him the importance of the temple and the blessings of the sacred ordinances there. She said, ‘I hope and pray with al my heart that some day you and all your brothers and sisters will enjoy these priceless blessings. I pray for this not only for my children but for my grandchildren and even my great-grandchildren.’

“Ezra Taft Benson later remembered his mother’s words as he performed the temple marriages of each of his own children, who were, of course, his mother’s grandchildren, and later, the great-grandchildren.”

(Della Mae Rasmussen, "The Illustrated Story of President Ezra Taft Benson: Great Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" [Provo, Utah: Eagle Systems International; Steven R. Shallenberger, publisher, 1987], pp. 14-15)
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I guess it's too much to ask Mormons to keep their sacred storytelling sacredly consistent.



Edited 10 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2011 11:31PM by steve benson.