John A. & Leah D.
Widtsoe, The Word of Wisdom:
From Elder Widtsoe’s
autobiography:
While on my long European mission
assignment in 1927-33 it became very evident that there was too much illness
among the people and that poor nutritional practice was partly responsible for
much of it. …
As the
years increased we tried to find some competent and willing person to show how
the general principles of the Word of Wisdom corresponded with those of the
modern experimentally established science of nutrition. Several doctors (M.D.)
desired to help, but found no time. Finally, an assignment to do some work at
the University of Southern California gave me the opportunity. My wife joined
in. I took the negative teachings of the Word of Wisdom, she took the positive
aspects. The book was written as our crowded lives permitted. Then, unknown to
us, before publication, the manuscript was recommended, after presentation to
the First Presidency, (Heber J. Grant, President) and accepted by the Presidency
and Twelve, as a year’s text for study by the priesthood quorums of the Church
in 1939. This gave wide publicity to the cause of the word of Wisdom and gave
its modern interpretation acceptance by the Authorities of the Church. This not
only helped to establish the positive parts of the Word of Wisdom in the minds
of people, but also furnished a guide in answer to the many food cults
unsupported by scientific evidence. It is just as important to understand and
practice the truths taught in the positive as well as the negative aspects of
this law.
When the
book was being used in the priesthood quorums, an elderly man, a stalwart in
the Church, a high priest, stopped me on the street to announce that woman’s
work was not fit for priesthood study. After he was exhausted, I asked if he
had read the revelation on the Word of Wisdom recently. ‘O, yes.’ Had he
noticed that it was first given ‘to a council of high priests’? The
conversation ended abruptly.
The book
was widely circulated. The successive printings were soon exhausted. For many
years it was out of print. Then it was given a thorough revision and a second
edition published in 1950. In the revision the fundamental principles had not
changed, but the vast amount of new knowledge which explained more clearly the
nutritional theories and proposed practices were presented therein. …
Such is the
outline of our attempts to correlate the principles of the Word of Wisdom and
modern nutritional science. Ignorance, indifference and appetite are the chief
opponents….” (In a Sunlit Land)
Elder Mark E. Petersen said: “Some
speculate on food fads. A great injustice was done Brother John A. Widtsoe on
that subject by certain extremists.” (Mark E. Petersen, “Revelation,” 137) I am
not entirely sure what this means.
A highly
reliable source one shared this story with me about Elder Widtsoe: He and his
wife had been at some kind of party or social where chocolate was served as a
treat after the main meal. Sister Widtsoe would not let John eat any and made a
fuss when he tried. After the party, he escorted her out to their car and then
soon reappeared at his hosts door. He entered, found the leftover chocolate,
filled his pockets with it, and left without uttering a word. It seems he did
not fully agree with his wife’s views on that particular item.
John A. Widtsoe,
comp. Discourses of Brigham Young
(also known as Brigham Young’s Discourses):
Allan K.
Parish, John A. Widtsoe’s biographer, wrote that “John’s fascination with the
life of Brigham Young became a writing project that would become a classic of
LDS literature…. “ In moving the work forward, it helped that Widtsoe had
married one of Young’s granddaughters.
Parish wrote: “Later there are many [journal] entries of his working on Brigham
Young’s sermons and discourses, but the first and most complete reference that
has surfaced is in a letter written almost a year earlier:
“‘It may
interest you to know that I am wading through Brigham Young’s sermons, and have
behind me four-fifths of them. I think the study has given me a most excellent
insight into Brigham Young’s character. There is a clear thread running through
the discourses that ties together states of mind and feeling and connects up
with the events of the day. I did not expect to find the work as illuminating
as it has been...’” (Parish, John A. Widtsoe,
294-95).
A sick day
in bed gave Widtsoe some unexpected time: “Read journal of discourses, Brigham
Young sermons….” Thereafter are a number of sporadic journal entries by Widtsoe
indicating his steady work on President Young’s discourses from 1923 to 1925.
He read the Journal of Discourses and
Deseret News sermon accounts during
free hours, sometimes until his head ached, then sorted and organized them.
When the book was finally published, he recommended to the First Presidency
that: “In view of the well-known name of Brigham Young, it might be quite worthwhile
to place some copies of the Discourses
on the shelves of at least the more prominent libraries.” Parish indicated that
“The Discourses of Brigham Young was
used as the study guide for the priesthood quorums of the Church in 1926. In
commending its use, John remarked, ‘President Young studied under the teaching
of the Prophet Joseph Smith and he names no higher privilege that to teach the
people that which the Prophet had taught him. I doubt whether any of our
leaders has been more correct in his doctrine than has President Young’”
(Parish, John A. Widtsoe, 296).
