Conference by the Numbers, October 2015

Here's my take on the numbers for the 185th semi-annual conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, October 3-4, 2015. You can also check out my post from last conference.

Top Word Counters

In my last post, I showed how word counts in General Conference changed over time. I noticed that certain terms would have a spike in certain years, often attributable to a single talk. In honor of those talks that give extensive reference to a single word and topic, I've compiled a list of "Top Word Counters." There's no particular reason for the selected topics, except that I picked them. I've arranged them from highest to lowest word count per talk. Enjoy reading some of these classic talks!

Top Word Counters

Mission(ary)--62
Milton R Hunter, April 1972
The Miracle of Missionary Work

Temple--59
Thomas S Monson, April 2011
The Holy Temple—a Beacon to the World

Light--53
Robert D Hales, April 2002
Out of Darkness into His Marvelous Light

Family--50
James A. Cullimore, October 1975
Family Home Evening

Baptism/Baptize--48
James E Faust, April 2001
Born Again

Faith--47
Dallin H Oaks, April 1994
Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ

Mercy--47
Marion D Hanks, October 1981
My Specialty Is Mercy

Priesthood--46
Robert D Hales, October 1995
Blessings of the Priesthood

Sabbath--39
James E Faust, October 1991
The Lord's Day

Repent(ance)--31
Russell M Nelson, April 2007
Repentance and Conversion

Grace--29
Gene R. Cook, April 1993
Receiving Divine Assistance through the Grace of the Lord

Family History--23
Dennis B. Neuenschwander, April 1999
Bridges and Eternal Keepsakes

Obey/Obedience--21
James E. Faust, April 1999
Obedience: The Path to Freedom

Genealogy--16
Russell M. Nelson, April 1998
A New Harvest Time

General Conference Word Counts Over the Years

As a follow-up to my last post, and in honor of General Conference this weekend, I'm posting about various word counts in General Conference talks. One question I received from my last post was about how variations in the occurrence of Joseph Smith in conference talks compared to other gospel words and topics. The following graph shows some of the variation seen in the words (and related word forms) of temple, baptism, repentance, family, and Joseph Smith. One takeaway from these graphs is that there can be quite a bit of variation in word usage from year to year (though you do notice the increase of "temple" starting in the 1990s).

For many other gospel terms, you see a similar bouncing-around variation. However, I did find a few other interesting trends. In comparing the terms faith, works, and grace. There is a definite increase in the usage of faith over time, whereas works  is diminishing. Grace remains relatively constant--showing a slight increase.

Why the increase? Have Latter-day Saints focused too much on works and not enough on the requisite faith to go with it? Or do we need more faith in these days of increasing cynicism and skepticism? Or are our modern-day apostles asking the Lord, as the ancient apostles did, for the Lord to "increase our faith" (Luke 17:5). I won't pretend to have the answers to these questions, but it is something to ponder on. I do recommend reading President Gordon B. Hinckley's 1987 talk "Lord, Increase Our Faith."

A few other comparisons sparked my interest, although not on a doctrinal basis. For example, the change in usage from genealogy to family history is readily apparent here:

I also liked observing the change in references related to modern technology and media. There is an expected increase in terms related to modern media such as computer and internet. The dangers of pornography have received consistent attention, but more recent years have seen concentrated and emphatic attention. I'm a little sad, albeit not surprised, that references to books has declined with the concomitant increase in internet references. 2014 shows 27 uses of the word internet as opposed to 5 occurrences of the word books. But, hey--this blog is brought to you by the magic of the internet and is not published in a paper book, so I probably shouldn't complain too much.

Do you have any terms you'd like to see compared? Any thoughts from this weekend's General Conference? Let me know in the comments. You can also look at the next post on Top Word Counters. In the meantime, I'll be working on a summary from October 2015 General Conference once the talk texts are available.

References to Joseph Smith in General Conference

A couple of months ago, I had a discussion with a friend regarding Joseph Smith and Church Public Relations. He indicated that he thought there was a period of time when the Church downplayed references to Joseph Smith in some of its public presentations or visitor sites. Although I didn't have any information to support or refute this claim, we began talking about general conference talks. We wondered whether this was also true for references to Joseph Smith in general conference talks. Rather than just wondering, I decided to actually find out.

