NEWS symposium was cancelled tion, and RMMkA), holding when no proposals for papers or monthly readings open to the pub- readings were received. Typical of lic, publishing an annual biblio- this year’s activity rate, only twenty graphy, and producing a combina- MEETING BREATHES LIFE people attended the 1988 banquet. tion newsletter/journal. William A. Wilson, chair of The 1987 writing awards given INTO ASSOCIATION BYU’s English department, was at the meeting are: named president for 1988, and Levi Critical Writing: Bruce W. OF MORMON LETTERS Peterson, professor of English at Jorgensen, "Romantic Lyric Form Weber State College, will serve as and Western Mormon Experience president-elect. John Tanner, assis- in the Stories of Douglas Thayer," By Dan Maryon tant professor of English at BYU, is Western American Literature 22:1 the immediate past president, and (May 1987). gave the presidential address as Personal Essay: Mary L. Brad- The Association for Mormon home of Steven Sondrup, began part of the evening’s program. In ford, Leaving Home (: Letters hdd an awards banquet and with a business meeting to discuss addition to current board members Signature Books). annual business meeting 1 April in the current state of the Association. Gloria Cronin, Dean Hughes, and Poetry: R. A. Christmas, "Self Salt Lake City, presenting writing Begun in 1976, AML has sponsored Bruce Jorgensen, Linda Sillitoe and Portrait as Brigham Young," Sun- awards for 1987, hearing readings an annual symposium since 1977 Ken Hunsaker were named to the stone 11:4 (July 1987). by award winners, and sustaining and awards prizes each year in board, with a sixth member yet to Short Story: Darrell Spencer, new officers and board members imaginative and critical writing. A be confirmed. The board and new Woman Packing a Pistol (Port Town- for 1988. While reports of AML’s newsletter and annual journal have officers will decide what form send, Wash.: Dragon Gate). death are only slightly exaggerated, been published, but interest has future meetings and publications Novel: Linda Sillitoe, Sideways to the group plans to resume a regular dropped sharply in the last three or will take. the Sun (Salt Lake City: Signature schedule of activities during the four years, and only six submis- Possible changes in AML’s meet- Books). coming year and increase member- sions were received for the 1987 ings and publications were pro- For additional information on ship, which has dwindled from a journal, according to Sondrup. The posed during the meeting, and the Association of Mormon Letters, high of over 300 to about 70 cur- East and West coast AML symposia include cosponsoring events with contact: Steven Sondrup, 1346 rent members. that have been held in the past are other symposia (such as SUN- South i800 East, Salt Lake City, UT The annual banquet, held at the no longer organized, and the 1988 STONE, Mormon History Associa- 84108.