In Widtsoe’s day, when gospel
students had limited access to Young’s sermons in the original, it was
genuinely possible to make such assertions. Widtsoe, as compiler and editor,
controlled the material appearing in the book and was able to omit certain
portions of Brigham Young’s discourses that contained suspect doctrine and
speculation. This silent censoring (later called “correlating”) ensured the
book would be approved by the Brethren and become part of a group of
“compilation” books of Latter-day prophet’s teachings that enjoyed something of
a semi-official status in the Church.
In more recent times, when further
research into Young’s sermons has been possible, a more complex picture has
developed. President Young’s powerful, insightful teachings have continued to
edify, impress, and inspire even the most brilliant Latter-day Saints (like
Hugh Nibley—see Brother Brigham
Challenges the Saints), but have also been found to contain various ideas that
have not been easily harmonized with scripture. And no one, it seems, has been
able to satisfactorily explain how President Brigham Young, thought by most to
stand next to the Prophet Joseph Smith as the second greatest prophet of the
Latter-days, could get a few things so inexplicably wrong. Some say it is
because he always spoke extemporaneously, without a text; others say it is
because he was free to teach personal speculations—in isolated Utah, how could
he have known how closely the anti-Mormons and fundamentalists would one day
inspect his discourses?
Elder Widtsoe’s exhaustive work
helped make available the best of President Young’s discourses without the
complications that subsequent historical inquiry has entailed, thereby
enlightening the Church—or at least that small portion of members that actually
read the book.
Joseph Fielding McConkie wrote of a
conversation he had with his father, Elder Bruce R. McConkie: “Once, after I
had been reading Brigham Young's sermons, I said to him, "No one in the
Church has ever spoken on the breadth of subjects that Brigham Young did."
With a smile, he responded, "Have you ever read Mormon Doctrine?"
John A. Widtsoe, Joseph Smith as Scientist:
“In September 1903 President Smith
wrote, ‘I have your note of Sept. 11th, in which you refer to a
series of articles you have just finished and mailed to the Improvement Era on the subject, “Joseph
Smith as Scientist.” Please accept my thanks for the same, and believe me your
efforts are highly appreciated, especially as we are not prepared at the
present time to pay you for the labor which you have done.’ He added that
John’s only pay was ‘The knowledge that you have done good work for the benefit
of the boys and girls of Zion.’ The articles in this series became the lead
article appearing on the Era’s front
page almost every month between November 1903 and October 1904” (Alan K.
Parish, John A. Widtsoe: A Biography,
212).
In his own writing, Widtsoe simply stated—“I wrote a series
of articles on Mormon Philosophy, which I entitled Joseph Smith As Scientist, which later appeared in book form and
was used twice as an M.I.A. study course” (Widtsoe, In a Sunlit Land, 124).
John A. Widtsoe, Priesthood and Church Government:
Harold B. Lee: “If
you want to get a commentary, there are a number of them, and President Smith
has some excellent commentaries, but one that was used as a priesthood lesson
course was Brother Widtsoe’s compilation of many of these scriptures with
writings of these various brethren from the beginning, Priesthood and Church Government. Some of those you will have to
update because they are a number of years old and some of the language and some
of the definitions of organizations will not quite square with what we are
talking about here, but it is a commentary where brought together you will find
many of the writings with these scriptures which might be said to be
commentaries.” (“How to Use the Scriptures to Assist Us in Our Church
Assignments,” Address to Regional Representatives, September 28, 1967 , 6.)
John A. Widtsoe:
In musing about the changes in his
life brought about by his call to the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Widtsoe
wrote: “After some years finances became somewhat easier, but have never
reached the professional level of the early years…. For the apostleship I
turned my face from the pursuit of money….
Another related problem had to be
solved. The university experience had been so exacting that I had had no time
to engage in outside money making. The job was too consuming. Now, in this new
position, what should be done? I had long since learned that it is exceedingly
difficult to serve two masters. So it was decided that my whole time must be
given to the cause of the Church, and we must be content with the results. My
literary products were given to the Church. Any departure from this inward
promise has not profited me. (Widtsoe, In
a Sunlit Land, 162-63)
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