Speaking of Joseph Fielding Smith’s Man: His Origin and Destiny (a work that contains a lot of ignorant, anti-evolution “arguments” and defends to defend young earth creationism), Gary James Bergera and Ronald Priddis noted:
. . . Salt Lake institute of religion teachers Lowell Bennion, T. Edgar Lyon, and George Boyd met privately with church president David O. McKay. President McKay told the group “very emphatically” that Elder Smith’s work “had not been authorized or approved, and that it did not represent the position of the church . . . on such matters as the age of the earth and the theory of evolution.” He added that, had he known in advance, “the book never would have been used as a text at the B.Y.U. summer session” (Boyd Notes; McMurrin; Boyd). McKay subsequently asked Apostle Adam. S. Bennion, former superintendent o church schools, to solicit responses to Elder Smith’s book from qualified LDS scientists. Elder Bennion enlisted the cooperation of Henry Eyring, dean of the Graduate School at the University of Utah, who invited geologist William Lee Stokes and chemist Richard P. Smith to join him. “I can understand Man: His Origin and Destiny as the work of a great man who is fallible.” Eyring wrote to Bennion. “It contains many serious scientific errors and much ill humor, which mar the many beautiful things in it. Since the gospel is only that which is true, this book cannot be more than the private opinion of one of our great men.” Both Stokes and Smith responded much the same way. Stokes added, “In order to square with [Elder] Smith, I would have to discard much of my subject material and refer the student to Man: His Origin and Destiny as a better source of scientific information,” an approach Stokes considered ludicrous. When word of their project, especially Eyring’s critique, reached other church and university educators, some drafted their own reviews, which they sent to President McKay or to Elder Bennion. A few, asking if Man: His Origin and Destiny was an official church publication, were informed: “This book is not an approved publication of the church. The author alone is responsible for the theories therein expressed” (McKay to Stephens). (Gary James Bergera and Ronald Priddis, Brigham Young University: A House of Faith [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1985], 154)
Elsewhere, speaking of Bruce McConkie dogmatically declaring there was no death before the Fall, no ifs, ands, or buts about it, in Mormon Doctrine, we read:
[T]he First Presidency directed secretary Joseph Anderson to answer, “Until either the Lord speaks directly upon the matter or until the scientists are able to say that they have the ultimate truth concerning these matters, it would only be confusing for the First Presidency to make any statement regarding such things” . . . President McKay was asked specifically if Mormon Doctrine represented the church’s position on evolution and responded that, like Man: His Origin and Destiny, Mormon Doctrine was not an “official publication of the church,” adding, “The church has issued no official statement on the subject of the theory of evolution” (McKay to Christensen). (Ibid., 158)
On Mormon Doctrine, we read that:
The First Presidency concluded that the book “[was] full of errors and misstatements, and [that] it [was] most unfortunate that it [had] received such wide circulation.” They ruled that in view of the number of revisions required, publication of a “corrected” edition would “destroy the credit of the author,” and therefore decided that the book could be “repudiated in such a way as to save the career of the author as one of the General Authorities” (McKay Journal). President McKay subsequently announced the decision to Elder McConkie before meeting with the twelve apostles. Elder McConkie answered, “I am amenable to whatever you brethren want. I will do exactly what you want. I will be as discreet and as wise as I can” (McKay Journal). The following year McConkie was appointed head of the church’s Australian mission (Church News, 18 Feb 1961). (Ibid., 158-59)