MARCH 1988 PAGE 49 ior apostles directs executive coun- are able to exercise control through UPDATE ON THE cils and hence most programs of the crucial committees they chair, the Church. In addition, the Cor- including the General Welfare Serv- COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION relation Department, which ices Committee chaired by Presi- approves all Church materials for dent Thomas S. Monson (which publication, reports to this com- oversees the functions of the pre- OF THE CHURCH’S mittee. One particularly influential siding bishop), the Personnel Com- branch of the Correlation Depart- mittee, the Church Board of Educa- PRESIDING QUORUMS ment is Research and F_valuation, tion chaired by President Gordon which conducts highly sophis- B. Hinckley (which oversees ticated studies on the Church in Brigham Young University and the areas such as membership activity Church Educational System), and WHEN PRESIDENT Spencer bishop to the Twelve. and conversion processes. Obvi- the all important budget com- Kimball announced the reorgani- On the ecclesiastical side there ously, the chair of this committee mittee, the Committee on the Dis- zation of the First Quorum of the are three "executive councils" can be very influential; because of position of the Tithes, which meets Seventy in 1975 the move inaugu- which direct the affairs of the the activist nature of the current once a year. rated a half decade redefining the Church: the Missionary Executive chair, some in the bureaucracy call In addition, the Brethren have a roles and responsibilities of the Council, the Priesthood Executive him the "de facto" Church presi- loyal bureaucracy which sincerely new quorum, the First Presidency Council, and the Temple and Fam- dent. attempts to implement their will. and the Quorum of the Twelve. The ily History Executive Council (for- This committee structure places Many Church administrators result is a committee system of gen- merly the Temple and Genealogy the Quorum of the Twelve in a report that the latest talks by the eral authorities which exercises Executive Council). Apostles are position to actively "regulate ~:he prophet and his counselors are fre- substantial oversight of the church assigned by seniority to one of the affairs of the [church] in all nations" quently referred to by general headquarters and general programs committees. The senior apostle on (D6~C 107:33). Indeed, many authorities and analyzed by and is designed to keep the focus of each council serves as chair. Mem- informed Church staff describe the employed staff for direction in the Church on its stated three mis- bers of the First Quorum of the management of the Church’s administering programs. sions: to preach the gospel, redeem Seventy who act as the executive departments without mentiomng If the historically ambiguous role the dead, and perfect the saints. director of a Church department the First Presidency. Wihen asked between the First Presidency and Church organization was not also serve on the council which about the role of the Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve is now always complex. In the 1930s the directs their department. (See one senior bureaucrat with years, of fairly clearly delineated, the role of First Presidency directly super- organizational chart for committee Church Office Building experience the First Quorum of the Seventy is vised many departments and assignments.) replied, "That is the great secret." still uncertain and the boundaries apostles served as general presi- These councils directly super- Another jokingly stated, "In (his between them and the Twelve, with dents of the auxiliaries. In the vise both the Church bureaucracy Church we made a distinction long whom they are doctrinally equal in 1960s the priesthood correlation. and "priesthood line" leaders of the ago between presiding and con- authority, continue to shift. Shortly movement restructured the Church Church. Like Congressional com- ducting." Others explain that there after the Quorum was reorganized, administration bringing all depart- mittees, these councils give pro- is an extensive informal decision- the differences in quorum respon- ments and auxiliaries (some of grams and policies a detailed gen- making system that is not reflected sibilities were explained by assign- which had become quite autono- eral authority review, which in organizational charts. ing the setting of vision to the First mous) under priesthood direction. explains why some apostles seem LDS Public Communications Presidency, policy to the Twelve, Coupled with that, the growth of particularly active in a certain area. spokesperson Jerry Cahill explains and administration to the Seventy. the Church has required the Each council also supervises one that preliminary decisions made by The seven presidents and other Quorum of the Twelve to assume third of the areas of the Church, the executive councils are seventies were made directors of direct administration that the First giving them direct authority over approved in a weekly meeting of the Church’s main departments Presidency once did. the Church’s hierarchal priesthood the Twelve and the First Presi- and the presidency began making In 1977 the First Presidency line. For each area presidency, one dency. According to him, the struc- administrative decisions. Very announced that the}, had made an apostle on the council is identified ture of that meeting’s agenda is the soon, however, the apostles began organizational distinction between as the "first contact" person (see three missions of the Church and to sense that they were too distant the ecclesiastical affairs of the chart for area assignments). the specific items come from the from "regulating the affairs" and the Church and the temporal affairs (al- Overseeing these three councils executive councils. Nevertheless, executive councils were created to though those terms are not now the is the Correlation Executive Con-> items that received an hour discus- direct the departments, giving the Church "buzz words" they were mittee, whose membership con- sion in an executive council may Twelve greater supervision. then). Under the direction of the sists of the chair of each executive get five minutes at this meeting Currently seventies now fulfill First Presidency, ecclesiastical council and the presiding bishop. (For a detailed description of the their scriptural injunction to act affairs were to be administered by The chair of this committee is the administrative meetings of Spencer "under the direction of the the Quorum of the Twelve and the president of the Twelve or, if for Kimball’s presidency see President Twelve,...in