Church president 1951–1970
David O. McKay
1873–1970
2 topics · 5 dated events
Their part in each topic
Race and the Priesthood
Church president 1951–1970
McKay narrowed the restriction's reach — clarifying that Pacific Islanders, Fijians and Australian Aboriginal people could be ordained, and reversing South Africa's lineage-tracing requirement — while endorsing the 1949 statement that called it a direct commandment. He is reported by Sterling McMurrin and others to have privately called it a practice rather than a doctrine, and to have said he had pleaded with the Lord and not received the answer he sought.
Church Finances, Tithing, and the Transparency Question
Ninth president
McKay presided over the last detailed public financial report, given at April 1959 conference for the year 1958. He allowed the deficit spending that followed, and — according to Quinn — was persuaded by his counselor Henry D. Moyle not to publish even an abbreviated accounting afterward. The Church has never resumed itemized public disclosure of expenditures since.
In the timeline
5 events across 2 topics, chronological. Only events this person was actually part of — present at, responsible for, or the subject of — not every event where the name comes up.
The First Presidency calls it a direct commandmenthinge
Under George Albert Smith the Presidency wrote: “The attitude of the Church with reference to Negroes remains as it has always stood. It is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord, on which is founded the doctrine of the Church from the days of its organization, to the effect that Negroes may become members of the Church but that they are not entitled to the priesthood at the present time.” A 1947 statement had already called it the doctrine of the Church, never questioned by Church leaders. A 1951 statement grounded it in pre-mortal conduct.
The retreat begins
President McKay ended Clark's seven consecutive years of reading the financial report; the duty went to the First Presidency's secretary, Joseph Anderson. The disclosure reverted from budgeted-versus-spent tables to bare categories, and detail was progressively collapsed: in 1953 the separate line items for the Office of the Corporation of the President and the Office of the Presiding Bishopric were folded into 'Administrative Expenses.'
Deficit spending, and the decision not to publish
Henry D. Moyle, appointed second counselor two months after the last report, set aside the current budget and launched a large increase in expenditure, especially on buildings. Quinn writes that the Church spent $8 million more than it received in 1959, against a $7 million surplus after 1958's expenditures, and that because the last published report had included the building program, Moyle persuaded McKay not to publish even an abbreviated accounting. In April 1962 the Auditing Committee's public reports stopped noting whether the Church carried debt.
The payroll crisis
The Church ran a $32 million deficit in 1962, and by early 1963 its financial officers were worried they would not be able to meet payroll for Church employees. McKay reassigned N. Eldon Tanner to Church finances; within two decades Tanner had established headquarters as a financial power with significant annual income from investments and businesses.
Hugh B. Brown reads a civil rights statement to avert an NAACP marchhinge
The Salt Lake NAACP planned to picket Temple Square during general conference. Sterling McMurrin arranged a meeting; Brown promised a statement and, with McMurrin's help, drafted one that McKay approved. Brown read it: “There is in this Church no doctrine, belief, or practice that is intended to deny the enjoyment of full civil rights by any person, regardless of race, color, or creed.” The demonstration was cancelled.
Appears alongside
People who share the most dated events with David O. McKay.
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