The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power

958 Pages·1997·41.093 MB·English

by  D. Michael Quinn

The Mormon Hierarchy
EXTENSIONS OF POWER
D. Michael Quinn
Signature Books
in association with Smith Research Associates
Salt Lake City
To my Mormon mentors
(Leonard J. Arrington, Davis Bitton)
and my nonMormon mentors (Howard R. Lamar,
Jan Shipps) for twenty years of patiently encouraging
me to bring this study to conclusion.
With special honors to Janice Darley Quinn,
Yale University, the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, Everett
L. Cooley, the National Endowment for the Humanities,
Martin B. Hickman, Gregory C. Thompson, George Miles,
George D. Smith, Martin Ridge, the Henry E. Huntington
Library, the Giles Mead Foundation,
John Netto, the Glen W. Irwin Foundation,
Ken Verdoia, the Dorothy Collins Brown family,
Milo Calder, Joyce C. Nye.
And to the memory of my son Adam
Jacket design by O’Very/Covey
© 1997, by Smith Research Associates. All rights reserved.
Printed and bound in the United States by Signature Books.
Signature Books is a registered trademark of Signature Books,
Inc.
16 15 14 13 12 8 7 6 5 4
The second printing corrects errors, oversights, and ambiguities,
co Printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Quinn, D. Michael.
The Mormon hierarchy : extensions of power / by D. Michael Quinn,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-56085-060-4
1. Mormon Church—History. 2. Mormon Church—Government—History.
3. Authority—Religious aspects—Mormon Church. I. Title.
BX8611.Q55 1997
289.3—dc20 95-7798R
CIP
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface.................................................................................................vii
Chapter 1. The Twin Charges of the Apostleship...............................1
Special Charismatic Witnesses
The Requirement for Unanimity
Chapter 2. Tensions among the First Presidency............................21
and Quorum of the Twelve
The Church President and His Counselors
First Presidency Counselors
The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve
The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Chapter 3. Ezra Taft Benson:...........................................................66
A Study of Inter-Quorum Conflict
Chapter 4. Presiding Patriarch, Presiding Bishop, .........................116
the Seventy, and an Expanding Bureaucracy
The Presiding Patriarch
The Presiding Bishopric
The Seventy
Expanding the Hierarchy
The Bureaucracy
Conclusion
Organizational Chart, 31 December 1995 ................................................ 161
Chapter 5. Family Relationships........................................................163
Kinship
Marriage
The Hierarchy at Present
Conclusion
Chapter 6. Church Finances..............................................................198
Tithing
Paid Ministry and Voluntary Service
Public Disclosure
Church Businesses
Deficit Spending and Modem Financing
The Hierarchy: From Corporate Management to the Sideline
Conclusion
Chapter 7. Post-1844 Theocracy and a Culture of Violence............226
Brigham Young’s Government
The Kingdom of God
A Culture of Violence
Chapter 8. Priesthood Rule and Shadow Governments...................262
Rule by Priesthood Decree
The School of the Prophets
VI CONTENTS
A Revitalized Council of Fifty
Politics After Statehood
Church Security without Theocracy
Conclusion
Chapter 9. Partisan Politics ...............................................................314
Early Attempts at Manipulation
Political Leveraging in Utah Territory
The Waning of Mormon Political Supremacy
Adjustments to Partisan Politics
Public Office and Politics after Statehood
Attempts to Control Partisan Politics
The Case of B. H. Roberts and Moses Thatcher
Covert Intervention
Conflicting Loyalties
Adoration of the LDS President
Conclusion
Chapter 10. A National Force, 1970s-1990s......................................373
The Equal Rights Amendment and Its Mormon Supporters
Early Anti-ERA Activities
The IWY State Conferences
The LDS Church’s National Anti ERA Campaign
Tensions and Responses
Extent and Limits of Official LDS Involvement
Implications of the ERA Campaign
A New Crusade in the Mid-1990s
. . . . 407
. . . . 409
Appendices:
1. General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, 1845-1996 ......................................... . . . . 631
2. Biographical Sketches of General Officers
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
Appointed 1849-1932 ........................................................ . . . . 641
3. Appointments to the Theocratic Council of Fifty
through 1884 ..................................................................... . . . . 726
4. Family Relationships among 101 Current
General Authorities and Their Wives, 1996 ................... . . . . 731
5. Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, 1848-1996 ......................................... . . . . 746
Index ........................................................................................ . . . . 899
PREFACE
More than twenty-five years have passed since I began research in the
historical archives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a
graduate student at the University of Utah in the spring of 1971,1 sat next
to non-Mormons who were researching the archival files of the church’s
First Presidency. In what began as a teenage hobby, I had been studying
the highest leadership of my church from printed sources for more than
a decade. In 1962 I typed the first summary of my historical research on
“the General Authorities.”