regulating all the affairs temporal matters (buildings and some reason he does not serve on N. Eldon Tanner’s speech, ’Admin- of the church" (DekC 107:34) on an welfare services) by the presiding the committee, the senior apostle istration of the Restored Church," individual basis. As area presi- bishop. As a result, youth programs on the committee. This influential in the 1978 April Ensign.) However, dents, auxiliary heads, and depart- were transferred from the presiding committee of the three or four sen- members of the First Presidenc-~~ ment directors they report to mem- t~4GE 50 MARCH 1988 bers of the Twelve on the executive (there are rumors of major THE FIRST PRESIOENCY councils. However, the quorum sd- reassignments in August). Report- President President President Thomas S. Monson dom has the opportunity to act as edly, one reason for the dearth of Gordon B. Hickley a united group. In a way, the former information on the presiding quor- THE PRESIDING ums is to avoid emphasizing the TEMPOFIAL title "assistant to the Twdve" is ECCLESIASTICAL BISHOPRIC more descriptive of their duties process and personalities over the LINE LINE than "member of the First Quorum content of their deliberations. Terminology is important in of the Seventy." There is a monthly THE QUORUM OF THE TWELVE quorum meeting for members in Church administration. For exam- Salt Lake, and after each general ple, when a directs a THE CORRELATION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE conference there is a quorum meet- department, he is the executive L. Tom Perry Marvin J. Ashton Boyd K. Packer Robert D. Hales ing in which information is dis- director and his counselors (who MISSIONARY PRIESTHOOD TEMPLE & EXECUTIVE EXECUTIVE FAMILY HISTORY seminated but no decisions are are also seventies) are managing COUNCIL COUNCIL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL made. (One seventy in an overseas directors; however, when a non- L. Tom Perry Marvin J. Ashton Boyd K. Packer David B. Haight Neal A. Maxwell James E. Faust area presidency is hoping to serve is the director he M. Russell Ballard Russell M. Nelson Dallin Oaks Joseph B. Wirthlin his entire five-year term without is only a managing director. The Robert L. Backman James M Paramore Richard G. Scott Hugh W. Pinnock W. Grant Bangerter attending a quorum meeting.) term "administer" is now out of Glenn L. Pace Robert D. Hales Henry B. Eyring Apparently, when the seven presi- favor; several apostles have become dents meet they do some coordi- attached to dropping the "ad" and DEPARTMENTS RUN BY GENERAL AUTHORITIES nating, work on specific assign- simply "ministering" to the (Listed under appropriate executive council) ments from the Twelve, but outside Church. Mi~ionary I~lpt. ~at~iculum Family Histow D~pt. Robert L. Backman Hugh W: Pinnock Richard G. Scott of training new members, they do With the growth and entrench- J. Richard Clarke Gene R. Cook Loren C. Dunn Russell C. Taylor William R. Bradford J. Thomas Fyans not direct the work of the members ment of the committee system, the Glen L. Rudd Keith Wilcox Historical I~t. of their quorum. decision-making processes of the Priesthood Department Dean L. Larsen In addition to the above major general authorities have become Marion D. Hanks John Carmack James M. Paramore committees and councils there are more collaborative. When Presi- Paul H. Dunn Temple Department W. Grant Bangerter numerous other general authority dent Gordon B. Hinckley was a CORRELATION Sunday School Rex C. Reeve committees, which are usually counselor to Spencer W. Kimball DEPARTMENT Robert L. Simpson H. Burke Peterson Dean L. Larsen Devere Harris chaired by an apostle and fre- he easily dismissed a reporter’s Ted E. Brewerton Phillip T. Sonntag quently have seventies as members. question about the possibility that Robert B. Harbertson Young Men Vaughn J. Featherstone A sampling of them include the Ezra Taft Benson might lead the Rex D. Pinegar Boundaries and Leadership Church in an ultra-conservative Hartman Rector, Jr. Changes Committee, the Special direction if he succeeded to the AREA PRESIDENCIES Affairs Committee chaired by Elder presidency. Dismissing the idea (executive council "first contact" in parentheses) David B. Haight (press and govern- that one person alone could lead Brazil (Haight) Euml~ (Nelson) il~ia (Oaks) mental relations), the Leadership the Church in a new direction, Francis M. Gibbons Carlos E. Asay Jacob de Jager Helio R. Camargo Hans B. Ringger Adney Y. Komatsu Training Committee chaired by Elder Hinckley said that the ques- Lynn A. Sorensen John R. Lasater Richard O. Clark North Amer. Southwest North America Central /Central America Elder James E. Faust (for general tion showed no understanding of (Ballard) (Wirthlin) (Packer) authorities and stake and local the consensus decision-making H. Burke Peterson Loren C. Dunn Robert E. Wells Ronald E. Poelman F. Burton Howard H. Verlan Andersen leaders), the committee on the res- processes of the Church’s leaders. Devere Harris Phillip T. Sonntag Gardner H. Russell toration of temple blessings and In the years since, the nature and South America North North America Northeast North America Northwest (Ballard) 0Nirthlin) (Faust) cancellation of sealings (it reports power of that process have Charles Didier John K. Carmack Rex C. Reeve Angel Abrea Keith W. Wilcox Robert B. Harbertson to the First Presidency). become increasingly apparent. Derek A. Cuthbert Royden G. Derrick Robert L. Simpson Even for Church Office Building South America South North America Southeast North America West (Perry) (Ashton) (Oaks) employees, it is difficult to under- Waldo P. Call Rex D. Pinegar Gene R. Cook John H. Groberg Hartman Rector, Jr. Ted E. Brewerton stand the organization of the gen- L. Aldin Porter J. Richard Clarke Glen L. Rudd eral authorities. The Brethren are Utah North United Kingdom/Ireland / Pacific (Haight) Africa (Maxwell) (Faust) very secretative about their inner J. Thomas Fyans Jack H. Goaslind John Sonnenberg William R. Bradford Spencer H. Osborn F. Arthur Kay workings. Currently, no organiza- Victor L. Brown Alexander B. Morrison George P. Lee tional charts are available even for Utah South Philippines/Micronesia (Perry) (Oaks) the bureaucracy. For the general Vaughn J, Featherstone George I. Cannon church member, no listing of gen- Paul H. Dunn George R. Hill Russell C. Taylor eral authority responsibilities and Douglas J. Martin organization has been published since a 1979 story announced the executive com- mittees, as they were then called. Although the accompanying chart is accurate as of late as April 1988, it is undoubtedly now out of date

