I didn’t grow up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so forgive me for not knowing about Mormon Doctrine: A Compendium of the Gospel, a 1958 book by then-General Authority Bruce R. McConkie, until recently. As I understand it, though, this book was a staple of many Church member households. As Peggy Fletcher Stack wrote in The Salt Lake Tribune:
“Although McConkie, an LDS apostle who died in 1985, took sole responsibility from the start for Mormon Doctrine‘s content, it often was quoted over the pulpit and treated by members as quasi-official…“Mormon Doctrine served two generations of the Mormon rank and file as the main authoritative source of LDS teachings,” said LDS sociologist Armand Mauss. “With its authoritative tone and constant promotion from high places, it came to be regularly cited in the church curriculum, especially in [Church Educational System] materials, and soon took on almost a scriptural stature.”” (emphasis mine)
McConkie described his book as “the first major attempt to digest, explain, and analyze all of the important doctrines of the kingdom” and “the first extensive compendium of the whole gospel—the first attempt to publish an encyclopedic commentary covering the whole field of revealed religion.” It’s easy to see why so many members took its contents as the official position of the Church.
There are many, many issues with Mormon Doctrine but the two most frequently cited are its theological treatment of Black people and of Catholics. Earlier editions of the book stated that Black people would never be able to hold the Priesthood, but when that policy was changed in 1978 so was the text. All the editions included racist arguments about dark skin as cursed, Black people as descending from Cain, and Black people as less valiant in the premortal existence. We know better: race is a social construct and there’s no discrete category of people who are “dark” and descended from one Biblical character. We learn from the scriptures that God is no respecter of persons and that no person’s worthiness or sinfulness or belovedness is related at all to race or melanation. McConkie’s statements about Black people are wrong morally, theologically, and scientifically.
Mormon Doctrine also describes the Catholic Church as the Church of the Devil and the great and abominable church cited in the Book of Mormon. The passage someone shared online that inspired this blog post disparaged Catholic cathedrals and claimed ornate cathedrals are a sign of the great apostasy. As someone who has enjoyed many beautiful houses of worship in my life including mosques, cathedrals, and our own LDS temples, I find this characterization absurdly hypocritical. It’s deeply offensive to anyone who wishes to be in real community with other Christians, including Catholics. It’s also insulting to our spiritual ancestors, in whose honor we should remember the catastrophic consequences of what happened when other Christians othered us in our early Church history.
Other false doctrine from the book included:
- Contraception as “rebellion against God and…gross wickedness”
- Psychiatry as “apostate religion which keeps sinners from repenting”
- Evolution as incompatible with our religious beliefs
…The list goes on.
So what did Church leadership think of Mormon Doctrine, a book written by a then-member of the Seventy with no prior approval from the First Presidency or Quorum of the Twelve? The First Presidency under the express direction of President McKay concluded Mormon Doctrine was “full of errors and misstatements, and it is most unfortunate that it has received such wide circulation.” Apostles found over 1,000 “doctrinal errors” in the book. (Source: Science, Religion, and Mormon Cosmology by Erich Robert Paul, emphasis mine)
After this analysis of the errors in Mormon Doctrine, President McKay called McConkie’s father-in-law, Joseph Fielding Smith, to break the news that the book should not be republished. Crucially, however, McKay wanted to keep the slap on the wrist private:
“[McKay] then said: ‘Now, Brother Smith, he is a General Authority, and we do not want to give him a public rebuke that would be embarrassing to him and lessen his influence with the members of the Church, so we shall speak to the Twelve at our meeting in the temple tomorrow, and tell them that Brother McConkie’s book is not approved as an authoritative book, and that it should not be republished, even if the errors… are corrected.’ Brother Smith agreed with this suggestion to report to the Twelve, and said, ‘That is the best thing to do.’” (Source: Bruce R. McConkie: Highlights From His Life & Teachings by Dennis B. Horne, emphasis mine)
There are conflicting accounts of what happened after that and whether McKay later in life told McConkie he could publish a second edition of the book, but either way it was never an official Church publication and continued to include many false doctrines, including doctrines to which McKay expressed well-documented opposition. (For example, McKay taught that the Church had “no position” on evolution, a much more moderate stance than the one McConkie presented in Mormon Doctrine.)
