Monday, February 29, 2016

Family Proclamation References

A while back, my brother asked if I had looked at references to "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" in general conference talks. I had not looked at this previously, so I decided to give it a whirl. Here's a graph of conference references to "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" by year. I counted any reference to the entire title, or shorter versions like "Family Proclamation" of "The Proclamation on the Family." References could be in the talks themselves, or in the footnotes.

A few interesting facts:
  • 2015 saw a record high high with 25 references between October and April conferences.
  • Boyd K. Packer referenced the proclamation the most (12 times)
  • If you read President Howard W. Hunter's talks when he was ordained President of the Church in October, 1994 (see Being a Righteous Husband and Father and Exceeding Great and Precious Promises), you will find many ideas and phrases that will later be incorporated into "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" as given by Gordon B. Hinckley in September, 1995.