DiscussMormonism.com

Friend still stuck in Utah told me the General Authorities are now counseled "do not keep a journal - don't write things down".
Anyone know if this is correct?

I can see them saying that as what is written can be subject to Subpoena and is impossible to disavow later with "I never said/wrote that".

So - anyone know if this is actually true?

Ahhhhhhhh the Trumpizing of American Mormonism.......

I don't know but I tell clients of all stripes not to keep journals.

Yahoo Bot wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 22, 2020 8:33 pm

I don't know but I tell clients of all stripes not to keep journals.

I tell my clients not to keep journals too, especially the GA’s.

I ask, not as a joke but for real. Year of "book of rememberance" and "keep a journal" teachings fly in the face of this type of direction or practice.

If true it does go against what was pushed for so long.

It makes sense for legal reasons but moreso for avoiding future historical problems. Who knows where the church will be in 50 or 100 years? Oaks' journals would be gold then and Nelson's too. So, better to not have them in the first place.

Here is what I heard from a GA when I asked them this question. If a Journal is kept by a GA they are to be given to and are property of the church history department. Access is only for immediate family, and researches approved by the church history department (and Q15).

There is probably some legalese that enforces this arrangement.

I remember reading The Mormon Murders when I was a missionary and being totally floored when it mentioned Gordon B. Hinckley telling investigators he didn't keep a journal. I felt like such a failure when I went too long without making an entry in mine, and here's GBH without one at all.

An early shelf item for me.

But yeah, if modern-day GA's ever were keeping journals, I'm sure the Hofmann case taught them the value in not.

The Church is run by Lawyers and Accountants.

Taking you back in history- remember the GA Gene R. Cook devotional talk about his run in with Mick Jagger on an airplane where Cook tried to "convert" the champagne sipping Mickster and accused Mick of leading young people into sin. The incident was discussed on several boards where it was claimed the whole story was made up. Enter Cook's son who claimed his dad wrote it all down in his journal.
Since outsiders could not get to the journal, they asked Cook's son to look into the journal and get the date of the plane ride from mexico city to Dallas then to SLC. Cook's son said the date was in the journal but he refused to cough it up. After Elder Cook passed, his son said the journals were available in the church "history"? department. We checked and only family or credentialed researcher could see the material. The son refused permission to anyone and so the journal are still out there with the date/other information in them so it is alleged.
The devotional was torn apart by the opposition who claimed they went to Mick's personal secretary to find where Mick was in the month in which Cook supposedly had the encounter. Also some naysayers checked with Mick's fan club to no avail.
The mystery of the alleged Cook-Jagger is still to be solved-but if someone gets into the journal stacks she may find missing pages or journals in the Gene R. Cook file.


just postulatin
k