-- Jul 31, 1976- Aug. 8
President Kimball addressed a total of 25,000 members from 12 countries in Europe at five area conferences in France, Finland, Denmark, The Netherlands and Germany. (1)
-- During July 1976
[Mormon Tabernacle Choir] The choir participates in U.S. Bicentennial tours in Utah, Philadelphia, Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. (2)
-- Sep 16, 1976
[U.S. Religious History] The Episcopal Church approved of the ordination of women as priests and bishops. (3)
-- Sep 27, 1976
New Language Training Mission complex dedicated in Provo, Utah . (4)
-- Oct 1, 1976
Members of the First Council of the Seventy and the Assistants to the Twelve were released in general conference and called to the new First Quorum of the Seventy. Franklin D. Richards was named the first senior president. (1)
Assistants to the Twelve made Seventies. (5)
Assistants to the Twelve and members of the First Council of the Seventy became members of the First Quorum of the Seventy. (4)
-- During November 1976
Hour-long television programs appear in the United States and Canada focusing on wholesome family life, featuring Latter-day Saint actors and entertainers and some nonmember artists. Called The family… and other living things, Bonneville and the Church‘s Public Communications Department arrange the production and distribution of the special. (6)
-- 1976
Church Membership at end of year: 3,742,749
New Converts : 170,547
Percent Change from previous year: 4.77% (7)
[African Americans in Utah] In 1976, the Reverend Robert Harris, a Democrat from Ogden, became the first African American elected to the Utah State Legislature. (8)
[Democrats in Utah] Moss was a prominent national Democrat during the 1960s and 1970s until his defeat by political newcomer Orrin Hatch in 1976. (9)
[Democrats in Utah] The party suffered a major defeat in state and local races throughout Utah. In 1976, a political unknown, attorney Scott Matheson, was elected running as a "citizen candidate" and would eventually serve two terms as Utah chief executive. (9)
[Equal Rights Amemdment] Equation of ERA with sexual permissiveness, abortion, child care, homosexuality, and unisexuality drew the debate away from the constitutional principal of equality to issues of "traditional family values." But the attack did reflect the fears of many about the changing roles of women and men and about the changing form of the family. There seemed to be danger in equality for the ideological/cultural concept of the father as head and provider, mother as nurturer and manager, and children as replicas into the next generation. Many feared the equality would make women more vulnerable and exposed, that men would feel freer to abandon family responsibilities. Certainly it was these fears which prompted Mormon church leaders to eventually join their financial resources, their promotional skills and their far-flung network of members to the counterrevolution. Church leaders in 1976 described ERA as "a moral issue with many disturbing ramifications for women
and for the family as individual members as a whole." President Spencer Kimball declared it "would strike at the family, humankinds basic institution." (10)
Footnotes:
1 - Church News: Historical chronology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
2 - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Newsroom, http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=036eb2987ff92110VgnVCM100000176f620aRCRDvgnextchannel=9ae411154963d010VgnVCM1000004e94610aRCRD
3 - Cline, Austin, History of American Religion: Timeline, http://am-rel-hist.gu.ma
4 - Hemidakaota, "Church Chronology from 1800-2000," http://www.lds.net/forums/scripture-study-forum/12108-church-chronology-1800-2000-part-1-a.html#post214550
5 - Ludlow, Daniel H. editor, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Macmillan Publishing, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol. 4, Appendix 2: A Chronology of Church History
6 - Sherry Baker: Mormon Media History Timeline: 1827-2007, http://byustudies.byu.edu/showTitle.aspx?title=7984
7 - Wikipedia, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Membership History, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints_membership_history
8 - Utah Historical Encyclopedia: African Americans in Utah, http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/a/African_Americans.html
9 - Utah Historical Encyclopedia: Democrats in Utah, http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/d/DEMOCRATIC.html
10 - Utah Historical Encyclopedia: Equal Rights Amemdment, http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/e/EQUALRIGHTS.html
Mormon History Timeline /Chronology
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