But in 1971 I was at the Mecca of my research dreams, and began my
first day by taking extensive notes on the diary of one of Mormonism’s
apostles. For the next fifteen years of research, every day was Christmas.
There have been many changes at the LDS archives and in my own life
since then, but I have always felt that same sense of awe as I have surveyed
my research files in the hope of communicating to others my under­
standing of a remarkable leadership group.1
These primarily Utah-born men2 now give guidance to a worldwide
population of Mormons who constitute the fifth largest denomination in
the United States. In addition, the LDS church is the first or second largest
in nine western states.3 Although a demographer wrote in 1995 that
“Mormonism seems likely to remain a largely American or an Intermoun­
tain West [U.S.] faith,”4 two facts of Mormon population indicate its larger
significance. Twelve countries and one Canadian province have a higher
percentage of Mormons in their populations than does the United States.
Also, more than half of the LDS church’s 9.5 million members currently
reside outside the U.S.A.5
My historical knowledge of this Mormon hierarchy6 has grown over
the decades in expected and unexpected ways. I found much to admire in
the personal lives and private councils of “the Brethren,” and these
findings reinforced my youthful conviction of their divine callings. I also
discovered stark evidence of their human qualities. In diaries, letters, and
personal statements to church members, these Mormon leaders expressed
no apology for describing matters that others might now regard as negative
or “too revealing” for an image-conscious, contemporary Mormonism.
However, that earlier candor was also evident in the official minutes of the
LDS church’s various organizations, whose records were once available to
outside researchers (non-Mormons and rank-and-file Mormons) at the
church’s history archives.7
vii
viii PREFACE
Since the 1980s LDS leaders have ended access to such documents
and have insisted that Mormon historical inquiry is legitimate only if it
tells pleasant, “faith-promoting” stories while reinforcing current policies
and definitions.8 Although I understand the motivation of such expecta­
tions, I have tried to be true to the spirit of candor I found in the spoken
and written records of the Mormon hierarchy. This study (now in its
second volume) also examines the evidence of historical process and
institutional change over time, rather than selecting evidence to reinforce
current definitions and policies. That single-minded determination on my
part led to conflicts with LDS leaders. I am now a believer outside the
church for which I still have affection and fond hopes.9
Including this study’s first volume, I have described Mormonism
during 176 years. Like the first volume, this book’s “Selected Chronology”
has multiple functions which would suggest that the reader begin with that
appendix. First, it allows readers to see how the close analysis of leadership
topics fits within other developments of Mormondom. Second, it provides
a guide to the diversity, continuities, and discontinuities of the Mormon
experience. There are multiple dimensions of the Mormon experience
that are worth examining but no space to do so here. Still the chronology
emphasizes Mormon women far more than possible in chapters about
male-only hierarchy. Third, in keeping with this volume’s subtitle, the
chronology shows how Mormon power in the twentieth century has
extended beyond the LDS hierarchy to a growing influence of rank-and-file
Mormons nationally and internationally. Most of these influential people
regard Mormonism as central to their self-identity, feel connected with all
other Mormons, and look to the LDS hierarchy for inspiration and
direction. Although my analysis emphasizes the formal leadership of
Mormonism, “power” takes many forms, both institutional and personal.
Mormon culture is remarkable by any standard, yet aspects of this
narrative may not be pleasant for some readers. However, I believe my
approach can be faith-promoting for believers seeking to understand their
religious community as led by fallible humans who struggle to achieve
God’s will. For religious believers who do not view the LDS church and its
leadership through the lens of faith, I hope they will read this study with
the charity they expect others to give to the humanness of leaders in their
own religion’s history. I would also expect secular readers not to hold LDS
leaders to a standard of infallibility which secularists deny to everyone else.
