This book was the second biography of Elder McConkie to be
released within a three year period after nothing for fifteen years. I am told
that Elder McConkie had asked his family not to write one; he felt the message
of supreme importance, not the messenger. However, as time would tell, this
desire proved unrealistic. The life of the messenger, or Witness, was simply
too compelling.
Elder McConkie’s story begged to be
told, with the first major attempt being my Bruce
R. McConkie: Highlights from His Life & Teachings which appeared in
2000 and again in 2010. This work concentrated more on the public ministry and
contributions of that great apostle, while Joseph’s aimed more at telling the
family perspective, usually phrasing Elder McConkie’s deeds or teachings in a
manner to draw a lesson—sort of a teaching biography (Elder Boyd K. Packer’s
biography used a similar formula). Joseph stated his reasoning thusly: “This
volume finds justification in the thought that to know something about the life
of an Enoch, an Elijah, or one of their modern-day counterparts might be of
help to some in obtaining the faith common to such great witnesses of Christ. A
life well lived is a story worth telling.”
Joseph’s book had the advantage of
drawing on family records and other materials that were not made available to me—thereby
providing a fuller portrait. For whatever reason, Joseph’s book did not
acknowledge the existence of my earlier work. And perhaps its greatest weakness
is that the author imposed so much of his own personality and feelings upon the
narrative that sometimes it becomes difficult to tell which thoughts and
conclusions are the subject’s and which are the author’s. (Boyd Peterson’s
biography of Hugh Nibley had the same weakness, the son-in-law occasionally imposing
his own thoughts and beliefs into the text as he wrote, thereby causing readers
to mistake them as the subject’s.) Nevertheless, The Bruce R. McConkie Story is a very fine, highly-commendable
production that I for one appreciated and was pleased to read more than once.
At Elder McConkie’s death, The
First Presidency designated Bruce’s son Joseph Fielding McConkie to act as the
custodian of his papers and journals (which Bruce evidently kept sporadically,
despite what one article said), with two members of the Quorum of the Twelve serving
as advisors to him. (I have heard rumor that they had some involvement with
changing the title of Mark McConkie’s volume of his father’s sermons from the 1st
edition to the 2nd; also that they asked that no follow up volume be
published; but that is all that is, rumor.)
Joseph gathered the copious material
together and organized and wrote the book, which is (again) rumored to have
been much longer in manuscript form than what was eventually published. He also
had to deal with the onset of cancer. As Joseph himself told the story:
“I have been asked what my
motivation was in my writing The Bruce R. McConkie
Story: Reflections of a Son.
“The answer rests as much in things
I do not understand as it does in things that I do.
It has been almost 20 years since Sheri Dew of Deseret Book
invited me to write such a book. The feeling that I should do so simply was not
there at that time. Perhaps this was a matter of my not being ready. I do not
know.
“It was about three years ago [from
2003 back to 2000, about the same time that my McConkie biography hit store shelves]
that the feeling came that I should see what I could do with the topic though
the idea intimidated me. The project presented a number of special challenges.
I note two, first, the story was too good to tell. That is it was simply too
personal or sacred in some instances to make public.
“Secondly, the story was too bad to
tell. That is because Bruce McConkie chose to stand for something he had a lot
of critics even within the Church. Their actions were often sufficiently petty
that they did not deserve a place in print. They simply did not engender faith
and I knew that my father would want no part in telling such stories.
“Suffice it to say there were a
number of other difficulties peculiar to this work. My concern manifested
itself last September when it was discovered that I had a tumor in my colon the
description of which was a perfect match to the one that my father had. I asked
my doctor what I could have done differently. He said, nothing, this is a case
where heredity trumps.
“One of the surgeons involved in the
operation told me that while I was under the influence of the anesthetic I
repeatedly pled for ‘help with the manuscript!’ The other surgeon assured
me that a miracle took place that day and that I was not alone in the operating
room.
It was immediately after that
experience that the obstacles in my path were removed and we were able to move
forward with publication. During this period I had the opportunity to learn
some of the great lessons that my father had learned as it became my turn to
battle cancer.
“You do not search and learn about
a man like Bruce McConkie and have the kind of experiences that I had and not
learn something.
“I am asked what the most
meaningful things I learned about my father were. I am not sure I know the
answer to that question. One of the important things I learned was that when
you get into a story like this the story gets into you and you will never be
the same.
“I knew how concerned my father was
over the welfare of each of his children, I had not known the sense of reverence
he had for his forebears.
“I knew of the profound respect he
had for those who presided over him, what I had not known was the sense of
respect he had for those who labored under his direction. I will note, however,
that it was much easier to labor under his direction as a priesthood leader
than it was to work under his direction in the yard.
“With his children, one of Dad’s
favorite sayings (which came from his mother) was ‘live above it.’ When
something happened that in your judgment was unfair, living ‘above it’ hardly
seemed like the best solution. When as an adult I learned how frequently he was
called on to practice what he preached, I began to see a lot of things quite
differently….
“I have also come to learn that, privately,
some people are not what they appear in public. In a way that is true of my
father. People thought him a good man. In truth he was much better than they
supposed. I never learned a thing about him that did not make him stand a
little taller. The same was true of my mother. They were the kind of people
that real people liked.” (www.meridianmagazine.com)
Joseph’s
chapter about his father’s book Mormon
Doctrine divulged some new information not previously known. Evidently it
also resulted in a stiff scolding, as hinted in the following quotations, the
first from the book, the second from a later reminiscence:
“I have
been told that when he [Bruce R. McConkie] met with the First Presidency [to
discuss the book Mormon Doctrine], my
father was invited to be seated but chose to remain standing. I also know that it was his practice (because
he told me I was to do the same) when you are getting scolded, you offer no
excuses—you just take it” (The Bruce R.
McConkie Story, 185).
Later, Joseph said: “After writing the chapter ‘The Mormon Doctrine Saga,’ I understand what he [Bruce] was
teaching me when one day while I was sitting in his office out of the clear
blue he said, ‘When the time comes that you are called in and rebuked for
something that you did that was right and proper, you stand and take it, you
offer no excuses just take it.’ (www.meridianmagazine.com.
Emphasis added.)
Careful readers
and scholars will find limited citations (for its size) in Joseph’s book about
Bruce, and that is because, as he said himself, there is no library or archive
that contains much of the quoted and paraphrased source material. He drew on
Bruce’s private papers for significant portions. Readers of the book should be
aware that there are certain groups of pages where Joseph quotes (or almost
quotes) his father at some length but does not include quotation marks to so
designate. Rather than complain I have felt to be grateful for the material.
As of this
writing, over 31 years have elapsed since Elder McConkie passed away. He is
rapidly being forgotten. Joseph himself had to admit: “To the rising generation
he may be only a name they hear appended to a quotation in a talk or lesson.
But to many of their parents, he is a man held in particular love and esteem.”
And this forgetting is more apparent today than when he wrote that over 13
years ago. Let us hope that these books about his life, and those he wrote
himself to teach the gospel, will keep his memory and legacy and doctrinal
understanding alive for those with enough sense to value them as the surpassing
treasures they are.
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