Conference Notes - Sunday

Every speaker in the morning session was an apostle, with each including a short "welcome to the quorum" directed to Elders Uchtdorf and Bednar. Elder U has a killer Arnold accent--that's a good thing these days, and should boost his popularity among California Mormons. Elder B looks younger than any apostle I've seen called into the quorum, which of course raises the probablility that he will succeed to the presidency of the Church at some future date.

Best Moment. I'll have to go with Elder Packer's remarks in the afternoon session. Ignoring his historical misstatement (mobs didn't drive Joseph and Sidney from Kirtland, fellow Mormons unhappy with their conduct and leadership did), I was impressed with his uncharacteristically mellow counsel advising members to go easier on themselves. He essentially told people to stop beating up on themselves and avoid the reflexive judgment that one's efforts are never good enough. Great advice. This is one to read in print when it comes out. A close second for "best moment" was Elder Hales' talk describing the plight of those suffering from devastating or terminal illness as a "mystery of life": even deep and sincere faith sometimes can't add even a day. This message, like Elder Faust's on a similar theme on Saturday, will no doubt lend a sense of comfort and relief to families with loved ones presently suffering.

Worst Moment. No doubt here--the afternoon remarks holding out one Bro. Johnson as an example of faith and obedience. Years ago, he accepted a call and obediently trooped his wife and children to Arizona, where his children were later exposed to diphtheria by a visiting traveler and four of them (the eldest son and three daughters) soon died. The parents lamented the deaths, but (as I recall the speaker's point) chalked it up to the price one sometimes pays for being obedient. The speaker held this out as a shining example of faith. Personally, I see it as a warning against exposing one's children to unreasonble risks, especially when one does so knowingly but hoping that faith will protect them.

I've seen enough banged-up, messed-up, or damaged missionaries in my day to have a keen sense of the health and safety risks faced by young missionaries serving in the field. Putting them in harm's way from time to time seems to be accepted by leaders and parents (and the missionaries themselves) as a necessary risk. When an illness or injury or death occurs, one hears language about faith and blessings and how great their joy will be in heaven, but I've never seen anyone actually accepting any responsibility for negligent or poor judgment when such is the case. It makes me wary of those who rely on faith or the goodness of leaders to suppress natural caution in the face of evident risks. So I guess draw a different lesson from Bro. Johnson's sad story than did the speaker.

[Note: Warren Johnson ran Lee's Ferry across the Colorado River in Arizona from roughly 1875 to 1895. The site is named for John D. Lee, with whom Johnson ran the ferry crossing for a few years up until the latter's execution in 1877 for his role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. See this photo site for pictures of the Johson family, home, and the gravesite of the four children, and this photo site for some striking photos of the ferry crossing site and a short writeup of the history of Lee's Ferry. Finally, one can read excerpts from an 1891 letter written by Johnson shortly after the death of his four children in a 1992 Conference talk by Pres. Faust.]

[major edit on 10/6 based on additional sources for the Warren Johnson story]

Comments

[Ann]

Another most excellent report. This is so much better than actually going! Are you going to look into the Brother Johnson legend for details? If so, I look forward to reading...the rest of the story.

[Justin]

Dave, who gave the talk that mentioned the Johnson story?

[Dave]

Justin, I follow the general practice of not naming the speaker when I make what would generally be considered to be critical comments. This is my way of bending over backwards to distinguish discussion or criticism of ideas from personal criticism. I assume that if people really want to know who the speaker is, they can go find out.

Of course, some chip-on-their-shoulder Mormons insist and construing any serious discussion of LDS history, doctrine, or current pronouncements as personal attacks or as disloyalty. I can't do anything about that kind of attitude, but I will make efforts to avoid that kind of reaction, at least by reasonable readers.

[Justin]

No problem. In any event, I've now answered my own question. I'm also looking at other accounts of the same story.

[Ann]

Looking forward to hearing about some of the other accounts...

[Justin]

The source of the aforementioned story seems to be a conference talk given by Elder Faust in the April 1992 General Conference. Elder Faust's source is a 1971 Utah Historical Quarterly article on Warren M. Johnson.

Spiritual Healing

[Ann]

Do you think that the story is a 19th century account is a mitigating factor? I do. And childhood mortality was such a fact of life then...the parents probably expected that they'd lose a child just as part of the normal course of events. That they lost four is tragic. That they found comfort in God is a blessing for them. But I don't know that, from what little data we have, we can call their behavior irresponsible, else the whole Pioneer Adventure would be irresponsible.

[Dave]

Thanks for the links and comments, folks. I did some major edits to the text of the post and added several links, so you might want to reread it. When transcripts of the Conference talks are released on Thursday, I may update it again.

[Justin]

I should add that I now have a copy of the Utah Historical Quarterly article on Johnson. I can email it to anyone who is interested.

[Dave]

Yes, Justin, I would be happy to get an email copy. Part of my inadvertent quest to become a certified expert on the life of Warren Johnson. Click on my name for this comment or go to the bottom of the right sidebar for my email. Thanks for the great detective work!

[Justin]

I sent it off, Dave. One thing I can say: Warren Johnson had a tough life.

[Ann]

A LOT of the 19th and early 20th century saints had a tough life. There were the lucky chosen few who got to stay in Salt Lake City, and then there was everybody else.

That said, a multi-billion dollar corporation has a lot less reason to put people in harm's way than a pioneer church in the middle of nowhere.

A young man I know spent the first six months of his mission in Colombia almost never leaving his apartment, because he was terribly ill. (I don't remember what he had). His letters home said almost nothing except "I love you." His parents were very, very worried, but because he didn't tell them what was wrong, they didn't follow up on their concerns. Apparently, he did not ask to go home, and nobody suggested it.

If he had died, his faithfulness would have been praised by the powers that be, his parents would have been guilt-stricken and heart-broken, and nobody would have taken responsibility. So, I know where you're coming from with your original comments, Dave.

[Dave]

Alright, I read the transcript of the Sunday afternoon session talk that recited the story of Bro. Johnson now that it has been posted at LDS.org. The speaker took excerpts from the 1891 Johnson letter to Wilford Woodruff (presented more fully in the Faust 1992 talk and probably presented in full in the 1971 Utah Historical Quarterly article, which I haven't read yet). The excerpt given in Sunday's talk unfortunately gives the impression that the Johnsons knew their children were being exposed to a disease but didn't know it was diphtheria (which I have now learned to spell correctly as a result of this investigation). However, the full text of the letter indicates the Johnsons did NOT know the visiting family was still contagious or even that they were exposing the Johnson children at all. Hence my initial confusion.

[Justin]

I agree, Dave. They didn't know the visiting family (who were making a stop along the way to their home in Tuba City, Arizona) was exposing them to the disease.

Yes, the Utah Historical Quarterly has the full letter. (I erred in identifying Elder Faust's talk as the immediate source for Sunday's talk.)