-- Jun 17,1978
Church News headline "Interracial Marriage Discouraged" in same issue which announces authorization of priesthood for those of black African descent. Sources at church headquarters indicate that Apostle Mark E. Petersen requires this emphasis. (1)
-- 1978-08-26
For the first time the First Presidency defines the ERA as a "moral issue" (2)
-- 1978, September 16
First annual women's meeting held. (3)
-- 01 Oct 1978
James E. Faust is ordained an Apostle, replacing Delbert L. Stapley, who had passed away.
-- 30 Oct 1978
First Presidency announces emeritus status for general authorities due to age, physical infirmity, or other reasons. Members of First Quorum of Seventy are first general authorities to receive this retirement. (4)
-- Dec 29,1978
First Presidency allows women to pray in sacrament meetings again, rescind earlier ban from Jul 1967. (1)
-- 15 Feb 1979
Kimball and his counselors found it necessary to counter the now-familiar pattern of Mormon ultra- conservatives to imply church endorsement. In February 1979 the First Presidency published a statement against "announcements have been made in Church meetings of lectures to be given by those connected with the Freemen Institute." (5)
-- 18 Feb 1979
The Church's 1,000th stake was created at Nauvoo, Ill., by President Ezra Taft Benson of the Quorum of the Twelve. (6)
-- Aug 19, 1979.
Ann Kenney, a student at the University of Utah, is set apart as president of the University of Utah Second Stake Sunday School. Gilbert Sharffs, counselor in the stake presidency, assures her that he has been "strongly impressed" to issue the calling and also had a general authority approve the calling. On 24 September she is released. Sharffs explains that "in the past there has been no policy set. The quorum [of the Twelve] was divided on the issue, and the decision was left to the president." The president was Ezra Taft Benson. (7)
-- During Aug 1979
Church's Ensign magazine publishes first counselor N. Eldon Tanner's statement: "When the prophet speaks the debate is over," which echoes Improvement Era's message of Jun 1945. (1)
-- October 1979
"It is well to ask, what system [referring to Isaiah 29:15–16] established secret works of darkness to overthrow nations by violent revolution? Who blasphemously proclaimed the atheistic doctrine that God made us not? Satan works through human agents. We need only look to some of the ignoble characters in human history who were contemporary to the restoration of the gospel to discover fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. I refer to the infamous founders of Communism and others who follow in their tradition…" (8)
Benson's last anti-communist talk (9)
Endnotes:
1 - Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, Appendix 5, Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1848-1996, http://amzn.to/extensions-power
2 - Mormon Women's History Timeline, http://www1.chapman.edu/~remy/MoFem/mormonwomen.html
3 - Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Daniel H. Ludlow (editor), New York: Macmillan, 1992, Appendix 2: A Chronology of Church History
4 - On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com
5 - Spencer W. Kimball, N. Eldon Tanner, and Marion G. Romney to All Stake Presidents, Bishops, and Branch Presidents in the United States, 15 Feb. 1979, photocopy in folder 25, box 17, Buerger Papers -- as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992) and Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3
6 - Church News: Historical Chronology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, http://www.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/articles/58765/Historical-chronology-of-The-Church-of-Jesus-Christ-of-Latter-day-Saints.html
7 - Anderson, Lavina Fielding, "The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology," Dialogue, Vol.26, No.1
8 - Ezra Taft Benson, A Witness and a Warning, Conference, October 1979
9 - Ezra Taft Benson, in Official Report of the 149th Semi-Annual Conference of the Church (October 1979), 43–47. The 1979 talk was not published in the non-English Church magazines -- as referenced in Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball (Working Draft)
LDS History Chronology: Ezra Taft Benson
Mormon History Timeline: the life of Ezra Taft Benson
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