Charity is a virtue I have often found among secular humanists as well
as among believers in various religious traditions. It has been my guide in
appreciating an extraordinary people and in restraining personal judg­
ments about many matters I have examined. “Of course, there are aberra­
tions in our history,” current LDS president Gordon B. Hinckley has
PREFACE IX
publicly stated. “There are blemishes to be found, if searched for, in the
lives of all men, including our leaders past and present. But these are only
incidental to the magnitude of their service and to the greatness of their
contributions.”10
LDS encounters with the divine have been as transcendent as those in
other religions, while Mormon culture’s missteps are on a far smaller scale
than those of other religious cultures. Yet that analogy requires me to give
some explanation for the lack of comparative analysis in this study.
Some of my other publications have examined the Mormon experi­
ence in relation to American culture, cross-cultural comparisons, and
interdisciplinary studies. In the early 1970s my original plan was to
examine the Mormon hierarchy with respect to elite theory in political
science and by comparison with group biographies of elites in various
enterprises and cultures. In addition, James G. Clawson suggested that I
also use theories and studies of organizational behavior, while Lawrence
Foster urged me to employ anthropology and the sociology of religion,
whereas Jan Shipps recommended that I place my findings within the
context of recent work in religious studies.
However, I believe that it is necessary to establish the data before
seeking larger contexts, and that was an enormous task. The bulk of my
research explored uncharted terrain of the Mormon hierarchy’s experi­
ence. Eventually I realized it would require more than one volume just to
present the evidence I had uncovered. Significant comparative analysis
became impossible because I was unwilling to trim the data. Nor did I want
to imply that scattered sentences and a few footnotes equalled a compari­
son or defined a context. Although there are interpretations and analysis
in these volumes on the Mormon hierarchy, my study is primarily descrip­
tive. I leave it to others to provide the comparative analysis and new
insights.
During three decades of research about the Mormon hierarchy, I
received significant support and assistance of one kind or another from
many sources. I wish to acknowledge the following people and organiza­
tions, with special thanks to those who aided me during the preparation
of this volume: K. Haybron Adams, Roger J. Adams, Sydney E. Ahlstrom,
Stan L. Albrecht, Marilyn and Thomas G. Alexander, Renee and James B.
Allen, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Council
of Learned Societies, Devery S. Anderson, Lavina Fielding Anderson,
Lynn Matthews Anderson, Grace Fort Arrington, Harriet Horne Ar­
rington, Leonard J. Arrington, Don R. Austin, Valeen Tippetts Avery, Pat
Bagley, Will Bagley, Ian G. Barber, Alan Barnett, Steven Barnett, Bruce
Bastian, Irene M. Bates, Lorette Bayle, Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, the
Frederick W. Beinecke family, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript
X PREFACE
Library of Yale University, Jay Bell, the Samuel F. Bemis family, Curt
Bench, Steve Benson, Garyjames Bergera, Davis Bitton, Ron Bitton, Scott
Blaser, Alan Blodgett, David F. Boone, George T. Boyd, Mary Lythgoe
Bradford, Don Bradley, Martha Sonntag Bradley, the Dorothy Collins
Brown family, L. Madelon Brunson, Frederick S. Buchanan, Mariel Budd,
Gary Burgess, Cecelia Warner Burnard, Alfred L. Bush, Milo Calder,
Thomas E. Caldwell, David Callahan, Beth and Eugene E. Campbell, Greg
Campbell, Donald Q. Cannon, Kenneth L. Cannon II, Mark W. Cannon,
Barbara and Ray Chandler, Steven F. Christensen, Howard A. Christy,
Lyndon W. Cook, Everett L. Cooley, F. Alan Coombs, Kathleen and Roy
M. Darley, George Daul, Robert Dawidoff, Mario S. DePillis, the Dialogue
Foundation, Connie Disney, Ken Driggs, John Charles Duffy, Elizabeth G.
