[Leonard Arrington]
Glen Taggart... asked me how the General Authorities looked upon some of our history writing endeavors, and then made some comments about Elder [Ezra Taft] Benson. He had been an employee of the [US] Department of Agriculture during all of the years that Elder Benson was Secretary of Agriculture [1953-61]. ... When I reported to him that Elder Benson took a dim view of our analytical history, believing history ought to help sell the cause of Mormonism, President Taggart said that that was consistent with his management of the Department of Agriculture. Under his administration they cut down on the research in the Department of Agriculture quite drastically. They not only cut down the research by the staff but also cut down the appropriations for research ... President Taggart also said that when the question first arose as to trying Sonia Johnson for her membership, about a year ago, Gordon Hinckley advised that under no circumstances should they try her for her ERA activities.
They must get her on a point of doctrine or something similar. [[Hinckley told the Historical Department during their annual Christmas devo- tional two days later: "We are standing for what those whom we sustain as prophets have said is right. We may have been inept-and I think we have been in many ways-in stating our case. We've been clumsy, and some others have been clumsy. But that clumsiness hasn't come of anything but honesty, I believe. ... That's the way it should be. There could be no more vocal recognition by the powers of darkness of the divinity of this work. This is what we can expect for the Lord's work. The Adversary will oppose it by every means available to him, and he has some very powerful means available to him." Arrington's notes of this address were placed in the diary at Dec. 13, 1979.]]
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
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