Messenger
Heber J. Grant – Prophet of God?
Posted on 12/20/2004 at 8:57:00 AM
or Just President of the Church?
At the death of President Joseph F. Smith the LDS Church stood at a crossroads. He was the last Church leader alive to have known the Prophet Joseph, and was the last prophet at the head of the Church who lived Plural Marriage whilst in that calling. With his passing came the end of an era. Who could fill his shoes?
The most senior Apostle at the death of Joseph F. Smith was John W. Young. He had been ordained an Apostle in 18551, 27 years before Heber J. Grant, who was next most senior. But Elder Young was never called to the Quorum of Twelve, it seems he wasn’t considered for succession a candidate by the rest of the Twelve, and he didn’t seem to seek or contest Grant’s appointment. This may surprise many Church members who may have assumed that all the Apostles are members of the Quorum of the Twelve, and that there has ever been any question – even amongst the Apostles – as to who was qualified to lead.
Since the presidency of Lorenzo Snow, the Church had filled the office of Church President automatically after the death of the previous President,2 and so the question of who would be the next President was already decided by seniority in the Quorum of Twelve. President Brigham Young, however, made it clear that a man being President of the Church didn’t necessarily make them Prophet, and that God calls prophets, but that the people appoint Presidents of the Church.3
To answer the question of who succeeded President Smith as prophet and holder of the keys of the Priesthood we will look at the man most Latter-day Saints believe fulfilled that role – Heber Jeddy Grant.
Heber was the son of Brigham Young’s counselor, Jedediah Grant, and was born 22 Nov 1856. His father, however, died when he was still a baby. Even as a youth he became an effective businessman, and although his mother had hopes of him becoming a leader of the Church he told her at the time to “get it out of your head … I do not want to be an Apostle! … I do not want to be anything but a business man!”4 Yet he found himself being given Priesthood responsibilities beyond his years from the age of 15 when he was ordained a Seventy, and by the time he was 23 he was called as a Stake President.
Yet despite perhaps having the emotional maturity of such a high calling at such a young age, there is some question over whether he had the necessary spiritual maturity. This is illustrated by a conversation he had with Joseph F. Smith (who was then a member of the First Presidency). Heber had confided in Joseph that he could not seem to speak with the Spirit, to which President Smith asked him if he knew the gospel was true. Grant admitted “No, I do not know it!”5 Smith hoped to release him after hearing this, and coincidentally the majority of the members in his stake actually voted not to sustain Heber,6 however, he somehow managed to remain in his position.
It is important to remember that during this era of the Church’s history, Plural Marriage was not just recommended, but mandated for Church leaders. It was a “law of the Priesthood” that was considered essential to exaltation. In light of this it is interesting to learn of a particular case that came before him whilst he was a Stake President. It seems that some time between 1880 and 1882 President Grant had some disagreement with Bishop Samuel Woolley, and the Bishop objected to Heber trying to correct him, because Heber was still monogamous and Woolley was living a higher law, and therefore outside of his jurisdiction.
We’ll take up the story from an account given by the son of the Assistant Church Historian at the time: “Brother Grant took the question up with his file leaders, President John Taylor and counselors. They instructed him that Brother Woolley was right, since he (Brother Grant) was not living or abiding in the law, he was not qualified to direct Brother Woolley who was faithfully abiding in that law.”7
This principle was reiterated by the Lord in a revelation to President Taylor in October 1882, which called Heber J. Grant and two others to greater positions of authority:
- “Thus saith the Lord to the Twelve, and to the Priesthood and people of my Church: …
- You may appoint Seymour B. Young to fill up the vacancy in the presiding quorum of Seventies, if he will conform to my law: For it is not meet that men who will not abide my law shall preside over my Priesthood; …
- For my Priesthood, whom I have called and whom I have sustained and honored, shall honor one and obey my laws, and the laws of my Holy Priesthood, or they shall not be considered worthy to hold my Priesthood, saith the Lord.”8
The law which Seymour Young was not living that the Lord required him to before he could preside was Celestial (Plural) Marriage. At the time he had only one wife (Ann Riter), but in order to keep this law he later married again (Abbie Wells). John Taylor made it clear how he understood the revelation himself when he stated on the day he received it, “A man obeying a lesser law is not qualified to preside over those who keep a higher law.”9
In accordance with these divine instructions Heber married two additional wives (his first being Lucy Stringham whom he married in 1877, Huldah Winters and Emily Wells a day apart in May 1884. Thus he began to qualify to fulfill his responsibilities as an Apostle of the Lord.
