Mormonism and Evolution: The Authoritative LDS Statements (review - part one)

Mormonism and Evolution: The Authoritative LDS Statements by William E. Evenson and Duane E. Jeffery (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2005; hereinafter cited as Mormonsim and Evolution) was released in January of 2006.  This book contains the documents found in the 1992 BYU Evolution Packet, including the packet's cover letter written by the BYU Board of Trustees and an edited version of the 1992 introduction to the packet written by William Evenson.

According to Mormonsim and Evolution's Preface, Evenson and Jeffery published the BYU Evolution Packet documents in book form to provide "for a wider audience beyond the University in the hope that other members of the Church will also have the foundation documents on evolution and the origin of man available as they study these topics."  (Mormonsim and Evolution, 7.)

This post will review Mormonsim and Evolution—the BYU Evolution Packet documents—but not the book's Appendix (twelve "related" documents) which will be reviewed in a subsequent post.  As the basis for this review, I'm using an article about the BYU Evolution Packet that I wrote eleven months ago and guest-posted at the Mormons and Evolution blog.

BYU Evolution Packet Examined

I will use the "pdf" page numbers because the pages in the document itself aren't numbered.  [Mormonsim and Evolution page numbers have been added in square brackets.]

Two statements in the BYU Evolution Packet (as downloaded from the sidebar) are false.  The first page (para. 5 [Mormonsim and Evolution, 3]) says the 1931 First Presidency addressed "evolution and the origin of man," and the last page (para. 3 [Mormonsim and Evolution, 38]) claims "in 1931 ... there was intense discussion on the issue of organic evolution."  The 1931 discussions were not centered on theories of evolution or the origin of man (see ndbf.net).

What is meant by "published by the Church"?

It's been suggested here that placing the Encyclopedia Evolution article in the BYU Evolution Packet might constitute being published by the Church.  Three of the four items in the Packet were published by the Church—all three of them more than 80 years ago.

The question is whether the 1931 excerpt has ever been issued by the Church to the general membership of the Church.  And until it's been published in one of the Church's official magazines or in a Church published manual, the answer to this question will be "no."

The clout issue

It's also been suggested here that placing the Encyclopedia Evolution article in the BYU Evolution Packet gave "clout" to the article thereby undermining my thesis here that the article is fundamentally flawed.

I will discuss the clout question specifically, but I'll also address the relative position of the Encyclopedia Evolution article within the Packet in terms of its doctrinal authority.

The official introduction

We begin on pdf p.3 [Mormonsim and Evolution, 10], which is where the official Packet begins and is the official introduction to the Packet.  This is a cover letter to the Packet written by the BYU Board of Trustees.  It describes the Packet's contents.  There are three main paragraphs.

The first paragraph says the Packet contains all known statements issued by the First Presidency on science, evolution, and the origin of man.  The known statements are listed.  There are three:

1.   "The Origin of Man" was issued in November 1909.  At 2,700 words, this is the predominant item in the Packet.

2.   "Words in Season" is a small 99 word excerpt from a First Presidency Christmas Message printed in the Deseret Evening News.  It says the Church is not hostile to "real science."  Less noticed is that it also says we do not accept "human theory and mere speculations of men,"  but do accept that which "increases faith in Deity."  The words "that which is demonstrated, we accept with joy" are thus taken out of context when applied to Darwin's theory of evolution.

3.   "Mormon View of Evolution" was issued in September 1925.  This is a 560 word condensed version of the 1909 "Origin of Man" statement.  In 1909, the First Presidency spoke to the Church membershop.  In 1925, the First Presidency spoke to the national media.  It is inappropriate, therefore, to read hidden doctrinal meaning into the editing that was done by the 1925 First Presidency.

The fact that the Encyclopedia Evolution article was excluded from this list diminishes the "clout" supposedly conferred upon it by the Packet.  We'll talk more about this later.

Evolution and the Origin of Man

In paragraph one of the cover letter, the Board of Trustees affirms that "there has never been a formal declaration from the First Presidency addressing ... organic evolution as a process for development of biological species"  (para. 1, pdf p.3 [Mormonsim and Evolution, 11]; emphasis added).

However, at the same time, the Board affirms the opposite regarding organic evolution as it applies to the origin of man, concluding "these documents make clear the official position of the Church regarding the origin of man"  (para.1, pdf p.3 [Mormonsim and Evolution, 10]; emphasis added).  Indeed, the cover letter itself is titled "Evolution and the Origin of Man."

