April 2014: What General Authorities are Reading
Twice a year, LDS members attend or watch General Conference to hear the most recent instruction from those He designates to lead us.
General Conference addresses offer us a window on what General Authorities (GA's) read, at least what they choose to quote in their talks.
The analysis below was taken, almost entirely, from each speakers list of references as they appeared in the May, 2014, Ensign magazine.
We would be disappointed, or perhaps even disillusioned, if scriptures were not their most quoted resource. They are, by a considerable distance. Hundreds of scriptures were referenced throughout the conference.
Church Magazines are a Distant Second
Issued monthly, church magazines such as the Ensign and Liahona are the next most quoted source. There were at least 35 direct references to various articles in these publications, most from recent years.
Church Publications Come in Third
Church publications are the most varied category. They include references to the Handbook, manuals and other official sources.
The Handbook of Instructions, vol. 2, received two references. Church statistics were invoked once. Three different First Presidency letters were referred to. One hymn was referenced. Preach My Gospel was quoted from twice as was Daughters in My Kingdom. The proclamation on the family had only one direct reference. Personal correspondence was referenced four different times. There was one reference each to For the Strength of Youth, Bible Dictionary, Topical Guide, Index and a topic page.
Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, the manuals for Relief Society and Melchizedek priesthood Sunday worship, had the following references:
The number preceding the name refers to the number of total references for each leader.
Church Related Publications Round Out the Top Four
Church related publications is a somewhat messy category, because it includes such classics as Jesus the Christ and Discourses of Brigham Young. However, it also includes modern books published by Deseret Book such as Sheri L. Dew's Women and the Priesthood as well as the History of the Church and BYU Studies Quarterly. There were about 20 references to these types of sources
Church Owned News Sources
Five news articles in the Church owned Deseret News were referenced. There were two LDS Church News articles cited and four from the Relief Society Magazine.
The Church first published the Relief Society Magazine in 1915. It was discontinued in 1971, when its type of materials were shifted into the Ensign magazine.
Personal Correspondence and Other Sources
Four separate references came from General Authorities' letter correspondence or personal interaction.
Other sources include an address at the RootsTech Family History Conference, the BYU Women's Conference and the Worldwide Leadership Training, all recorded on video.
Secular News Sources
Some of the news sources quoted by General Authorities were about LDS members, even though the articles appeared in secular sources by secular authors.
They quoted two New York Times articles, one in the Wall Street Journal, one in Time magazine, one from Today.com and even one from the Daily Sitka Sentinel (Alaska).
President Monson had clipped the story from the Sentinel many years back. It concerned a lengthy travel delay for an airplane and passengers that diverted to rush an injured child to a hospital.
Unsurprising Secular Sources
Most of the quotes from secular sources came from classic publications and classic thinkers. They follow, in no particular order, as listed in the speaker's reference list:
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed. (2003),
blog.oxforddictionaries.com/press-releases/oxford-dictionaries-word-of-the-year-2013.
Henry Fairlie, The Seven Deadly Sins Today (1978), 15–16.
Clay Olsen, “What Teens Wish Parents Knew” (address given at Utah Coalition Against Pornography Conference, Mar. 22, 2014); utahcoalition.org.
A. Stokes, A. H. Fitter, and M. P. Coutts, “Responses of Young Trees to Wind and Shading: Effects on Root Architecture,” Journal of Experimental Botany, vol. 46, no. 290 (Sept. 1995), 1139–46.
The New Economic Reality: Demographic Winter [documentary], byutv.org/shows).
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “A World Split Apart” (commencement address delivered at Harvard University, June 8, 1978).
Dallin H. Oaks, “Rights and Responsibilities,” Mercer Law Review, vol. 36, no. 2 (winter 1985), 427–42.
Robert Louis Stevenson, in Hal Urban, Choices That Change Lives (2006), 122.
Charles Swindoll, in Hal Urban, Choices That Change Lives (2006), 122.
Martin Luther King Jr., “Don’t Sleep Through the Revolution” (1966 Ware Lecture, Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly, Hollywood, Florida, May 18, 1966).
Spoken by the character of C. S. Lewis as portrayed in William Nicholson, Shadowlands (1989), 103.
Harry Emerson Fosdick, Twelve Tests of Character (1923), 88.
“Maud Muller,” in The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1878), 206.
Dale Carnegie, in, for example, Larry Chang, Wisdom for the Soul (2006), 54.
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Oratio Pro Cnæo Plancio, XXXIII, section 80; quoted in Joseph B. Wirthlin, “Live in Thanksgiving Daily,” Ensign, Sept. 2001, 8.
Although Elder Dallin H. Oaks is a church leader, the quote is from a law review article, not a religious source. The quote from Cicero is a secular source from a secondary reference in an Ensign article.
Their Reading Resources Should Be Ours
Examining conference addresses illuminates what General Authorities read. It is not a comprehensive tool, but it is a window.
We can review their resources and quotes to help us evaluate what we read and focus on. Scriptures and church publications dominate the list, but they also used several high quality secular sources.
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