Mormon Doctrine: The Book LDS Church Leaders Opposed But Members Loved

Comments · 468

• JO

  @JonRamsten · 3 months ago

  On my mission, a member gifted this book to a family that was about to be baptized. I had been transfered during this time, but returned to the area a few weeks later. Baptism was canceled and the family cut all ties to the church.

  100

• AA

  @AarmOZ84 · 3 months ago

  I remember being a convert and we used the old 1980s Gospel Principles manual my first year. It was a shock to me that Mormon Doctrine was not considered official doctrine considering how often our manuals quoted Mormon Doctrine when explaining church teachings on various topics.

  29

• ZE

  @Zeett09 · 3 months ago

  I attended a private school in Utah in the early 1970’s. The curriculum included introduction to various religious beliefs. We had one week of Mormon Doctrine (from  McConkie’s book). The guest instructor was a very engaging LDS guy. That started my life long interest in Mormonism with never a desire to join. Thanks for your channel! I’m a huge fan.

  45

• PE

  @peterellis1371 · 3 months ago

  During my mission to Dusseldorf, Germany 1976-78 we had the McConkie Notes which was a transcription of an address McConkie had made to the mission a few years earlier.  We were encouraged to read and discuss these few pages during study time.  I was gifted a copy of Mormon Doctrine (second edition) a few years later.  I never read it and gave it away when I left the LDS Church years later. Thanks for your explanation of Mormon Doctrine

  3

• EL

  @elbertsorrell8394 · 3 months ago

  Thank you for covering this topic! I&apos;m glad you are! I read the book years ago as a 17 yr old new convert to the Church. I was the only person in my family to join &amp; become active! The book helped keep me in the Church &amp; stabilize me in the doctrine.<br><br>Apparently, it has had lasting effects for good &amp; bad!<br><br>* I really hope you do a segment on the office of Seventy in the Church &amp; how it has changed! I&apos;ve studied it already in great detail, but I enjoy hearing your insights! You truly do have a way of making these subjects come alive! Not all historians can do that!<br><br>Note: I put you &amp; Matt Harris in the same category! Could listen to both of you for hours! Incidentally, your segments are TOO SHORT for me! They could be longer!

  4

• KU

  @kurtleffler3168 · 1 month ago

  I received this book as a present in 1984, around 2 years after I was baptized (I was an adult convert). Overall, I enjoyed reading it. &nbsp;I was baptized 3 years after the Priesthood became available to all worthy men, so by the time I received it I knew that the book contained errors. I used it as a starting point for many esoteric topics, but not the final word. I researched independently, and learned quite a bit.<br><br>Sorry for opening a possible miniature Pandora&apos;s box here, but .... <br><br>Incorrect doctrine can be a real roadblock to some. I was fortunate because my wife&apos;s family was easily accessible and they were a font of knowledge (her ancestors were some of the earliest converts of the church). &nbsp;For example, I flew through the lessons, but was a bit surprised when the Missionaries told me that the Mission President had a hard and fast rule that people could not be baptized until they gave up caffeine (based, of course, on Bro McConkie). And I drank a 6-pack of Pepsi a day (our family home at the time was in a high desert where the water was beyond atrocious, and bottled water was expensive). &nbsp;Mercifully, Decaf Pepsi had literally just been released, and I already enjoyed root beer and Sprite type drinks, so I was ok. BUT, in all fairness, I went through caffeine withdrawals and shook for a month afterward. &nbsp;Then I enjoyed a wonderful visit with my wife&apos;s grandfather. He had been a Bishop twice back in the days when they served 15+ years and had 1000 member wards . He told me of a time when he received a letter from the Assistant to the First Presidency (such letters were common &quot;back in the day,&quot; a few times each month), which specifically stated that soda beverages were NOT included in Word of Wisdom prohibitions. That assistant? Gordon B. Hinkley. &nbsp;Did this make me dislike Bro. McConkie or the Mission President? No. I am now old and have been blessed to serve, and I have made mistakes, too. &nbsp; <br><br>The &quot;authoritative&quot; tone was objectionable, but not dispositive to me. I had been a somewhat active Catholic throughout my childhood and teen years, and attended three years of Catholic elementary schools. &nbsp;Once, after a mass, a priest opened the floor for questions from any of us schoolkids. &nbsp;One kid asked if his best friend, a non-Catholic, could go to &quot;Heaven.&quot; The priest give a kind recitation of how God loved all of us, and concluded by kindly saying in essence that he was ineligible. I did not believe it. At that same time, we also lived in the southern Missouri portion of the bible belt and had heard all kinds of conflicting nonsense, stated in an authoritative way. &nbsp;On several occasions I had been flatly told that Catholics cannot go to Heaven. I didn&apos;t believe that, either. People say all sorts of foolish things with an authoritative voice while being dead wrong. Politicians, ministers, school teachers, governmental leaders, and the list is endless. I was already an adult when I was baptized, and I had a year and a half of membership. I had also had three years of college with several leftist professors who taught all manner of nonsense. Someone&apos;s &quot;certainty&quot; does not give me license for believing things which are not true.<br><br>Finally, I cannot begin to say how many religionists told me that God loves me, but in a way that made it abundantly clear that they viewed God as angry and retributive, and was flogging people into Heaven. &nbsp;Bro McConkie&apos;s book had a touch of that as well. No one can kick, flog, or scare anyone into the Kingdom of Heaven, and God won&apos;t do that, either.<br><br>I no longer have the book, as it succumbed to rain damage many years ago. &nbsp;- KPL

