Randy Bott and the Priesthood Ban

[Pheidippides]

I didn't have Bott but my wife did. She says he was an overrated clown that said all sorts of crap like this.

Apparently there are protests planned at BYU over this, if what I am reading is correct.

If the church wants to make a statement about this kind of thinking - not that they do, but they should - they should fire him now. It's not like they don't have a history of axing people at BYU that speak out....

[myboynoah]

Two thoughts on this. First, trying to keep track of all the things that people who are church or BYU employees say must be an ongoing nightmare. No matter what you do, some old guy like this one is going to go off script. Second, this is the kind of thinking that is allowed to persist when you change your policy but don't emphatically repudiate many of the justifications for the old policy.

I agree.

[Sleeping in EQ]

CES is an utter disaster.

[pellegrino]

CES is an utter disaster.

this doesn't even begin to describe it.

[marsupial]

I remember hearing about how awesome Bott was but felt unwilling to camp out on the phone to try and enroll in his classes. I ended up in a horrible BoM class. There were a lot of really obscure questions on the tests and he prided himself in having a really tough class. I think I got a C. Seriously, a C in Book of Mormon. I should have camped out for Bott just so I could have improved my grade.

Anyway, blacks and the priesthood is a mess. Do you think the church thought they'd be haunted by it still almost 35 years after the ban was lifted?

Coincidently, my dad sent me this article yesterday: http://www.fairblog.org/2012/02/25/t...28FAIR+Blog%29

I grew up hearing all three of those myths. President Hinckley has the best response to it:

I don’t know what the reason was. But I know that we’ve rectified whatever may have appeared to be wrong at the time.

There was no good reason. People need to quit trying to make up ones. They only make it seem more racist.

[Clark Addison]

I remember hearing about how awesome Bott was but felt unwilling to camp out on the phone to try and enroll in his classes. I ended up in a horrible BoM class. There were a lot of really obscure questions on the tests and he prided himself in having a really tough class. I think I got a C. Seriously, a C in Book of Mormon. I should have camped out for Bott just so I could have improved my grade.

Anyway, blacks and the priesthood is a mess. Do you think the church thought they'd be haunted by it still almost 35 years after the ban was lifted?

Coincidently, my dad sent me this article yesterday: http://www.fairblog.org/2012/02/25/t...28FAIR+Blog%29

I grew up hearing all three of those myths. President Hinckley has the best response to it:


There was no good reason. People need to quit trying to make up ones. They only make it seem more racist.

Unfortunately, it will continue to be haunted by it as long as people born before about 1965 are around. These are the folks that were fed a bunch of stories, often well-meaning, trying to explain the policy. They are happy the ban was lifted, but many have hung on to the folklore of the reasons for the ban.

[DrumNFeather]

http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2012/02/my-cri-de-coeur-to-randy-bott/

[DrumNFeather]

But to acknowledge that something was inherently wrong is to state that church leadership can make mistakes.

and then all hell breaks loose because people are sheep.

I'm assuming that this is a troll...no?

[Uncle Ted]

Unfortunately, it will continue to be haunted by it as long as people born before about 1965 are around. These are the folks that were fed a bunch of stories, often well-meaning, trying to explain the policy. They are happy the ban was lifted, but many have hung on to the folklore of the reasons for the ban.

I was feed a bunch of crap by seminary teachers, church leaders, and the like but was born after 1965.

BTW, I am surprised the fair blog article didn't address the stuff ETB said in conference about the civil rights movement being a "tool of communist deception".

Also, I wonder if Bott's comments of God protecting the blacks by not handing over "the car keys" too soon is how he feels about women not having the priesthood as well.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Unfortunately, it will continue to be haunted by it as long as people born before about 1965 are around. These are the folks that were fed a bunch of stories, often well-meaning, trying to explain the policy. They are happy the ban was lifted, but many have hung on to the folklore of the reasons for the ban.

[grapevine]

For priesthood revelation Dallin in a book he just wrote I think it is called lifes reflections said something to the effect people tried to put reasons on revelation but good idea not to do that now since we don't know all of the reasons and some were wrong.

[Clark Addison]

I was feed a bunch of crap by seminary teachers, church leaders, and the like but was born after 1965.

BTW, I am surprised the fair blog article didn't address the stuff ETB said in conference about the civil rights movement being a "tool of communist deception".

Also, I wonder if Bott's comments of God protecting the blacks by not handing over "the car keys" too soon is how he feels about women not having the priesthood as well.

Yes, I thought about that. I was taught some of this stuff as well. I think that the vast, vast majority of the younger generation have either never heard it, or discount it out of hand. At least I hope so.

I said "many" of the pre-1965 folks. :-) I think it is still a minority.

[Pheidippides]

http://timesandseasons.org/index.php...to-randy-bott/

The author is a friend of mine - a good guy.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Two thoughts on this. First, trying to keep track of all the things that people who are church or BYU employees say must be an ongoing nightmare. No matter what you do, some old guy like this one is going to go off script. Second, this is the kind of thinking that is allowed to persist when you change your policy but don't emphatically repudiate many of the justifications for the old policy.

This was my first thought also. The chickens are coming home to roost. As I have mentioned before, a few years ago the church actually formed a committee to draft up a formal apology but it was disbanded by GBH who thought that people don't seem to talk about it much, so he preferred to just ignore it and let it go fade into history. This is the price you pay for such a strategy and I am sure it won't be the last time. With the spotlight on the church due to the Romney campaign, lots of fools will be handed a microphone and asked to elaborate on the ban.

By the way, don't forget this little story I shared about a statement made recently by BKP:

http://www.cougaruteforum.com/showthread.php?p=64428

Thankfully it wasn't reported in the national press, but I think it was just as bad as what Randy Bott said.

[Moliere]

If the church wants to make a statement about this kind of thinking - not that they do, but they should - they should fire him now. It's not like they don't have a history of axing people at BYU that speak out....

How can they fire him for saying things that he probably learned as a student at BYU and which teachings have never been denounced by the church? (rhetorical question)

The best course of action would be for the church to finally apologize for the racist policy, denounce it as not inspired, and then move on. The body of the church can handle such a statement. There won't be mass apostasy. Most of the people in leadership positions have spent the majority of their life without the ban, and those that are uber-orthodox will come up with their own contrived rational as to why past prophets were only speaking as men so their statement are no longer authoritative.