MARCH 1988 PAGE 51 SUN SPOTS OXYMORMONS

New Swimsuit Old Swimsuit BEACHING THE WHALE AFTER YEARS of complaints about the school’s chaste but regulation black double-knit swimsuits for women, affectionally called the "whale," BYU’s Physical Education Services commissioned a new speedo look designed to lure back boycotting co-eds. The navy blue, cross-strapped, open-back suits are made from lycra, which pulls on much more easily than the old nylon suits. The new suits will be phased in gradually; individuals who forget their BYU I.D. cards will be issued the old suits, which pull on tight and embarrassingly expand in the water. PRUNING BROWN’S THE TOP TEN HETERODOXY GOLDEN OLDIES ALTHOUGH THERE is no ques- SALT LAKE fine and rare book tion that former First Presidency dealer Curt Bench reports that the counselor Hugh B. Brown believed current top ten requests for out- and in private conversations fre- of-print LDS books are: (1) N.B. quently said his famous quote, "We Lundwall’s Temples of the Most are not so much concerned with High; (2)Joseph Fielding Smith’s whether your thoughts are ortho-. five-volume Answers to Gospel dox or heterodox as we are that you Questions; (3) Hugh Nibley’s The shall have thoughts," apparently he Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, did not say it at the 1969 BYU An Egyptian Endowment; (4) The devotional where he is reported to Primary Association’s A Story to have said it. The quote appears in Tell; (5) Melvin Cook’s Science and the original manuscript of the Mormonism; (6) Spencer Corn- speech, which the Church News wall’s Stories of Our Mormon Hymns; used for its report, and it is in the (7) Don Corbett’s Mary Fielding Dialogue published version, which Smith; (8) Joseph Fielding Smith’s Brown approved, but it is not on Man, His Origin and Destiny; (9) the BYU-issued audio tape. Is this a John A. Widtsoe’s A Rational The- Tapegate controversy with an 18 ology; and (10) Sydney B. Sperry’s second gap? Voice of Israel’s Prophets.

PAGE 52 MARCH 1988 "Thorough and compelling." "Meticulous." ~ Carl Arrington, People Magozine Robert Jones, Los Angeles Times "A triumph!" ~ Paul Swenson, Utah Holiday

"Fast-paced... A story that proves the adage that truth is stranger than fiction." ~ Duane Freitag, Milwaukee Journal

"Painstakingly guides the reader through a complicated tangle of contradictions, rumors, half-truths and outright lies." ~ Harold Schindler, The Salt Lake Tribune

"At the heart of Salamander... is the mystery of Hofmann’s motives and character. The authors.., leave it up Cloth to the reader to determine whether 600 pages the judgment for [Hofmann’s] crimes 40 photos is justified." $17.95 Richard Shahan, Denver Post

"Masterful... Investigative journalism at its best." ~ *Kathryn MacKay, Utah Humanities News

"Deep beneath the majestic Utah mountains, with its ’God-driven snow’ and fervent religion, lie the murder, forgery, and greed skillfully captured in Sillitoe’s and Roberts’s exciting new book." ~ Melvin M. Belli, Sr., author of My Life on Trial

Salamander is available nationally at Waldenbooks, Doubleday bookstores, and Little Professor. Available regionally at B. Dalton, Logos, and other major chains and independent bookstores.