Today Church members are asked not to write directly to General Authorities, but to speak to their bishops and stake presidents, and let those local leaders decide whether it is necessary to contact a higher authority.
I don’t know all the reasons for that change in practice, but I can guess at some of them – I’ve spent a great deal of time over the past 15 years through collections of correspondence and seeing what members have written. Many people have asked for personal advice (or favors, or cash, or jobs) that are either completely inappropriate or which could hardly be answered without a personal acquaintance with the letter-writer. Responding to letters, even when Church members ask questions that a General Authority can reasonably respond to, must have been terribly time-consuming. Because Church members tended to ask the same doctrinal questions over and over, year after year, some leaders found themselves dictating the same answers over and over again.
Sometimes General Authorities took these questions and answers and turned them into books. John A. Widtsoe wrote his Evidences and Reconciliations first as articles in the Improvement Era and then compiled into book series. Joseph Fielding Smith did the same thing, answering questions in the Improvement Era and compiling many of those columns into his series Answers to Gospel Questions.
What do you suppose were the most often asked questions through the first half of the 20th century? I haven’t kept any sort of record to provide any statistically valid answer; still, I have kept a mental list of the questions that I’ve seen multiple times.
Before I list those questions based on my personal observation, I thought it would be fun to ask Keepa’ninnies what you think might be the most frequently asked questions. What was on the collective mind of our fellow Saints of the 20th century? I’ll bet you guess some of them, but I’ll also bet some will surprise you.
Tell us what you think in comments to this post, and later this week I’ll tell you what I’ve noticed from my research.
(Understand, however, that I’ll only be listing and discussing the questions – not providing the answers given by the men whose papers I’ve read. This exercise is intended to explore what was on the minds of the Saints, not the doctrinal or personal responses of any particular leaders.)
The Word of Wisdom and the Return to Jackson County. My two-cent guesses. (That’s one-cent each.)
I’ll guess a lot of questions were about when divorce was justified.
I’ll also guess there were a lot of questions about what consituted “increase” for purposes of computing tithes.
Third guess: When is confession to a bishop necessary?
Okay. For theology-related questions (and in no particular order):
Is organic evolution true?
Is there progression from one kingdom to another?
Does God know everything?
Did Brigham Young teach Adam-God?
And two of my favorites:
Is Coke/Postum/Etc. against the Word of Wisdom?
Does the Church support the John Birch Society? (Or Why doesn’t the Church support the John Birch Society?)
Having served as bishop and in a stake presidency, I can say that sometimes there is no one local that can satisfactorily answer some tough doctrinal/historical questions. The member’s local leaders are informed by headquarters and told to assist brother or sister so-and-so with their question or concern. Thus, nothing is accomplished and no answer is given because the stake president doesn’t have a clue himself. Sometimes the only solution is for the the general authority to answer the concern. Yes, the brethren are busy, but when the Church becomes so big that we only see the general authorities from afar, it is a problem.
jc, please help to illustrate the problem you see — what are some of the questions (at least the general topics, if not specific questions) that you remember being asked that cannot be answered locally? They may or may not be the same ones that puzzled earlier generations.
How about, When are we getting a temple built around here?
Others: Can you endorse me in my local political campaign? What is the appropriate level of personal/ward work in the stake farm(s) or other projects?
I know the space race in the caused some consternation among my family members (and one apostle in particular) regarding whether God intended men to leave the earth, so I’m curious if anyone else was similarly concerned about the doctrinal implications. I expect letters related to the 2nd coming (timing and relocation to Missouri), birth control, polygamy (it’s past practice, whether it will be required temporally again, and it’s existence in the hereafter), women’s roles, and blacks and the priesthood. I really hope caffeinated soft-drinks, R-movies, and where the church keeps the gold plates don’t make the list, but I’m trying to stay realistic.
Sorry…”the space race in the 1950s and 1960s”
Interpreting “questions” broadly, the cynical side of me expects to some version of “Can you please make my local leader do what I want?”, and also some version of “How dare you?!”
Less cynically, I imagine we’ll see questions about: the Church’s stance on political issues, immigration, war, evolution, the age of the earth, death before the fall, race or gender, behavioral rules, how the Atonement works, how Christ is the Father and the Son, and forgiveness for serious sins.
These are all great suggestions — some of them right on the mark, and others I’m surprised have NOT turned up, at least not in the collections I’ve read.
For the first half of the century, and just judging by what the big issues of the time were, I’m guessing evolution came up frequently, questions on war (Whether it’s justified, what latter day saints should do, etc), and temple work for the dead.
Then there’s the usual questions that come up now: temples, priesthood and race, heavenly mother, proofs of the Book of Mormon, things past general authorities have said, polygamy, mountain meadows, missionary work in foreign countries, what’s grounds for church discipline. I’d bet at least 2/3rds of those were still big issues back then.
League of Nations?
With the turn of the new year and the switch from the teachings of Joseph Fielding Smith, I was thinking how I miss that old way of asking what the scriptures mean and harmonizing all of them as well as can be managed. It means something having an apostle modeling that activity and acting like others’ questions and confusions are worth spending time with.
Didn’t the “first half of the 20th Century” end in 1950?
I don’t have a sharp cut-off for my research, Mark — I’m most interested up to about 1950, but I keep reading if a collection goes beyond that date.
My guesses:
Evolution
Polygamy
Return to Jackson County
When is the Second Coming?
And probably questions relating to the depression era, such as New Deal programs and welfare issues.
When will we get the sealed portion of the Gold Plates?