I first heard this story from a good friend and source who related it to me from memory, as it had been told to him. It was later confirmed by the following narrative of events centering on which bloodline prophetically possessed the gospel truth when it came to declaring official LDS doctrine to Mormonism's mutt-masses. Ultimately, the McConkie wing of Mormonism's wing-nut warriors played their ace, as described by the lesser-heritage-endowed crowd on the competing end:
"On 13 September 1979, [BYU] Professor [Eugene] England was scheduled to speak to BYU honors students [in a entitled] . . . 'The Lord’s University?' . . .
"The evening before the scheduled lecture, England received a phone call at home from Joseph Fielding McConkie, a BYU religion professor. Professor McConkie had read an earlier version of 'The Lord’s University?' and told England he thought his father, Elder Bruce R. McConkie, would strongly disapprove of its content.
"After a lengthy conversation, England invited Professor McConkie to the lecture so he could share with the audience what he felt his father’s objections might be. After hanging up the phone, England discussed the conversation with his wife, Charlotte, who expressed her concern that the interaction could become negative and advised against inviting McConkie to participate. England, however, thought it would be beneficial for students to see the respectful exchange by faculty members of differing opinions.
"After giving his lecture, England invited Joseph McConkie to respond. In his response, McConkie stated that his father, Elder McConkie, and grandfather Joseph Fielding Smith, taught of a god that is not progressing and whose perfection is absolute. 'Though I accord a man the privilege of worshipping what he may, there is a line--a boundary--a point at which he and his views are no longer welcome.'
"Joseph [McClinkie] concluded: 'I do not see the salvation of BYU in the abandonment of absolutes, and with the prophets whose blood flows in my veins, I refuse to worship at the shrine of an ignorant God.' As audience members sat stunned at the combative and superior tone of Professor McConkie’s remarks, England attempted to ease the tension in the crowded lecture hall and restore collegiality by expressing his appreciation for Brother McConkie’s response and acknowledging the educational value for students to hear such an open and honest exchange of ideas.
"This Eugene England and Joseph McConkie exchange might have remained a much-discussed disagreement between BYU professors that would fade with memory. However, nine months later, on 1 June 1980, Elder Bruce R. McConkie delivered at a BYU Devotional, a lecture entitled 'The Seven Deadly Heresies.' The primary 'heresy' Elder McConkie warned against was the belief that 'God is progressing in knowledge and is learning new truth. This is false, utterly, totally, and completely.' He further stated that we cannot be saved unless we believe that the 'truth as revealed to and taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith is that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.' McConkie belittled those who think otherwise as having 'the intellect of an ant and the understanding of a clod of miry clay in a primordial swamp.'"
("A Professor and Apostle Correspond: Eugene England and Bruce R. McConkie on the Nature of God." by Rebecca England [daughter of Eugene England], at:
http://www.eugeneengland.org/a-professor-and-apostle-correspond-eugene-england-and-bruce-r-mcconkie-on-the-nature-of-god)
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On a personal note:
This kind of superiority complex is particularly grating to me, as I witnessed and experienced it in the Benson-centric little world of stratified Mormonism.
--Example #1: General Authority-Based Approval of the Benson Family
My grandfather, ETB, emphasized to our clan (especially at family reunions that were arranged to coincide with General Conference during his reigning heyday) that we were all needed in the fight for right. He stated emphatically that the Bensons had a special duty to carry the banner for faith, family and freedom. He was fond of reminding us that Alma Sonne, an assistant to the Twelve, once noted there "was no better family in the Church than the Bensons." So what if Sonne hadn't met every family in the Church?
--Example #2: The Spirituality-Blessed Benson Family
Some years ago, my then-spouse and I visited with May Benson, wife of Reed Benson (ETB's oldest child), in their home in Provo, Utah, during which time the subject of ETB's sermon on pride was a focus of conversation.
The first occasion was prior to the public delivery of ETB's "Beware of Pride" sermon by Gordon B. Hinckley in the April 1989 General Conference and the second visit came after the speech.
May told us she had very strong feelings about the subject of pride. She was especially offended and concerned with what she regarded as the Benson family's own problems with pride. In fact, she had gotten up in disgust and walked out of a wedding breakfast for my sister, when one of the daughters of ETB, while listening to the father of the groom make some remarks to the assembled, leaned over and whispered self-righteously, "Well, we know which family was blessed with the spirituality."
--Example #3: The Self-Proclaimed Royal Benson Bloodline
Excerpts for letters from Ezra Taft Benson to me:
"Your father is doing an outstanding job as a Regional Representative. The people love him. He has their support and they plead with me not to move him . . . He is a great man, Stephen. You have choice blood in your veins.
"God bless you. We're so proud of you . . ."
(Ezra Taft Benson, "Grandpa Benson," to Stephen Benson, 6 December 1978)
"We have a great family and the grandchildren are all marrying well and are performing beautifully as they face the responsibilities and problems of life. We are proud of all the children, grandchildren, their companions, and the great-grandchildren. Of course, grandma says they're all 'great' and I know they are."
(Ezra Taft Benson, "Grandpa Benson," to Stephen Benson, 18 August 1982)
"Your father is doing an outstanding job as bishop . . .
"What a great family and what grateful grandparents and parents. The Lord bless you all 'now and always' is our humble wish and prayer."
