On Marion D. Hanks

Marion D. Hanks is one of the most influential general authorities who never served in the Quorum of the Twelve or First Presidency. Today he is best known for his hymn, “That Easter Morn”, his advocating for Christlike service, and the support he lent to Black members of the Church in the years leading up to the Priesthood Revelation. In a recent interview at the Latter-day Saint history blog From the Desk, Hanks’s son and biographer, Richard D. Hanks, discussed Marion D. Hanks’s life and legacy.

Who Was Marion D. Hanks?

Richard D. Hanks started out by discussing who Marion D. Hanks was:

Marion Duff Hanks (often called “Duff”) served for almost 40 years as a General Authority and was one of the most beloved and influential leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the twentieth century. His impact in today’s church is found far and wide.

He was instrumental in changing the church’s approach to missionary work to include Christ-like service, advocated institutional humanitarian work, focused on the Savior, led the creation and improvement of both the young adult and young men/women programs of the church, instituted refugee relief services and on and on.

Maybe of even more interest for today’s generation would be his support (half a century ago) for causes that have come to the forefront today—how the church should approach the marginalized, those on the fringes of belief, those with progressive leanings, and those suffering with doubt.

Because of his willingness to listen and care for the individual, he became a guiding light to many who didn’t fit exactly into the mold of some of the church’s doctrines and ideologies. Those who have what are now called “faith crises” flocked to him in droves. Those seeking mercy and some degree of hope for a future that included God’s forgiveness sought him out. Those who believed that the church should take a more progressive stance on some issues hoped he would take their positions forward. Those who disagreed with the “we’re right, you’re wrong” approach to the Restoration of the gospel found a sympathetic ear for their concerns.

Part of the influence that Hanks was able to have was due to a smaller numbers of general authorities in his time:

Marion D. Hanks was called to be a general authority in 1953, at age thirty-one. At that time the population of the church was only 1.2 million, and there were only 33 general authorities, including the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. There were no quorums of the Seventy, no area presidencies, and only 42 mission presidents.

Still, as a Seventy, he was in a position to help train new general authorities, many of whom did become apostles. He even noted on one occasion that he “had trained more apostles than any living man, and that I was content that it be so.” Richard D. Hanks even noted that “President Russell M. Nelson … told the congregation that in his temple locker he still keeps the notecard from when Duff trained him as a new general authority.”

An influential moment of his life while serving in the military helped give shape to his focus on Jesus Christ:

One Sunday, Chaplain Hamilton, the senior chaplain of the huge naval base, complimented Duff on the church service and invited Duff to meet with him in his office to discuss the possibility of his becoming a chaplain. He said, “Before I recommend you to the Chief of Chaplains, talk to me about your experience in your Church, about what you think may help me recommend you.”

And so, Duff began to try to tell Chaplain Hamilton what might qualify him to serve in that role. “I mentioned growing up in the Church, including family home evenings, prayer, etc.” Hamilton began to fidget, and Duff knew that he was losing him. Becoming a little more anxious, he tried telling him “All about the Church and its programs, the early two-and-a-half-minute talks, Scouting, the deacon opportunity, the Sunday School teaching, and the mission.”

After a time, Chaplain Hamilton’s demeanor completely changed, and he finally interrupted Duff. “Say Hanks, do you believe in Jesus Christ?”

“Yes, sir,” Duff replied. “Everything I believe relates to Jesus Christ. The name of the Church that I belong to is his name. My faith revolves around him as my Savior.”

Hamilton, looking at his watch, said, “Well, you have been talking for seven minutes and you haven’t said so.”

It was an unforgettable lesson for Duff. Years later, he said, “I haven’t made that mistake again.”

This was a significant lesson about putting Jesus first in word and action.

Marion D. Hanks’s focus on Jesus Christ led him to advocate for a greater focus on service in the Church, including in its missionary program:

His vision of the future of missionary work entailed the joining together of Matthew 25 with Matthew 28.

Matthew 25: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (vv.31–46; emphasis added).