Dulany, G. Homer Durham, Lowell M. Durham, Jr., Paul Durham, Della
Dye, Arden Eby, Steven Eccles, Paul M. Edwards, the George W. Egleston
family, Andrew F. Ehat, Maria and S. George Ellsworth, Jessie L. Embry,
Lee Erickson, MaxJ. Evans, Oakley Evans, Richard Fernandez, J. Arthur
Fields, Edwin Brown Firmage, Chad J. Flake, Jani Fleet, Craig L. Foster,
Rodney P. Foster, Vincent R. Frey, Juana Frisbie, Kent Frogley, Richard
Galbraith, Margaret L. Gardner, Alison Bethke Gayek, Elizabeth and Van
Gessel, Charlie Gibbs, Donna R. Glunn, L. Brent Goates, Leo Goates,
Duffy Goble, Lorine S. Goodwin, Sarah Barringer Gordon, Claude
Grenier, Victoria Grover-Swank, C. Jess Groesbeck, Rick Grunder, Donald
R. Gustavson, Chuck Hamaker, Marion D. Hanks, Maxine Hanks, Klaus
J. Hansen, B. Carmon Hardy, Michael Harris, William G. Hartley, Jay M.
Haymond, Harvard Heath, Martin B. Hickman, Alice Hill, Jane Hill,
Wayne K. Hinton, the history departments of Yale University and Brigham
Young University, Mervin B. Hogan, Erik Holdaway, Patricia and David
Honey, David S. Hoopes, Shauna and Richard G. Horne, Dawn House,
Richard P. Howard, J. Preston Hughes, the Henry E. Huntington Library,
the Glen W. Irwin Foundation, T. Harold Jacobsen, Duane E. Jeffery,
Warren S. Jeffs, Richard L. Jensen, R. Hal Jenson, Dean C. Jessee, Clifton
Holt Jolley, Greg Jones, Keiko Jones, Walter Jones, Brian Kagel, Lisa
Lineback Kamerath, Gregory A. Kemp, Scott G. Kenney, Camilla, Edward
L. and Spencer W. Kimball, Stanley B. Kimball, Mark Edward Koltko,
Ogden Kraut, KUED-TV of Salt Lake City, the LDS Historical Depart­
ment’s current staff members who gave me their assistance and friendship
during a time they were free to do so, Shirley and Howard R. Lamar, Mary
and Richard N. W. Lambert, Laura Nguyen Lang, Stan Larson, Bill
Laursen, James B. Lavenstein, the Lee Library of Brigham Young Univer­
sity, Margaret D. Lester, Kirk and Becky Linford, J. Farrell Lines, Jr., Lee
Lucas, Steven Lucas, David Luciano, E. Leo Lyman, the T. Edgar Lyon
family, the McAdams family (Michael, Ruby, and Sylvia), Yvonne Zimmer
PREFACE xi
McBride, Judith and James W. McConkie, W. Grant McMurray, Sterling
M. McMurrin, Brigham D. Madsen, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Gordon A.
Madsen, MarkJ. Malcolm, the Marriott Library of the University of Utah,
Betty Ann Marshall, Martin E. Marty, Ray Matthews, the Giles Mead
Foundation, Brent L. Metcalfe, George Miles, Henry Miller, Ronald W.
Miller, Cindy Morgan, the Mormon History Association, the Mormon
History Trust Fund, Douglas L. Morton, the National Endowment for the
Humanities, John Netto, Linda and Jack Newell, Joy and Vaude Nye,
Moyne Oviatt Osborne, Richard D. Ouellette, David Pace, D. Gene Pace,
Wayne Parker, Max H. Parkin, Gary L. Parnell, Boyd Payne, Carol Lynn
Pearson, Elbert Eugene Peck, Robert S. Perkins, Rinehart Lee Peshell,
Lezann Pilgrim, Richard D. Poll, Perry Porter, Tom Portlock, Steven Pratt,
Brian Preece, Ronald Priddis, Gregory A. Prince, Beverly and Donald Pena
Quinn, Janice Darley Quinn, Carol Quist, John Quist, Will Quist, Tim
Rathbone, P. T. Reilly, A. Hamer Reiser, the Religious Studies Center of
Tndiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, Marcia Rice, Martin
Ridge, the B. H. Roberts Society, Cecile Rodrigue, Ronald E. Romig,
William H. Rose, Dennis Rowley, William D. Russell, Roger Salazar, Susan
Lucas Sceranka, Peter Schmid, Donald T. Schmidt, Gene A. Sessions, Jan
Shipps, John R. Sillito, Erin R. Silva, Barnard S. Silver, A. J. Simmonds,
Roy W. Simmons, Robert E. Simpson, Jr., Robert Allen Skotheim, Andrew
F. Smith, Elizabeth Shaw Smith, E. Gary Smith, George D. Smith, James
E. Smith, Melvin T. Smith, Robert J. Smith, Smith Research Associates,
Stephanie and John Sorensen, William R. Spence, Peggy Fletcher Stack,
Kathryn Quinn Jenson Standish, Martha R. Stewart, Ernest Strack, Lorie
Winder Stromberg, William E. Stuckey, the students of Brigham Young
University, the students of the Claremont Graduate School, the students
of Snow College, the students of Southern Utah University, the students
of the University of Utah, the students of Weber State University, the
students of Yale University, the Sunstone Foundation, George S. Tanner,
Raymond W. Taylor, Samuel W. Taylor, Linda Thatcher, Gregory C.
