It is well documented that facsimile #2 in the Book of Abraham has a drawing of Min, an “ithyphallic god,” or in other words, a sexually aroused male deity.

What is not so well known is that for a time in the early 1900’s the church removed the “offending member” from object number 7 in facsimile #2. I was rummaging through some old books I have and found a 1921 version of the Pearl of Great Price. And to my surprise, Min had lost his phallus.

Below is the 1974 version, which is consistent to what we have today in the current published version. (item 7)

And this is the 1921 version I found on my book shelf

What this means is that sometime before 1921, somebody figured out that item 7 was not “God sitting upon his throne”, but was some man that was obviously in a state of arousal. I would love to have been in the room when this was brought to the brethren’s attention, and listened to the ensuing discussions. There was probably a vote: “all in favor of removing the phallus raise your right hand, those opposed by the same sign”.

But then it gets more strange. Sometime later, they again met, and decided to put the phallus back in! (all in favor of putting it back………..)

So the reason for taking it out was obvious, but why put it back in? Were they found out? Did somebody leak it to the press and they tried to cover it up by putting it back? (it took all my power of decorum to not make cheap jokes about this very serious matter!)