Interesting Mormon Facts

On recommendation from my good friends Liz and Jason (known in certain circles as LL & Cool J--well just one circle, well just me) I am reading David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism. Just as they intimated, the book is great--one of the most honest biographies of a church leader I have ever read. Everything is out on the table, including the priesthood ban, evolution, segregation, and politics. The book relies on interviews, First Presidency & Quorum of the Twelve meeting minutes, personal letters, etc. I am not quite done, but there were a few tid-bits that I thought were particularly surprising.

- Ernest L. Wilkinson (of Wilk Center Fame) setup a very Orwellian system of students "spying" and reporting on the day-to-day teaching of certain professors at BYU.
- At one point, McKay considered converting a 1000-ton ship into a temple to travel to the parts of the world without temples.
- Ezra T. Benson & Strom Thurmond considered forming a third party to pursue anti-communist activities more vigorously (10 years after the McCarthy debacle).

Those issues, however, are not the central theme. More than anything, the book underscores that it is OK to be different (even from other Mormons). The next time someone hijacks a Sunday School lesson from free agency to state's rights I think I will feel a little more free to share my opinion. The next time someone tries to claim a doctrinal basis for the evils of socialism, I will feel less restrained in asking if, then, all Swedes are, by definition, living out of harmony with the gospel. Most of all, to counter all the people thanking God for troops defending our freedom, I will pray more publicly for forgiveness for a nation that is clearly relying upon the arm of flesh ($500B) with predictable results.

You just have to love a President of the Church who would do this:

"At a reception McKay attended, the hostess served rum cake. 'All the guests hesitated, watching to see what McKay would do. He smacked his lips and began to eat.' When one guest expostulated, 'But President McKay, don't you know that is rum cake?' McKay smiled and reminded the guest that the Word of Wisdom forbade drinking alcohol, not eating it."