After pointing out the biblical patriarch Jacob had multiple wives, “‘Oh, Brother Wilcox, I’m like losing my testimony because I found out Joseph Smith was a polygamist.’ How come no one’s losing his testimony because Jacob was a polygamist!”.Although Wilcox’s views are shared by many members and leaders of the Church, the arguments are… lacking. In the third video, titled “Brad Wilcox: 12 Tribes of Isreal Breakdown” (it’s misspelled on YouTube, sorry), he expanded his defense of the current restriction on women’s ordination. Of the three videos that have come to light, Wilcox used pretty much the same reasoning for the temple and priesthood racial restrictions in all of them. I want to specifically address the problematic aspects of Brad Wilcox’s apologetics, meaning the way he justified and defended the Church’s positions. My co-bloggers Kristine A and Hawkgrrrl already wrote fabulous posts on Sunday’s fireside fiasco. Unlike 2012, the Church chose not to respond. Brad Wilcox apologized for misspeaking at a Sunday evening fireside, but videos subsequently emerged showing that his phrasing was not a singular flub. This week, another BYU professor made waves in the news with remarks regarding previous racial restrictions. In an official statement released the following day, church leaders declared, “The positions attributed to BYU professor Randy Bott in a recent Washington Post article absolutely do not represent the teachings and doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” The reaction from church officials was swift. In February 2012, a BYU professor made waves by explaining common reasons given for the Church’s long-time temple and priesthood ban. Van Dyke and Loyd Isao Ericson, eds., Perspectives on Mormon Theology: Apologetics (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2017), 167. Smith, “Avoiding Collateral Damage: Creating a Woman-Friendly Mormon Apologetics,” in Blair G. While it would be a difficult phenomenon to measure, I suspect that within the population of people who have become disaffected from the Church regarding gender issues, there is a fairly large group who have left not because of Church policy per se, but rather because they found the apologetics offered for the policy to be unbearable.” Julie M. “Sometimes, …poorly-reasoned arguments end up doing more harm than good….
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