This is what happens when the Church won’t say sorry: generations of people are harmed unnecessarily. It’s incalculable how many people were led astray by Mormon Doctrine because it goes beyond just those who purchased and read the book. Its false doctrine seeped into countless families, pervaded lessons from a multitude of well-meaning parents to their children, and echoed over pulpits around the world. How many couples avoided family planning because they thought God – rather than McConkie – said it was “gross wickedness”? How many people didn’t seek appropriate mental health treatment for fear of “apostasy”? How many people still oppress and dehumanize Black people and members of other faiths or people of non-belief because of what this one book taught and was allowed to continue teaching?
I’ve never read Mormon Doctrine cover to cover, but the scriptural example that keeps coming to mind as I hear from person after person who was hurt by its false teachings is the mist of darkness in Lehi’s dream in the Book of Mormon. When men of Church authority write books like this and the Church doesn’t criticize or apologize for them or correct them publicly, they are allowing the fog to obscure truth and lead members astray.
All of this avoidable pain, suffering, and confusion just to save one man from “embarrassment” and “lessened influence.”
(I’d like to give Valerie Nicole Green a hat tip for this post, as it was her social media comment that sent me down the rabbit hole of Mormon Doctrine history.)
13 Responses
Yes to all of this. How many people are harmed in the church because leaders don’t want to publicly embarrass men in power? To save the ego of one man, many lives are affected.
There is a similar story around then-Elder Benson’s talk about the Fourteen Fundamentals to Follow the Prophet given at BYU. The current prophet was horrified but didn’t dare retract it publicly, and now that talk is quoted in conference talks and lesson manuals even today as though it’s doctrine.
I’ve never heard of this talk, but maybe that’s my next rabbit hole…
You’re in for a real treat!
Well written and important post. Thank you Nicole. Words and ideas have the power to change the course of history.
Thank you so much for reading!
A few weeks ago we had some new missionaries speak in our ward. Both of them had been out on their missions for a few months, but they were both brand new to our area. One of them said something like, “Our apartment has a lot of reference books on a shelf. I found one called Mormon Doctrine. I’d never read that book before, but I picked it up in preparation for this talk.”
I braced myself for some sketchy doctrine, but thankfully what he said was pretty standard. Still, it’s problematic to know that that book is just hanging out for young, impressionable 19 year old’s to read.
Thank you for this post. It reminded me that I was considering reaching out to the Mission President and letting him know that he might want to update his missionaries on what books should be read with a great deal of critical thinking. (Or should just be removed from reference libraries all together.)
Future generations deserve so much better than this book that never should’ve seen the light of day!
So does the Church have to apologize for every book ever written about Mormonism? Do they need to apologize for all the false doctrine on this blog? If you pick up an anti-mormon book, do you automatically think everything in it is true? I am so tired of hearing people blame the Church for their own shortcomings and laziness. Do some research people. It is simple these days.
Your question deflects the real issue and is either ill-reasoned or dishonest. The issue is whether the church is responsible for the writings of “the brethren” – prophets, apostles, and G.A.s, not the writings of others. Additionally, Oaks has counseled that, “Research is not the answer” (so rely on the McConkies of your day).
“Whether by mine own voice or the voice of my servants, it is the same” is canonized scripture (D&C), “When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done” was said by many leaders for decades. Etc., etc., etc.
Please excuse my tone but the Mormon leadership’s legalese and disingenuous handling of so very many issues has driven me batty – I’m bracing myself, with regard to your post and the quotations I listed, for the response I expect: “The church never taught that / I was never taught that.”
The way I was raised, when you make a mistake or lie to someone you owe them a sincere apology. The quotes Josh shared convinced with false teachings like Mormon Doctrine have led so many people astray, and the Church could have prevented so much suffering by simply publicly apologizing or even just publicly disavowing the content of the book – since leaders agreed it was straight up wrong.