Thompson, Gary Topping, Margaret Merrill Toscano, Paul Toscano, Mark
N. Trahant, Grant Underwood, J. Brandon Valentine, Jeanie Hanks Van
Amen, Richard S. Van Wagoner, Ken Verdoia, Dan Vogel, Fred Voros, Jr.,
Doris and Ted J. Warner, Bryan Waterman, Sam Weller, Tony Weller,
Hugh S. West, Alan Whitesides, Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, the Mrs. Giles
Whiting Foundation, the John Whitmer Historical Association, David J.
Whittaker, Anne Wilde, J. D. Williams, Val Wilson, Wendy Winegar,
HenryJ. Wolfinger, Jeff Wood, Margery Ward Wood, the Workman family
(Coila, Darlene, Della, Donna, Frank J., Frank L., Joseph Alma, Joyce,
Norma, Pam, Ruben, and Toni), Nancy Young, and my children Mary,
Lisa, Adam, and Paul Moshe.
XI1 PREFACE
Also I express special thanks to the following persons who critiqued
preliminary versions of this volume in part or whole during the past
twenty-five years: Linda Hunter Adams, Gordon Burt Affleck, Sydney E.
Ahlstrom, Thomas G. Alexander, James B. Allen, Byron Cannon Ander­
son, Lavina Fielding Anderson, Leonard J. Arrington, Irene M. Bates,
Louise Clark Bennion, Gary James Bergera, Davis Bitton, Jeff D. Blake,
Mary Lythgoe Bradford, Martha Sonntag Bradley, Greg Campbell, Adrian
W. Cannon, Howard A. Christy, J. Reuben Clark III, James G. Clawson,
Curt E. Conklin, Brent D. Corcoran, Kathleen Latham Darley, Scott C.
Dunn, Andrew F. Ehat, Richard G. Ellsworth, Ronald K. Esplin, Lawrence
Foster, Frank W. Fox, Maxine Hanks, Klaus J. Hansen, William G. Hartley,
Martin B. Hickman, Norris Hundley, Howard W. Hunter, Jeffery O.
Johnson, G. Kevin Jones, Lynne Watkins Jorgensen, Brian Kagel, Scott G.
Kenney, Howard R. Lamar, Stanford J. Layton, James Wirthlin McConkie
II, Mark J. Malcolm, David E. Miller, Thomas S. Monson, Miriam B.
Murphy, L. Jackson Newell, Linda King Newell, Elbert Eugene Peck,
Richard D. Poll, Ronald Priddis, Daniel H. Rector, Allen D. Roberts,
Richard W. Sadler, Patricia Lyn Scott, Marianne Clark Sharp, Jan Shipps,
E. Gary Smith, Peggy Fletcher Stack, Susan Staker, Charles D. Tate, Jr.,
Robert K. Thomas, S. Lyman Tyler, Laura Wadley, Bryan Waterman, Jean
Bickmore White, DavidJ. Whittaker, R. Hal Williams, and Larry Wimmer.
They have not always agreed with my conclusions, and I have not always
accepted their critiques, but this is a better study because of the dialogue
between us. Nevertheless, I alone am responsible for the content and
interpretations of this study.
Salt Lake City
November 1996