[Leonard Arrington]
Maureen [Beecher] came in today and said she had a long talk with Becky Cornwall. They had to "talk through" their positions on the "prayer for the extension of ERA" campaign. [[Some LDS women were urging a prayer campaign in support of the movement to extend the ERA ratification deadline.]] Two or three points: First, it was not Becky's idea. She was put up to it by Jan Tyler and Sonia Johnson. An inner light told her at the time it was not the right thing to do but she was persuaded to do it and thought she ought to "stand out on the front line." So she went ahead and did it, but as soon as the mail started coming in she realized it was the wrong thing to do, and her inner light told her that she must disengage herself from the movement immediately. She realized this would be a Benedict Arnold thing to do, but her inner light told her it was the right thing and so she went ahead and told Jan that she was resigning from it and that she was now carrying on the campaign in the same way that Maureen and Jill and others are doing. Maureen felt free to tell her about our conversation at the meeting with Lavina [Fielding Anderson] and Jay Todd the other day in which I mentioned that I don't agree with the campaign but defended her staunchly as a person, even though she had done it, and indicated in the strongest language that this did not affect our friendship in any way. Becky was glad to hear that. Becky indicated to Maureen that she missed Grace and hoped to be with her again soon.
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
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