A Case of First Presidency Amnesia

One of my Christmas gifts was the book Can Science Be Faith-Promoting? by Sterling Talmage. Sterling was the son of Apostle James E. Talmage and a professional geologist. Most of the book consists of a series of previously unpublished essays that Sterling wrote, some of which were submitted to the Church for use as a MIA class manual but were rejected. I'm still working my way through the essays, but the real goodies are a number of letters between he and his father, Joseph Fielding Smith, Heber J. Grant, and John A. Widtsoe. I may have more to say about the book later, but I want to highlight one story here.

In the wake of the controversy over B.H. Roberts's book, The Truth, The Way, The Life, James Talmage gave a talk, "The Earth and Man", that expressed views in opposition to published remarks of Joseph Fielding Smith. The speech was given at the suggestion of the First Presidency. However the Quorum of the Twelve were divided over whether the Church should publish it, although both Elders Talmage and Smoot recorded in their journals that a majority favored publication.

After revisions of the speech failed to produce unanimity, Anthony Ivins of the First Presidency finally withdrew the matter from consideration of the Twelve, and the First Presidency approved publication. The approval was noted in Talmage's journal, as well as the diary of Heber J. Grant:

[17 November 1931] At 11:30 Brother James E. Talmage called, and we went over his address delivered in the Tabernacle a number of weeks ago, and authorized its publication and also gave authorization for it to be printed in the same form as the radio addresses, for distribution.

Several years later, and following the death of James E. Talmage, Sterling Talmage was engaged in public and private debate, and naturally referred to "The Earth and Man" in support of his position. In a letter to Sterling, Joseph Fielding Smith denied that the speech carried the weight that Sterling attached to it.

Since you have referred in similar terms to this discourse before, I am writing to say that I hapen to know it was not issued by authority of the Church, but arbitrarily, in the absence of the President of the Church, and over the protest of the majority of the Council of the Apostles.

Sterling protested the implication that his father had somehow been disobedient, and further claimed that he was given to understand, by Anthony Ivins, that publication of the speech had been approved by the First Presidency. He also wrote the First Presidency to seek clarification.

In reply, a letter dated December 19, 1935 from the First Presidency (Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, and David O. McKay) stated:

...the sermon was brought to the attention of the Council of the Twelve, where it was the unanimous view, minus one, that the sermon should not be published. ...

At this point President Ivins withdrew the sermon from the consideration of the Council and himself decided that it should be published. It was printed within two or three days thereafter. At the time this final decision was made, President Grant was not at home and was not consulted.

The reason for the First Presidency's amnesia remains a mystery. J. Reuben Clark apparently handled much of the First Presidency's correspondence and had not been a General Authority at the time of the speech. David O. McKay had been a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. In the introduction to the book, Stan Larson writes:

Ronald W. Walker and Duane E. Jeffery, both professors at BYU, suggest that "what might have happened was that J. Reuben Clark and Joseph Fielding Smith wrote the letter and piled it with routine letters for President Grant to sign, which he did unknowingly.

Elder Smith later cited the First Presidency letter in his reply to Henry Eying's negative review of Man, His Origin and Destiny.

That the First Presidency approved the speech is supported by the BYU Studies article, "The Story of The Truth, The Way, The Life" by James Allen, which does not mention the later denial of approval. Allen seems to have been pretty well informed; footnote 31 states:

Many of the sources for what follows are generally restricted. They include extracts from the minutes of the Council of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve; excerpts from the minutes of the Quorum of the Twelve; the journal of President Heber J. Grant; B. H. Roberts papers; committee reports of the Council of the Twelve; miscellaneous correspondence in the papers of the First Presidency; and the Rudger Clawson collection. With the permission and cooperation of the LDS church archives and its advisors in the Quorum of the Twelve who recognized the unusual need for accuracy in writing this history, BYU Studies had special access to these restricted documents.

And so the mystery lives on.



(For a fuller treatment of this story, see The B. H. Roberts/Joseph Fielding Smith/James E. Talmage Affair, by Richard Sherlock and Jeffrey E. Keller.)

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