I've argued elsewhere that the 1909 First Presidency statement gives clear counsel about the origin of man (see for example, here, here, here, and my discussion of its use in the 1980-81 Melchizedek Priesthood Personal Study Guide here).  The 1909 "anti-science language," as Duane Jeffery calls it (Mormonsim and Evolution, 30), clarifies the true origin of man.

Other commentators have stated that the 1909 statement does not "make clear" the official position of the Church regarding the origin of man, but the BYU Board of Trustees is here on record saying otherwise.

The 1909 Statement dominates the Packet

Let's pause and review the contents of the ten official pages.  There is the official introduction (a single page), the 1909 First Presidency statement (five pages), followed by the two paragraphs from the 1910 Christmas Message (part of a page).

Then there is the 1925 First Presidency statement (two pages quoted from the 1909 statement), and finally the Encyclopedia article (a single page).

In other words, all but three pages of the "official" BYU Evolution Packet either are the 1909 First Presidency statement, or are taken from it. Therefore, the 1909 First Presidency statement dominates the Packet and this adds meaning to its 2002 reprint.

A version of the packet for the general membership

Ten years after the Packet was created, the Church reprinted the entire 1909 First Presidency statement in its official magazine (see "The Origin of Man," Ensign, Feb. 2002, 26-30).

The Ensign magazine enjoys a distribution among Church members far beyond the BYU studentbody to whom the Evolution Packet was originally made available.  And the introductory paragraph in the Ensign says the statement "expresses the Church's doctrinal position on ... the Creation of the earth and the theories of evolution."  (Ibid.; emphasis added).

This reprint is essentially a version of the Evolution Packet that has been issued to the general membership of the Church.

The Encyclopedia Evolution article

The second paragraph of the Board's cover letter (pdf p.3 [Mormonsim and Evolution, 11] states that the Packet contains the Encyclopedia Evolution article.

This paragraph also states the current First Presidency authorized using the 1931 excerpt in the Encyclopedia article.

When asked about First Presidency involvement, William Evenson explained the article was reviewed and edited by Gordon B. Hinckley, a member of the First Presidency at the time.  He pointed out that he didn't have access to the First Presidency Minutes and said the excerpt was added by President Hinckley.

Is Gordon B. Hinckley coauthor of the article? No.

Macmillan Publishing Company does not wrongly identify its authors.  Many articles in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism carry the names of multiple authors.  When William Evenson put his name on the article as its sole author, he accepted full responsibility for its content.

And when President Gordon B. Hinckley desires the general membership of the Church to adopt his interpretation of something, he will put his name on an article and we will read it in a Church publication.

The issue of formality

Paragraph three of the Board's cover letter (pdf p.3 [Mormonsim and Evolution, 11]) emphasizes that "formal statements by the First Presidency are the definitive source of official Church positions"  (emphasis added).  This helps us understand why the Encyclopedia Evolution article is not listed in the first paragraph.

Because the 1931 First Presidency minutes have never been formally issued by any First Presidency to the general membership of the Church, neither the 1931 excerpt nor the Encyclopedia article could be listed in the first paragraph as equal in authority to the three statements that have been so issued.

The unofficial two page introduction

Now, let's look at the two page introduction placed in the front of the Packet but identified as NOT part of the packet itself (pdf, pp.1-2 [Mormonsim and Evolution, 1-5]).  These pages appear to be originally taken from a newspaper article written by William Evenson (see pdf p.2).

In this introduction, Evenson says the 1931 First Presidency was addressing "the Church's stance toward scientific studies of evolution and the origin of man"  (pdf p.1 [Mormonsim and Evolution, 3]; emphasis added).  This parallels and echos the claim he made in his Encyclopedia Evolution article that "in 1931 ... there was intense discussion on the issue of organic evolution"  (pdf p.12, para. 3 [Mormonsim and Evolution, 38]).

Both of these statements are completely and utterly false.  A complete explanation is given here.  A short summary follows.

The topic of the 1931 discussion

The 1931 First Presidency memo from which the excerpt is taken quotes Elder B. H. Roberts saying that

"the points questioned and the paper in defense of them [have] suspended the publication of my book — now in manuscript — 'The Truth, The Way, The Life'."

Elder Roberts wrote this book in 1927-1928 as a Melchizedek Priesthood study guide.  Five members of the Quorum of the Twelve were assigned to review the manuscript.  They found problems.  But Elder Roberts was unwilling to make certain requested changes.  Hence the increasing intensity of the discussions which continued for three and a half years until the First Presidency said on April 7, 1931:

"We can see no advantage to be gained by a continuation of the discussion to which reference is here made, but on the contrary are certain that it would lead to confusion, division, and misunderstanding if carried further."