Matthew 28: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them . . . . teaching them to observe” (vv.19–20; emphasis added).

In other words, called to baptize AND called to serve.

Marion D. Hanks viewed both of these directives as being equal in weight and nonnegotiable commands of the Lord for all members of the church, not just missionaries. The Lord described both as prerequisites for gaining eternal life. Duff tirelessly lobbied for more Christian service from missionaries, but his broader hope for the global church was that the entire membership would adopt the Savior’s command toward serving “the least of these.”

His vision was that someday the church’s worldwide missionary force would be lifting boxes into U-Hauls, providing meals to the homebound and homeless, helping the Red Cross, volunteering at the local veterans hospital, helping local residents weed, plant, and paint.

But this had not been the church’s historical approach. It seems difficult now, as it was back then, for some leaders of the church to embrace the concepts embodied in Duff ’s hoped-for vision of missionary work. Even while I was serving as a mission president, I heard such interesting criticisms as, “We are sent only to baptize!” and “We aren’t the Peace Corps, you know,” or “Your missionaries are doing too much service.”

He was able to get enough buy-in to implement regular service opportunities among missionaries, but never as much as he had wanted.

The area in which I’ve seen Marion D. Hanks mentioned the most in Latter-day Saint history was for his role in supporting Black individuals in the Church and supporting the end of the priesthood and temple ban. For example, Saints, Volume 3: Boldly, Nobly, and Independent: 1893–1955 tells the story of Len and Mary Hope, the only African American couple in the Cincinnati, Ohio branch, who were forced to “continued to hold monthly meetings in their home because some branch members still did not want them attending regular Church services.” Their friendship with Hanks was noted in Saints 3, which shared that “After nearly a quarter century of steadfast faith, Len and Mary had taken a trip to Utah in 1947. They stayed in the home of former Cincinnati missionary Marion Hanks, who showed them around Salt Lake City and took them to general conference.” And when Lester Bush’s article on Blacks and the Priesthood and Temple Ban was published in Dialogue, Marion D. Hanks is usually noted as the general authority who had the most favorable view of the article. He even admitted on multiple occasions that, “[the] article had had far more influence than the Brethren would ever acknowledge. . . . It ‘started to foment the pot.’” In the interview, Richard D. Hanks discussed some of the inner turmoil Marion Hanks faced over the priesthood and temple ban:

The opening line of the book is “Marion D. Hanks was a believer.” And he was—including the belief that the president of the church leads the church by inspiration. This caused some difficult issues for him. One was certainly the priesthood ban. He never believed in it, and he never accepted any of the cultural justifications that many others promulgated over the years.

It bothered Duff to have to adopt an attitude of suspended judgment on this issue and rely on (and wait for) the prophet to receive revelation that would remove the priesthood ban. But he always believed that the ban would be reversed in his lifetime.

Even so, he wasn’t content to just sit back and wait.

Marion D. Hanks was in a difficult position, because he had a rock-solid testimony of the restoration of the gospel and its leaders and authority. But ironically, he spent much of his life struggling to explain a policy he didn’t believe in.

He said:

All my life this has been a big sorrow for me, but I did my best to sustain the policy since I knew enough about the scriptures to understand that God has always selected certain people to do the things he needed to have done.

Marion D. Hanks

For example, the taking of the gospel to the Jews before the gentiles.

In 1993, he wrote:

For all the years I was a general authority, and for years before that, I answered thousands of questions on tours at Temple Square. I had to find ways to respond to what was a troubling reality that there were worthy and wonderful people who were not yet permitted to hold the priesthood. One can’t respond to questions about this for so many years and know that the Lord tells us that He ‘esteemeth all flesh in one’ (1 Nephi 17:35), and not look forward to a change.

Marion D. Hanks

He looked forward with hope to the day the ban would be lifted and celebrated when it finally was.

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For more on Marion D. Hanks, head on over to the Latter-day Saint history blog From the Desk, to read the full interview with Richard D. Hanks.