Even with his call to the Apostleship, at least one of the Quorum of Twelve, John Henry Smith, continued to doubt his spiritual qualifications and complained that Heber did not have “a testimony of the truth.”10 Worries about Grant’s testimony and intentions continued, and L. John Nuttall (secretary to Wilford Woodruff) later commented that he worried “for the welfare of the Church and kingdom” as, in his opinion, “financial matters [had] more weight with … Brother Heber J. Grant than the things of the Kingdom.”11 Others worried about Grant’s mental health, as he had suffered a nervous breakdown just prior to being an Apostle, and would suffer more later in life.12 Despite these concerns he remained a member of the Quorum of Twelve.
Just as he had later publicly admitted he didn’t have a testimony when he was a Stake President, as an Apostle he confided privately in his fellow Quorum members that he “had never had an inspired dream in his life” and that he had never seen his deceased father (although it was later claimed that he had done so earlier in 1883). He further revealed in 1898 that he had never seen Jesus nor heard his voice.
In 1890 after much pressure from the American government, who no longer even recognized the existence of the LDS Church, President Wilford Woodruff issued a press release we now call the Manifesto asking members to refrain from breaking the laws of the land in their marriages. To many members this seemed to be the end of Celestial Plural Marriage, but others did not place the same importance on the law of the land or press releases, when compared to the laws of God. President Woodruff himself had prophesied two years earlier that the Saints wouldn’t, “quit practicing Plural Marriage until Christ shall come,”13 which Grant recorded in his journal at the time.
Eleven years after the Manifesto Lorenzo Snow encouraged Heber to secretly take another wife.14 Accordingly he approached Fanny Woolley (the sister of John W. Woolley) that year and asked her to marry him. She, however, felt more impressed with Stake President George Parkinson (already a post-Manifesto polygamist), and became his plural wife a year later.15 By 1903 a warrant was out for his arrest for continuing to live plural marriage, and he was given an assignment in England to enable him to flee the country. Before he did so, George F. Gibbs, the secretary to the First Presidency reiterated that he should try to take another wife whilst there, but there is no record but rumor that he ever
did16
He did remain living with his existing plural wives however, and in 1899 even had to go to court and pay a fine for breaking the “˜unlawful cohabitation’ law against plural marriage.17 But by 1908, with the death of his wife Emily, he found himself a monogamist again.
Following the death of Joseph F. Smith, on the 23rd of November 1918, Anthon H. Lund proposed Heber J. Grant as Church President, Grant then chose him as a counselor, then Lund set apart Grant. After which Lund was sustained President of the Council of Twelve.18 Thus he became the first President of the Church who was monogamous during his presidency. In fact, he claimed at least twice in General Conference that “no man living [had] authority to solemnize plural marriage”19 Where those keys went he did not say.
From having once been a supporter of the rights of polygamists, as Church President he seemed to see them as criminals that should be punished. In the April 193120 Conference, for example he promised to assist in prosecuting post-Manifesto polygamists, although as before noted, he himself tried to take a wife after the Manifesto and was prosecuted for continuing to live polygamously after that time.
A couple of years later, a “final Manifesto” which had been prepared by J. Reuben Clark and signed by Grant was read aloud in every congregation and seemed to once-and-for-all end any official approval or overlooking of plural marriage by Church leaders. The statement was full of many factual errors, however, as it stated that a revelation from John Taylor commanding the uninterrupted continuation of plural marriage was not in the Church archives and was unknown to President Grant (although he had been at at least two meetings where it had been discussed in decades previously,21 and Joseph Fielding Smith Jr. had seen it in the archives himself before that time).22 The statement also alleged that “celestial Marriage … and plural marriage are not synonymous terms” which contradicted the teachings of all Church Presidents prior to Grant.23
President Grant’s statements against that principle would also turn to actual persecution. In 1935 the Utah legislature made “unlawful cohabitation” a felony for the first time, punishable by up to 5 years in prison (even the anti-polygamous territorial law had made it only a misdemeanor). This law was drafted by Hugh B. Brown (LDS Stake President, and later an Apostle, undoubtedly with the approval of the Church.
