Organizational details

If a class assignment involves the minutes from a meeting, I expect a dry time. The minutes from the establishment of the highest governing councils in the LDS church were to their nature, but there are fascinating underlying details contained in them.

The assignment is the minutes from a meeting of 24 men who held the office of High Priest in the church in 1834. This is the same office and authority that Melchizedek held in Abraham's time. In this document (Joseph Smith Papers Revelations and Translations, pp. 639-648) we see that an interesting medley comes out. For example, page 640 ends with a historical tone explaining the meeting, page 642 starts with names, agreements, and a general record of what transpired in the meeting, and continues on to a soft revelatory tone. Here we are informed in a passive tone that this council is for this, extreme cases are to be judged so, governing body equivalencies, quorums, and balances, how to ensure fairness and avoid insult, and other details of operation.

I call this a 'soft' tone because the informational section says nowhere "Thus saith the Lord." It is firm and direct about how the council should work; the basics of receiving revelation had already been established in the minds of the people (sections 8 and 9 of the Doctrine and Covenants come to mind), so the Lord simply revealed the working structure and relied on the council to obey the instructions and seek His guidance for the details.

I'm also surprised by how carefully laid out the rules are. Political problems are countered (mind you, not 'entirely avoided') in one case by requiring that an equal number of members of the council be appointed to speak in favor as well as against an individual accused of breaking church law. (For example, this council would hear charges of adultery and would consider excommunication for it.) Also, those dissatisfied with the conclusions or those discovering new evidence are provided with venues to seek amends.

Also, the structure has a certain resiliency designed into it. If the president himself is absent, one of his two counselors (in this case, one of the two men appointed to help with his work) would be able to stand in. Also, a binding majority of the quorum is 7 of the 12, with worthy and reliable men being called to fill in the remaining seats as required.

Meh; I get distracted with intricacies. That's probably why I'm in computer science and electrical engineering...with some dabbling in social engineering, which the council of high priests is a fine example of.