("Grandpa and Grandma Benson," to Stephen and Mary Ann Benson, 20 February 1980)
"How I love you all and express deep gratitude for you and your wonderful qualities and for your love and support"
(Ezra Taft Benson, "Father, Grandfather and Greatgrandfather," to "Dear Children, Grandchildren, Great-Grandchildren and Eternal Companions," 18 June 1980)
"Stephen, I enjoyed a glorious weekend with your father in Jackson, Mississippi and in New Orleans. He is a great man, one of the outstanding sons of our Heavenly Father. This was impressed upon Grandma and me even more fully as we spent the weekend and Monday with him in the South.
"The Lord bless the posterity of your father and mother and bless you as you go forward following the instructions and example which they have set."
(Ezra Taft Benson, "Grandpa Benson," to Stephen and Mary Ann Benson, 11 December 1978)
--Example #4: General Conference Benson-Family "Bennies"
It used to be a tradition among the "perkified" Mormon=GA clans that between breaks of the General Conference morning and afternoon sessions, GAs and their families were treated to a sumptuous lunch, high atop the Church Office building.
The GAs relations (as well as friends and dates brought along by, say, their grandchildren) would gather at large tables, where they would be served heaping plates full of hot food, brought to them by young, crisply dressed girls. It was a place to eat, to be seen and to impress.
Meanwhile, during this GA food fest, we could look out the windows of this Great and Spacious Building, down at the lawn directly outside the Tabernacle, where the "great unwashed"--those LDS "little people"--were clustered on blankets brought from home, eating cheap box lunches which they had bought or food they had packed themselves--waiting and hoping to get into the afternoon session.
With our bellies pleasantly (not peasantly) full, we would eventually make our way down to the Tabernacle where we would flash our special-entrance passes, cut into line at the last minute ahead of people who had been waiting for hours, and make our way into "our" special seating.
At General Conference time, members of ETB's family (along with the relations of other GAs) were also provided special, nontransferable passes--identified as such--for admission into the sessions. They were issued to us through ETB's office manager and used to access the Tabernacle at a designated portal. We'd cut in line, flash the ticket, and be escorted to our seats. It wasn't fair or right, but neither concept operates in Mormonism.
One of the more interesting vantage points for viewing Conference was sitting high up in the dome, behind the Tabernacle Choir, next to the white plastered walls and massive organ pipes. To get there, the ushers would lead us through a low-ceiling wood-paneled carpeted area behind the dais, to a back passageway and up a narrow stairwell to the crow's nest. From there, I could look down over the bald spots of the fellows in the men's section, directly on to the pulpit.
While it provided a unique view, it was also as hot as hell. There were big, colored lights up where we sat, used for shining on the smooth, blank walls behind us for special effect. Sitting there in our Sunday best, we did a slow cook--but it wasn't due to any burning in the bosom. During the last few times I sat up there, I would read anti-Mormon literature that I had been handed at the gates of Temple Square a few minutes earlier, since it was often more interesting than the GA sermons.
From high atop the Choir lair, I could see the GAs reading from their teleprompted scripts. The texts would scroll across a screen embedded in the top of the pulpit and then reflect up on panes of glass strategically positioned in front of the speakers.
When Benson family members weren't perched up behind the Tabernacle Choir, we could sit in specially roped-off benches, front and center, on the main floor of the Tabernacle, along with the other family and friends of the "we're-oh-so-special" GA crowd.
My then-spouse and I became increasingly uncomfortable with what we considered to be an arrogant arrangement and so decided that we would remain behind and simply watch Conference on TV at the Salt Lake home of my parents.
My mother became quite upset when we told her of our decision. She said that ETB wanted his family to be with him--in the Tabernacle--during Conference so that he could look down from the dais and see us all there on those hard, fake wood-stained benches as a sign of our love and support.
I told my mother that if this was what my grandfather wanted, then we would sit there in the Tabernacle until ETB got up and left. That meant that because he was now pretty old and frail, his assistants would often escort him out of the Conference session at the hour break--during the rest song, when everyone would stand up, stretch and sing a hymn before dropping back on their faithful posteriors for the second half of indoctrination.
So, that's what we did. ETB would be escorted out during the break, waving weakly, and we would likewise exit (without waving, by the way). We would meet up with him in the back area, out of sight behind the dais, where we would join him and his handlers in escorting him through an underground tunnel over to his Eagle Gate condo that was across the street from Temple Square. Or, if his assistants got ETB out ahead of us, we would simply make our own way out of the Tabernacle and go over to his apartment. By then, ETB's staff had wheel chaired him into his small, private study, where they would place him in a soft, leather reclining chair. They would then either turn on the TV for the second half of Conference or merely play soft music for him to listen to.
I, and other members of the family, would join ETB here for the duration of the Conference session. I would sit by his side, holding his hand and occasionally speaking to him softly. He would smile, squeeze my hand and sometimes say a word or two. But most of the time, he would not say or do much of anything, but just sit there.
One year, after returning home to Arizona from Conference, a member of our ward mentioned that they had seen us at Temple Square as we maneuvered our way into the Tabernacle, where this member and their family had long been waiting, trying to get in by standing in line. It was an uncomfortable encounter for us--and we knew the arrangement was not right.
So, we determined that we had had had enough of this kind of undeserved treatment and therefore decided in the future to wait in line with everyone else. If we couldn't make it into the Tabernacle because seating ran out, we would go over to the Assembly Hall and listen to Conference being piped in from across the way.
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Bloodline, Shmudline. It's offensively over the line.
And, hey, that goes for you McConkies, too. :)
Edited 20 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2013 07:15AM by steve benson.