LJA DIARY - 27 JUNE 1978 - TUESDAY

Notes on a conversation between Jay Todd, 26 June 1978, and Joseph Fielding McConkie, reported by Jay Todd, combined with notes on a conversation between Oscar McConkie and Jay Todd, 27 June 1978. (Material by JFM in parentheses.)

Subject: The circumstances of the revelation to grant the priesthood to all worthy male members of the Church, discussed "last week" at a family gathering by Elder Bruce R. McConkie

The First Presidency had been interested in the topic for years, President Kimball especially, and "had felt a message coming through." Last June several of the apostles were invited to submit memos on various implications of the question--historical, medical, sociological, doctrinal, etc., among them Elders Packer, Monson, and McConkie. The First Presidency had made the question a matter of formal prayer in the temple a number of times and had received no revelation, no answer. (JFM had not been present at the family gathering but had contacted his father in a phone conversation later and apparently received the same information and the addition of some other details. . . .)

On June 9, the other general authorities were asked to come to an early meeting, fasting, tot the temple. President Kimball told them the decision and asked for responses. Franklin D. Richards spoke first as senior president of the quorum, followed by BRM [Bruce R. McConkie] again giving an impassioned extemporaneous lecture on the relevant scriptures, and by President [Marion G.] Romney: "I have a confession to make. Whenever we've discussed this question I've assured President Kimball that I would support him fully, but if the decision had been left to me, I would have felt that we've always had that policy and we would stick to it no matter what the opposition. I have now chanced my position 180 degrees. I am not just a supporter of this decision. I am an advocate." Every one of the Seventies spoke. According to Dean Larsen, they voiced approval to a man. Marion D. Hanks was reported so overcome that he could not speak.