More on the Here and Now interview: Some Misinformation

There is some misinformation in Linker's Here and Now interview.

Robin Young: ...and in fact you even write that some of the most recent prophecies have moderated the church: getting rid of polygamy in the late 1800’s and allowing blacks to become members of the church in the 1970's.

Damon Linker: Yes absolutely, that's true that since the death of Joseph Smith prophecies by the head of the church have tended to be moderate and to bring the church into greater conformity with the American mainstream.

What Robin is referring to is the the practice of barring black men from priesthood ordination until 1978. The official declaration implementing the change in policy is here, and my own post on this issue here.

In the second half of the Here and Now piece Robin Young interviews Kathleen Flake (Assistant Professor of American Religious History at Vanderbilt Divinity School) and peppers her with questions about exaltation, Kolob, and temple garments.

Robin: Do Mormons believe that only men can be ordained priests; women can’t go to the highest levels of heaven without being married to a man and that, we read, in fact, that, marriage, women are given a nick name so that her husband can pull her through to heaven, can recognize her.
...
Is it true that, the thinking is, that a Mormon man will receive his own planet; which he will then run and that it will be populated by celestial being provided by his wife?
...
And he lives on his own planet? Do I understand, Kolob?

I have posted two posts on my other Blog, one entitled Heavenly Mother which addresses the exaltation issues, and the other, Mormon Temple Garments, which gives some general information about temple garments.