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The Mormon Hierarchy - Extension of Power
by D. Michael Quinn
The Mormon Church today is led by an elite group of older men, nearly three quarters of whom are related to current or past general church authorities. This dynastic hierarchy meets in private; neither its minutes nor the church's finances are available for public review. Members are reassured by public relations spokesmen that all is well and that harmony prevails among the brethren.
But by interviewing former church aides, examining hundred of diaries, and drawing from his own past experience as an insider within the Latter-day Saint historical department, D. Michael Quinn presents a fuller view. His extensive research documents how the governing apostles, seventies, and presiding bishops are as likely to be at loggerheads as united. These strong-willed, independent men - like the directors of a large corporation or supreme court justices - lobby their colleagues, forge alliances, out-maneuver opponents, and broker compromises.
There is more clandestine political activities, investigative and punitive actions by church security forces; personal "loans" from church coffers (later written off as bad-debts), and other privileged power-vested activities. Quinn considers the changing role and attitude of the leadership toward visionary experiences, the momentous events which have shaped quorum protocol and doctrine, and day-to-day bureaucratic intrigue from the time of Brigham Young to the dawn of the twenty-first-century.
The hierarchy seems well-intentioned and aggressive in trying to expedite the Second Coming. Where they have become convinced that God has spoken, they have set aside personal difference, offered unqualified support, and spoken with a unified voice. The potential for change, when coupled with the tempering effect of competing viewpoints, is something Quinn finds encouraging about Mormonism.
D. Michael Quinn is the author of Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Best Book Award, Mormon History Association); Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example ("one of the year's best religious books," Publishers Weekly); and the companion to the current volume, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power ("Massively documented; a book that specialists will consult for years to come," The Journal of American History).
Quinn served a Mormon proselytizing mission to England from 1963 to 1965; graduated from Brigham Young University in 1968; worked for U.S. military intelligence in Germany, 1969-71; was employed by the LDS church historical department, 1972-73; obtained an M.A. from the University of Utah in 1973, then a Ph.D. ("with distinction") from Yale University in 1976; taught at BYU from 1976-88 (Outstanding Teacher, 1986); resigned from BYU after a controversy regarding his published research into church support of turn-of-century polygamous marriages (MHA Best Article Award, 1986); and was excommunicated from the LDS church in 1993 for publishing on Mormon women and priesthood. He continues to research and write independently.
Page Modified November 11, 1999