I’m particularly baffled by your question of whether I pick up an anti-Mormon book and believe everything in it is true… Obviously, I believe in the truth in the Church because I’m an adult convert who chose to get baptized (at great personal cost as the only member in my family). When I read comments like yours, it sounds to me like you would prefer everyone who doesn’t think just like you, people you characterize as lazy, would just leave. It’s not intellectually honest (as folks with criticisms of the Church are some of the most well-read folks steeped in a variety of solid research sources including those favorable and unfavorable to the Church), but it’s also not very kind (as many of us active members put this time and energy into pushing the Church to do better because we love the Church).
I had this book at home growing up and referenced it in youth talks I gave. Even if fellow apostles or highly educated adult Mormons could differentiate between McConkie’s “errors” and (what. . . more true? more accurate? more kind?) doctrine, I couldn’t at age 14. When the brethren chose to keep the wrist slap private and not force a recall of the book, it absolutely impacted how generations of Mormons were taught, and not for the better. Being an apostle does not prevent human error in talks or in books, and I wouldn’t expect every small error to be publicly corrected. But the hurtful things published under the name “Mormon Doctrine” could have been treated as exceptionally eggregious errors worthy of immediate public correction.
I couldn’t agree more!
It saddens and upsets me that some people might believe what is written here. Mormon Doctrine did much to clear away mists of darkness and keep people off forbidden doctrinal paths. Most of the Brethren loved the book.. It was Elder Petersen who disliked it and pressured the First Presidency into stopping publication after the fourth printing.
The book was quoted ubiquitously by Church leadership in conference, at BYU, and elsewhere. References to it and Elder McConkie’s other works filled church manuals of the 1980s and 90s. In the last several years, both Pres. Oaks and Pres. Nelson have both publicly praised Elder McConkie for his doctrinal insight.
Oscar McConkie Jr. gave us this information::
“When I determined to retire from Kirton and McConkie [the Church’s law firm], I was in my 85th year. I went to the First Presidency meeting to advise the First Presidency. As always, President Monson was kind to me and praised my lawyering. This was at a time when a book had been published about President David O. McKay in which it was falsely stated that Bruce had republished his book Mormon Doctrine without President McKay’s consent. President Monson went out of his way to say, so that it would be in the recorded minutes of the First Presidency, ‘Bruce and I got President McKay’s permission to republish Bruce’s Mormon Doctrine.’”
Pres. Nelson said this of Elder McConkie’s doctrinal knowledge:
“Occasionally, I would have an idea I wanted to discuss or had a question. I would knock on his door, and he was always gracious, always warmly welcoming. When I could see this was an opportunity to learn from him, I would ask him to put his remarks on pause for a minute while I called Elder Oaks and asked him to come up so we could converse with Elder McConkie together. That was a rare privilege.”
And also this:
“Elder Bruce R. McConkie was a great friend. His door was always open to me, and I frequently imposed upon his graciousness, asking him questions that possibly only he could answer.”
Pres. Oaks shared this about having Elder McConkie review a talk::. When Elder McConkie finished, they talked.:
“Then he enthusiastically and fervently clapped me on the shoulders with his huge hands . . . grinned his big grin and said, ‘But the best thing about this talk is that it shows the direction you are taking. It is a genuinely doctrinal talk. It is apostolic!’ I was so pleased at this comment about my talk as I do wish to understand and expound doctrine, and there is no living Apostle whom I respect more in that sphere than Bruce R. McConkie. I told him I wanted to be one who preaches doctrine.”
Elder Spencer W.. Kimball recorded this:
“The missionary class having been given to me on Sat, it was given to Pres. McConkie this morning and the missionaries asked questions. My companion is clear in his explanations, concise, well read, and has a great memory. The missionaries were entranced as I was.”
To try to say that Elder McConkie created mists of darkness also says that our current prophet and (likely) next prophet were fooled by him and his teachings and believed his mists of darkness. Pure hogwash and rubbish!