Why Protect the Past?

Salt Lake City, Nov. 12, 2001-- James Bennett received an unexpected gift while serving an LDS mission to Scotland in 1988--a copy of the missionary diaries of his great-grandfather, David O. McKay.

The 19-year-old was aware that McKay, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1950 to 1971, was one of the most popular Mormon leaders ever, renowned for his open mind and gentle, benevolent manner.

What Bennett learned from the diaries, though, was that during McKay's mission to Scotland nearly 100 years earlier, the teen-who-would-be-prophet hated "tracting"--knocking on strangers' doors--and was often cold, discouraged and homesick.

"I thought I was nowhere near where he was spiritually," says Bennett, now artistic director at Tuacahn School for the Performing Arts in St. George. "Reading that he started out as a missionary with all the same frustrations I had was reassuring to me.

"If you only read about people being perfect, it makes you feel hopeless."

Today, McKay's diaries are in the University of Utah's Special Collection, where anyone can peruse them.

But such openness makes some Mormon leaders, members and even historians nervous. They want to shield the faithful from the foibles of the past, keeping leaders safely on their pedestals. To do otherwise, they say, destroys faith.

The LDS Church's guarded stance toward its own history is a hot topic among historians and even rank-and-file members who are keeping a close eye on the tug of war between the church and Utah State University over materials donated to the school by the late Mormon historian Leonard J. Arrington.

Arrington's huge collection includes copies of documents owned by the church. The church also says it rightfully owns the copies, especially of church leaders' papers and minutes of meetings.

But USU officials argue Arrington clearly believed those documents should be more freely available, which is why he deposited his copies in the school's archives.

As a newly formed committee from USU and the church wrangles over the Arrington collection, many observers wonder where other Mormon historical gold mines might be found and what nuggets of insight they hold, bringing unprecedented attention to material typically considered rather mundane.

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