Im a new generation ExMo who isn't very familiar with the Church prior to 2000. I've noticed that he's brought up on here quite a bit, and I have a ton of TBM friends who share his quotes often on Facebook and Twitter. I know he was an apostle who died in the 80, but what is his significance? Both to Mormons and detractors alike.

Thanks guys!

as I recall, he was a 'Faithfull Denier';


(once again) Facts DON'T MATTER to Mormons, BRM was sitting in that pew.

He was touted as a doctrinal expert just like his father-in-law Joseph Fielding Smith. He wrote books, the most famous of which was "Mormon Doctrine." That book has been thrown under the bus mostly because of the issue with blacks getting the priesthood in 1978. He said it would only happen at the very end of the millenial reign of Christ. His personality was absolute zero. His faith seemed unshakable. His view of doctrine was narrow.

Yes. Tom Padley. He didn't think African Americans would ever get the priesthood.

He was very narrow in his thinking.

One of the stand out 'exmo' topics of McConkie was his authorship of "Mormon Doctrine" in 1958. The first edition was deemed controversial and was edited for the release of the second edition to tone down some of his hard line stance on some doctrinal subjects.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_Doctrine_(book)

just another scumbag

In his era, TSCC was trying to walk a difficult balance between GAs making LOTS of $ publishing books and disavowing 'unofficial' books of LDS interest.


IDK where this is today.

He wore glasses, had big teeth, was tall and spoke in a monotone to bore ice cubes.

He is wrinkled, brittle, crusty- just like when he was alive.

I was a deeply confused kid. I actually liked McConkie while he was alive. I liked his seriousness. It didn't matter that I didn't actually believe anything he said.

He's often referred to as Bruce McDonkey.

Well, he was an old-school Democrat, so he emphasized that the LDS church wasn't tied to any political party.

He emphasized that Zion wasn't Utah. Zion wasn't even North and South America, although Joseph Smith had stated it was. Zion was wherever there was a stake of Zion.

He gave a great talk called "Only an Elder." Great, at least. for resisting the pretensions of local leadership tyrants. An elder holds the same priesthood that created the universe. Although I suppose some elders could turn that against their wives.

His shameful and ridiculous equivocation on "death" coming into the world, as in the "Seven Deadly Heresies" talk, made us all feel a little bit stupider for having heard it.

He was born

He lived

He died

Bruce Very much put me in tune with the idea that EVEN IF there was a MORmON heaven, I CERTAINLY did NOT want to go there/ be there.

While speaking to a Zone conference I was in he asked my companion to get up and walk out the dooor and come back in. Then he asked if the Elder felt any different? To which he explained that heaven will feel just like this, the here and now. You won't feel any different in heaven.

Not much to look forward to in heaven is there?

Nope.

I couldn't possibly find it now, but when I first became actively skeptical about Mormonism I read something very interesting. Apparently McConkie's surviving children believed that he was in Heaven writing the lyrics for the hymns at the Second Coming.

I have no doubt I would hate singing those hymns. "I Believe in Christ," the one hymn by McConkie I'm aware of, is the dreariest hymn in the universe. Even if Mozart is in Heaven writing the music, McConkie would find a way to ruin it. He'd probably throw in something about Blood Atonement or Outer Darkness.

his first edition of MORmON DoctUrine explicitly stated that MORmON polygamy would be re instituted/ reinstated in preparation for Christ's second coming and his Millennial reign.

He was the #2 most authoritarian leader of the Mormon cult.

I suspect if we had been alive during Brigham's day we may have given B.Y. the coveted #2 position.

What needs to be remembered is that we are dealing with family politics running the mormon church. In the 20th century The smith family ruled. It started with Joseph F. who laid out piles of the modern doctrine. He advanced his relatives. Joseph Fielding came and out lived all his contemporaries (Talmage, Roberts, Clark, etc) and became prophet. His piles of doctrine out shown everyone else's for that reason. And hence you can go to Deseret book and still buy his stuff, but you won't find Henry Moyle doc anywhere. Then comes his son-in-law, the lawyer, (McKonkie) who deep down was probably more of a fundamentalist, there was at that time the idea that the lord favored the smith family, They were more intelligent with the spirit than any other GA. (I was taught this in seminary).

And of course McKonkie was big in the whole "saturday evening of time" crapola, and made lots of money off of the last days frenzies that was so popular in the 80's. We weren't suppose to last after the year 2000 or very long after that.

He was an ass.

This.

In my memory, Bruce McConkie wrote a "Question and Answer"-type book on Mormon Doctrine, because, at that time, the church had no such guide as to what Mormons actually believed (or supposedly believed).

As S.S. teachers, we (my spouse and I, and plenty of others), went to McConkie's reference book to see the church's' stance on Mormon doctrine, which at the time wasn't available in any other church-type book.

He did a very good job, and so much so, it seemed, as to fall in disfavor with the Brethren, and without any private warning to him. He was just as shocked about this backlash, as were the rest of us.

Still, in reaction to this attack by the church, McConkie quickly and humbly apologized for any doctrine he misrepresented.

However, his apology meant nothing to the Brethren, who were intent on saving face, at his expense. They (the Brethren) never named specific doctrinal errors, just condemned McConkie in general (who, if I remember correctly, had shown his work to the Brethren before it was published).

Nevertheless, the Brethren unitedly embarrassed and humiliated him, and treated him as an enemy to the church. All very unfair, and unnecessary.

McConkie wrote "Mormon Doctrine" when we was an assistant to the twelve, before he was an apostle.

The backlash occurred prior to the book being published, and some of the twelve pointed out specific errors and were of the opinion that it shouldn't be published at all.

I don't know where the above apologetics came from. Maybe it was passed down in the McConkie family.

First Council of Seventy, actually.

The Brethren had a list of over 1000 specific errors in the book. Although, come to think of it, they may not have shown the list to Bruce. He did agree to quit publishing the book, and then broke his word by coming out with a second edition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNO2aPLaP2o

in my family, we were stridently taught to NOT aspire to church leadership callings because doing so was a form of vanity, and vanity was a sin, and selecting church leaders was the Lord's area of concern to take care of. Being a church leader was supposed to be an assignment, NOT a status symbol. Running for office was taboo. Our responsibility was to be as faithful as possible, and let the Lord take care of the business of selecting leaders.

That said, to me McConkie was obviously one of the most blatant offenders of the ideology of selflessness. McConkie was some one who was totally consumed with obsession of himself, self entitlement and his political ambitions with in the MORmON kingDUMB. Bruce obviously shamelessly ran for church offices/ positions his entire life, something that he would tell others not to do, but it was all right for him to do because he was so special and so entitled. Only a person as truly magnificent as Bruce could really understand Bruce's superlative fitness for leadership roles, and that elite standing did not include anyone else.

His marriage to a daughter of a Church president has to be one of the most contrived and convoluted "romances" of ulterior motives ever. And Bruce's subsequent ascendance through the ranks of MORmON leadership is one of the most pathetic and transparent examples of nepotism ever, even though Bruce did love to hear the sound of his own halting grinding monotone voice which is a great attribute for being a MORmON leader.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTGD6wA5MfY

One guy at work used to date one of McConkie's daughters many years ago. Before they would go out, Bruce would always give them a couple of copies of his book MORmON DoctUrine. It was their duty to peddle the books as they were out in public for their date.

Any one who found McConkie to be inspiring deserves to be in MORmON heaven (Hell) with him for eternity.

He really thought that he was so witty by making lame comments.

He boasted at the beginning of the devotional that he spoke as if it was gawd giving the talk.