Below is a graph showing the references, by year, to the words "Joseph Smith" in general conference talks. The graph below shows references to Joseph Smith by year in general conference talks. The graph below that shows occurrences grouped by decade. The blue bar shows the average number of references per year, and the green bar shows the range of references in that decade (min to max).

Looking at the overall trends, it looks like there is a dip around the '90s as compared to other years. However, there is quite a bit of variability from year to year, and it would be hard to say there is much more than an average 20% de-emphasis on Joseph Smith at the low point (incidentally, references to the Book of Mormon were increasing in that time period).

My friend and I could probably have a lengthy discussion as to whether or not this is a significant trend. However, I'm sure we would agree that regardless of the decade, Joseph Smith and the restoration of the gospel are foundational doctrines for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Even at the "low point" in the '80s, Joseph Smith was at the center of several talks, such as this one in 1985 by Elder Rex C. Reeve.

I am grateful for the prophet Joseph Smith and his role as a modern-day prophet. His words, actions, and life testify of Jesus Christ and were instrumental in bringing the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ back to the earth in our day and time.

Conference by the Numbers: April 2015 General Conference

In honor of the talk transcripts being available online for the April 2015 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I put together a few facts and figures.

Book of Mormon References, D&C 84:57, and Ezra Taft Benson

A few weeks ago, I posted about the top referenced scriptures at General Conference. This week I wanted to continue that with a few graphics showing the top referenced books of scripture (New Testament, Old Testament, Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price), and look at the impact of Ezra Taft Benson on Book of Mormon references in General Conference.

Below is a graph showing the relative frequency with which each book of scripture is referenced in general conference talks from 1971 to 2013. Data comes from BYU's LDS scripture citation index and is grouped by decade.

The main change in the graph over time is the increase in Book of Mormon references in the 1980s. To get more detail on the change, the graph below shows the percent of Book of Mormon references by year. This additional detail shows that a sharp increase occurred over the years 1984 to 1986.

What changed in 1984? I believe it was spurred by Elder Ezra Taft Benson's October 1984 talk "A New Witness for Christ". In this talk Elder Benson opened with the following words:

My beloved brethren and sisters, for some years now I have been deeply concerned that we are not using the Book of Mormon as God intends.

As I participated in the Mexico City Temple dedication, I received the distinct impression that God is not pleased with our neglect of the Book of Mormon.

In the eighty-fourth section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord decreed that the whole Church was under condemnation, even all the children of Zion, because of the way they treated the Book of Mormon. “And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent,” said the Lord, “and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon.” (D&C 84:57).

 This was not the first time Elder Benson had made strong declarations regarding the Book of Mormon (see April 1975 conference, "The Book of Mormon is the Word of God"). However, it seems that the message of the 1984 talk had a strong impact--at least to speakers at general conference. Over the next few years this message was emphasized by Ezra Taft Benson as he served as President of the Church.

The timeline below shows references to D&C 84:57 from 1971 to 2013 by all speakers. Clearly, Ezra Taft Benson had a strong repeated emphasis of "remember[ing] the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon" throughout the mid-80s.

Although President Benson's emphasis on the Book of Mormon is well known, it is interesting to see the quantifiable impact of his emphasis. If the data on Book of Mormon references in General Conference is representative, then his influence was not just a flurried spike of activity over a few years, but a lasting influence into the future.

Sunday School Lesson Scripture Network

I was asked to substitute for a youth Sunday School class today. The topic for March in Come Follow Me was on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. One of the outlines was on what the scriptures teach about the atonement. I came up with a scripture network related to the Topical Guide topic Jesus Christ, Atonement through, and printed out a large copy. The class started at the center and traced a line out to a scripture of their choice. We would read the scripture and discuss it, and then follow it to another connecting topic and a subsequent connecting scripture. We would then discuss how those scriptures were connected and what they taught us about the atonement. The youth gave some insightful comments and we had some good discussions about how to connect and find patterns in the scriptures. One of my favorite comments was at the beginning when a young man said, "Well, those aren't all the scriptures about the atonement." We agreed that a chart with all the scriptures related to the atonement of Jesus Christ would probably be unreadable.