Tuesday, October 13, 2026

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Historian examines why Ronald Poelman's 1984 conference talk was rewritten

October 13, 2026 at 6:02 PM MT · via YouTube / Benjamin Park, Historian · Summarized by Mormon News from original reporting

Historian Benjamin Park analyzes why Ronald Poelman's October 1984 general conference address "The Gospel and the Church" was rerecorded and edited after its initial delivery, with the revised version distributed as official. Park's video compares the original and altered texts of the talk, which addressed the relationship between gospel principles and church institution. The incident, which included an added cough track to the rerecording to make it sound live, remains one of the most-discussed examples of post-delivery conference talk editing. Park's analysis has drawn 18,000 views in 34 hours.

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