Evenson reversed his position

Both the Encyclopedia of Mormonism and the BYU Evolution Packet were published in 1992.  Two years later, in 1994, the Roberts manuscript (at issue in 1931) was published by BYU Studies.  Thirteen BYU scholars were invited to prepare critical essays discussing and analyzing various aspects of the book.

One of those essays was written by William Evenson.  In his 1994 essay, Evenson acknowledged that the opinions of B. H. Roberts were "not those of an evolutionist" and that the 1931 discussions "were not centered on the scientific theories of origins of life forms."  (William E. Evenson, "Science: The Universe, Creation, and Evolution," in The Truth, The Way, The Life [2nd edition, Provo: BYU Studies, 1996], p. 645; emphasis added.)

Let's just repeat that for emphasis:  The opinions of B. H. Roberts were "not those of an evolutionist" and the discussions "were not centered on the scientific theories of origins of life forms."  (Ibid.)  This could appropriately be considered the major point of the present article.

This is a complete turn around from what he said two years earlier, both in the Encyclopedia Evolution article and in the BYU Evolution Packet.

In his 1994 essay, Evenson further acknowledged that the Roberts book "addresses three forms of evolutionary theory [and] finds all three ... to be inadequate."  (Ibid.)  Evenson concedes in the essay that B. H. Roberts "rejects all [1930s evolutionary] theories as he understands them [and] puts forward his own theory" to reconcile the scriptures with the fossil record.  (Ibid.)

Salvaging the Encyclopedia Evolution article

Earlier, Jared asked two questions here about salvaging the Encyclopedia Evolution article.

Question: "If you are correct, that the reference to evolution in the context of the 1931 statement was an error, would changing the text to read something like, 'when there was intense discussion on the issue of the history of life on earth...' satisfy you as accurate?"

Answer: No.  The intense nature of the 1928-1931 discussions began and ended with the question of whether or not the Church would or could publish The Truth, The Way, The Life, written by Elder B. H. Roberts of the Seventy.

Question: "How would such a correction change the meaning of the EM article?"

Answer: Doctrinally, The Truth, The Way, The Life by Elder B. H. Roberts remains where the First Presidency left it in 1931.  Subsequent Church Presidents have not publicly addressed that issue.  When applied to other subjects, however, the 1931 decision is either unrelated or outdated—it was never related to organic evolution and it no longer applies to death before the fall (see ndbf.net).

Quotation error not yet corrected

One last minor thing.  Let's clear up what was mistakenly said here about the BYU Evolution Packet correcting the word "proclaims" to "declares."

Actually, "declares" is the wrong word and "proclaims" is the correct word.  It is quoted wrong in the Encyclopedia article and the BYU Evolution Packet didn't fix it (pdf p.12 [Mormonsim and Evolution, 37]).

Summary and review

1.   Neither the Encyclopedia Evolution article nor the BYU Evolution Packet has been issued by the Church to its general membership.  In this sense, neither of these documents has been "published" by the Church.

The BYU Evolution Packet is an internal document and the Encyclopedia of Mormonism is privately published.

2.   The BYU Evolution Packet does not confer clout on the Encyclopedia Evolution article (which is not a formal Church declaration and presents an inaccurate view of what the 1931 excerpt is all about).  The 1931 First Presidency discussed and rejected a specific attempt by Elder B. H. Roberts to interpret scripture according to his view of science (see here for details) and the 1931 excerpt means simply that similar attempts should not be made.

3.   While avoiding the issue of organic evolution as a process for development of biological species, the BYU Evolution Packet makes clear the official position of the Church regarding the origin of man.

4.   The 1909 First Presidency statement, "The Origin of Man," is the predominant item in the BYU Evolution Packet.  In 2002, the Church essentially issued a version of the Evolution Packet to the general membership of the Church by reprinting the 1909 statement in the Ensign.

5.   When William Evenson allowed Macmillan Publishing Company to identify him as the sole author of the Encyclopedia of Mormonism article about Evolution, he accepted full responsibility for its content.

6.   Formal statements by the First Presidency are the definitive source of official Church positions.  The BYU Evolution Packet acknowledges that neither the 1931 First Presidency excerpt nor the Encyclopedia Evolution article fall into this category.

7.   In 1994, William Evenson reversed his position regarding the 1931 topic of discussion.  This could appropriately be considered the major point of the present article.

[Adapted from an April 2005 guest-post at the Mormons and Evolution blog.]