Author of the working definition
George Q. Cannon
1827–1901
2 topics · 6 dated events · 2 sources
Their part in each topic
Utah Polygamy and the Manifesto
First Presidency counselor
Cannon edited the Manifesto into its final, shortened, first-person form and defended it publicly as inspired. He also signed recommends for plural marriages after 1890, told the New York Herald in 1899 that such marriages might be performed in Canada and Mexico, and testified in court that he knew of none. He is the pivot on which the question of institutional good faith turns.
Speaking Truth to Power
Author of the working definition
As editor of the Deseret Evening News, Cannon answered a reader's question on 3 November 1869 with the sentence that has governed the question ever since: he could conceive of a man honestly differing in opinion from the authorities of the church and yet not be an apostate, but not of a man publishing those differences and seeking to enforce them upon the people. The line locates the offence in publication rather than in belief. It was quoted from the pulpit in general conference in April 1969, again by James E. Faust in October 1993 three weeks after the September Six, and it still anchors FAIR's and the church newsroom's explanations of what apostasy means.
In the timeline
6 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.
George Q. Cannon defines apostasy in the Deseret Evening Newshinge
Answering a reader who had heard that the paper equated honest disagreement with apostasy, Cannon drew the distinction that has governed ever since. He could conceive of a man honestly differing in opinion from the authorities and yet not being an apostate; he could not conceive of a man publishing those differences, and seeking by arguments, sophistry and special pleading to enforce them upon the people to produce division and strife, and not being an apostate.
The Manifesto is written and releasedhinge
Woodruff wrote in his journal that he was under the necessity of acting for the temporal salvation of the church. He drafted the statement in the third person, intending signatures from the Presidency and Twelve; George Q. Cannon edited it down by roughly 150 words and it went out as a personal declaration over Woodruff's name alone.
Woodruff testifies that the Manifesto covers cohabitation
Asked before the master in chancery whether existing plural relations should also cease, Woodruff answered that that had been the intention. Restoration of the escheated property depended on such assurances. George Q. Cannon testified the same month that he knew of no plural marriage entered into since the Manifesto.
Enabling Act opens the way to statehood
Congress invited Utah to apply a seventh time. In April of the same year, at a meeting of the Presidency and Twelve in the Salt Lake Temple, Woodruff told George Q. Cannon that the day was near when there would be no difficulty in the way of good men securing noble wives; that year the Presidency authorized plural marriages in Canada, Mexico and two Utah temples.
Frank J. Cannon is excommunicated for editorialshinge
Asked by his ward teachers whether he believed Joseph F. Smith was a prophet of God, the former U.S. Senator and Salt Lake Tribune editor answered that he did not — 'I think that his idol is mammon.' He was summoned five days later, disfellowshipped in February for unchristianlike conduct and apostasy, and excommunicated by the high council on 14 March. He declined to attend, sending a messenger instead. Smith called him Furious Judas in private correspondence and in public.
'I find no such principle in the gospel'
James E. Faust told conference that some legislative assemblies have a loyal opposition, and that he found no such principle in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Free discussion and expression are encouraged in the church, he said, but the privilege should operate within limits — and he then read George Q. Cannon's 1869 definition from the pulpit. No one was named.
Sources in their own name
Source records in the database whose author line names this person. Each links to the topic that uses it.
Journal of Discourses, 26 vols.
Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, John Taylor, George Q. Cannon and others
What Brigham Young and his contemporaries actually preached about race and priesthood, in their own words and at length.
Editorial on apostasy, Deseret Evening News, 3 November 1869
George Q. Cannon
The working definition of apostasy the whole topic runs on: not differing, but publishing the difference.
Appears alongside
People who share the most dated events with George Q. Cannon.
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