In 1944 husbands were taken from their wives and children from their mothers without there ever being any evidence of abuse, but simply for the crime of believing and practicing what they believed to be celestial plural marriage. The world was shocked and horrified at the images of innocent children being torn from their loving families, and the actions were almost universally condemned – except by the Church and it’s Deseret News which applauded the raids and court cases.24
In the middle of May 1945, some of those men who believed they were clinging to early Mormon doctrines, and whose families the Church had once encouraged in living their way life, were put in jail, and the last hope of Heber J. Grant was fulfilled in which he said, “I shall rejoice when the Government officials put a few of these [polygamists] in the county jail or the state penitentiary.”25 His joy though, was short lived, as he died the next day. His legacy being that he had ended his life fighting against the very thing which his father and others risked their lives to keep alive.
It is hard to imagine what could have prompted President Grant to change his views and attitudes so completely against the very principle he was born into, and which all Church Presidents before him had been persecuted because of. Perhaps a statement he made in 1938 may give some clue as to what swayed his mind. He stated in the November of that year that he found his “greatest happiness” “in the good will and friendship” from “all classes of people” and denominations, instead of “persecution and bitterness.”26 To some this statement may seem harmless enough, but we see it in it’s true light when we compare it to a warning given almost half a century earlier by Brigham Young – “When the spirit of persecution, the spirit of hatred, of wrath and malice ceases in the world against this people, it will be the time that this people have apostatized and joined hands with the wicked, and never until then; which I pray may never come.”27
This change has since been praised by subsequent Church leaders such as Elder John J. Carmack, who related his happiness that, “During his tenure, President Heber J. Grant moved us into the modern era. We were no longer in isolation. We became a part of the world, the business community, the intellectual community. That was a major corner that we turned.”28 How quickly it seems that we have forgotten the words of Jesus that “friendship with the world is enmity with God.”29
The approval and acceptance of the world is an intoxicating thing, and led not only to the Church giving up plural marriage but to many other principles and questionable actions. To give a few examples -
In 1921 Grant authorizes a change in Priesthood ordination, to remove the conferral of the Priesthood,30 which directly conflicted with instructions given by his predecessor, Joseph F. Smith, given in 1901.31
This was not the only such change. Two years later, the garment was substantially changed,32 in direct opposition to strict instructions President Smith have a only a few years earlier, that any such alterations would invalidate the garment completely.33 According to one account, Heber Grant reasoned that, “The changes in the garment were neither by revelation nor inspiration, but to please the sisters, and encourage the young people to go through the Temple”34 This was followed a few years later by several changes in the temple ceremony itself, and in the administration and meaning of the highest ordinance, the Second Anointing.35
Not content with altering the ordinances of the temple, in 1923 President Grant mortgaged the temple and put in the hands of the world in order to support a sugar business! To take out a $30 million loan (for fifty years) he used Temple Square as collateral.36
Brother Heber also taught a new doctrine, that we should follow Church leaders even if they may be wrong, and we will still be blessed for it. Even though he himself had once taught that “Next to the committing of sin, there is no more fruitful cause of apostasy among the Latter-day Saints than when we put our trust in the arm of flesh.”37 Yet he told a young Marion G. Romney that, “My boy, you always keep your eye on the President of the Church, and if he ever tells you to do anything, and it is wrong, and you do it, the Lord will bless you for it.”38
It seems that more changes in the Church occurred during his tenure, than any other Church President, nearly all of them to remove by policy what previous prophets had established by revelation. This biography may seem overly negative about Heber J. Grant, but it has been written to show that whatever qualifications he had as a businessman, that as a Prophet he has been found wanting. Yet if we are to look for the true successor of Joseph F. Smith, one who stood against the world and stood up for true principles despite persecution then we need to look elsewhere.
Nevertheless, we must remember that the Lord must have called Heber J. Grant for a reason. There are many good things he did during his administration, such as the welfare program, and of course the Church members generally also bear some responsibility for the course the Church took at the time, as so many wanted the changes that occurred, and President Grant to some extent was acting on their behalf. There are many statements he made as an Apostle that we would do well to follow (and we can only wish he had followed himself):
- “No matter what restrictions we may be placed under by men, our only consistent course is to keep the commandments for God. We should, in this regard, place ourselves in the same position as that of the three Hebrews who were cast into the fiery furnace. … we have but one choice, that is to abide in the law of God, no matter as to the consequence.”39
Footnotes
- Deseret News, 4 April 1936.