Journal November 3, 1963

The rest of this story—My journal isn’t an angry document, but I was furious when I wrote the entry for November 3, 1963. Now, 46 years later, I can still see red when reviewing those events.

What a catastrophe! The other missions were grateful that their local auxiliary leaders hadn’t been invited. Ours came to Paris, many at significant personal sacrifice, anticipating that the chieftains from Salt Lake would build them up, instruct them, and encourage them. Instead, they encountered pathetic, pompous fools who displayed just how arrogant, narrow, and insensitive people from Utah can be, even people with responsible positions in Church organizations. And our visitors did a lot of damage. Our excellent Mission Relief Society President from Belgium was so disheartened that she abandoned activity in the Church. Others required a great deal of loving ministry, just to bring them back where they had been before this disaster. The recovery process was far from complete at the end of my mission, six months later.

So what are we to learn? Have I concluded (with the Belgian sister) that the Church’s claim to Divine guidance is so much priestcraft and eyewash? Not at all, but the episode has moved me to direct a lot of prayerful thought toward understanding the nature and rôle of inspiration in Church management.

As it turns out, I was present for a sequel that comes close to turning this episode into a happy story and that clarifies some painful issues. This doesn’t belong here in the chronology; when I get to that point, I’ll probably move this part of the story there and just link to it here.

Just five years later, in the fall of 1968, a similar meeting was convened in Paris, with my Pappy, President H. Duane Anderson, as host. As before, top people from the general Church auxiliaries were present, tasked to help local leaders to implement the coming year’s curriculum and activity programs. President Pappy knew the story from 1963, and this time only a few local folks were asked to attend and to filter the word down the ranks.

President H Duane Anderson

As before, our visitors presented the new schedule and materials and then invited questions and comments. As before, local leaders had questions about the specific application of Wasatch-front prescriptions to European people and conditions. But whereas in 1963 the answer had been, “This is an inspired progrum [sic], and you shall carry it out exactly as written!”, this time we got an entirely different response. I believe it was the same Florence Jacobsen of the YWMIA who smiled, leaned back, and said, “The auxiliaries operate under Priesthood direction. Please look to your local ecclesiastical leaders for specific guidance.” Everybody went home happy and empowered. The Church had learned and grown: an inspired thing called (however unfortunately) the “correlation program”¹ had at last taken effect.

The Lord, I believe, expects us to act as responsible sons and daughters, with guidance from a loving Father, not as puppets micromanaged from above. He lets us make mistakes in administering inspired programs, so that we can learn from them, correct them, and become better able to lead. Our job is to seek the guidance, to follow it, and to sustain our yokefellows who find themselves at other points in the same process.

¹After the events of 1963, it was a saying among us that we would first convert the Jews, and then the antipodes, and finally the auxiliaries…

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