  4

• LA

  @larrymyers6327 · 3 days ago

  I remember one my mission eating dinner at L Tom Perry&apos;s sister in Pullman Wa.She was a professor at WSU . She had never married and my companion asked Bro. PERRY &nbsp;about his sister never getting married. His sister was getting dinner all finished while we were talking. &nbsp; Bro Perry said that she would get into the celestial kingdom on his coatails since he was an apostle. I already had doubts but that was a tipping point. I have never looked back. To me Paul H Dunn is a classic example of lds leadership.

• BB

  @bbrough55 · 3 months ago

  We used to call him Bruce R. McDoctrine. 😀

  9

• TE

  @tehferg2150 · 3 months ago

  I saw this originally in 2009 on my own mission in the local library of a small town in northern Alberta where the second edition had been donated by the local branch members. I had always thought it came out AFTER McKonkie became an apostle because that was all I had ever known him as since I was so young. I only had time to glimpse over a few small things, never reading the entire thing because we were not in the habit of just hanging out in the library all day like good Elders. I&apos;m glad to hear I was wrong on this, though I will note that I had heard that McKonkie admitted to being wrong specifically about the Catholic Church in an interview where he was asked about it. Thank you for illuminating this interesting and crazy story for so many of us!

  1

• ST

  @stingray4real · 3 months ago

  Bruce R McConkie was the Presiding Bishop when he first published Mormon Doctrines. It was recommended to me by my past Ward Bishop. The edited copy was published during the 1980s. I still use it for lessons and talks. He quoted &apos;I Believe In Christ&apos; as a poem when he was called an Apostle. The poem was turned into a hymn.

• PU

  @purpleparrot4333 · 3 months ago

  Wow, &nbsp;I served in Washington D.C. when the Temple was opened to the public. The Front Bridge wasn&apos;t built yet and no parking just dirt ground. &nbsp;I gained my 1st testimony because of that temple, &nbsp;Its very special to me. &nbsp; &nbsp;My Mission president was Glenn E. Nelson from Wyoming.

  1

• CH

  @chinesejohn812 · 1 month ago

  I own the book and like the book. &nbsp;A fun game to play with people is to quote his scriptures and famous person quotes without mentioning him or the book. &nbsp;Then the true value is shown and people can get over their psychological roadblocks to loving him and his books

  3