Evan Call Family - 19330109-article

Historical Context

This article, likely dated January 9, 1933, was published in the Altoona Tribune, a daily newspaper based in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The meeting itself took place locally at the Knights of Columbus hall, demonstrating a common practice of the era where traveling church authorities rented local civic or fraternal halls to hold conferences due to a lack of permanent local church buildings in the region.

The main speaker at the conference was President James H. Moyle. Key points from his address included:

The defining difference between Mormonism and other Christian denominations is the church's claim to direct divine authority and priesthood power, which was given anew in modern times to Joseph Smith.
A core theological belief that man is literally—not figuratively—a child of God, viewing God as the actual Father of the spirits of all humanity.
Mormons do not believe non-Mormons are automatically damned; rather, every person's good deeds will be rewarded on their merits, though obeying God's laws remains necessary for eternal salvation.

Sadly, the Altoona Tribune published its final issue on December 31, 1957, after more than a century of operation, due to rising labor and material costs.

Date: May 5, 1933 (as written in cursive at the top of the clipping).

Publication: Waynesboro Record (handwritten as "Waynesboro, Record" at the top).

Elder James H. Moyle
Delivers Address Here

A special conference of the Latter-day Saints church was conducted under the direction of Elder Evan P. Call yesterday in the Knights of Columbus hall. Elder James H. Moyle, president of the Eastern States mission, was the principal speaker. Other missionaries of the district also spoke. President Moyle is formerly of Salt Lake City, Utah, and numbered among the greater leaders of this church. Pres. Moyle is directly in charge of all the membership of this church in the Eastern states, in conjunction with his direction of the activities of about 70 missionaries laboring in this area, who are also of the west.

President Moyle stated that the missionaries do not come out into the world to deceive people—but to bring to them the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and to put Mormonism before the world. The missionaries are not specially chosen but are taken from among the average Mormon people, and come into the world unprepared for the ministry, they receiving no previous training in theology except in their church attendance and their individual study. Approximately 2,000 missionaries are now throughout the entire world each paying his own expenses to promulgate the gospel of Christ—their only weapon being truth.

President Moyle stated that the question has been asked just what is the difference between Mormonism and all other denominations—the real difference is found within the church, it is their claim to direct divine authority. He stated that the priesthood, or the power and authority of God to minister in all ordinances of the church is the very quintessence of this religion. Other churches, both Protestant and Catholic, lay claim to authority, but the Latter-day Saints lay greater store by it than all others because to them man (corrected in ink) is literally and not figuratively a child of God. For they believe that God is in a real sense the Father of the spirits of all men.

President Moyle brought out the fact that the priesthood is the very essence of Christ's church on earth. It furnishes a groundwork of revealed religion. It was given anew in modern times to Joseph Smith, and was not inherited by him in a manner involved in doubt. Its motivating power is love, rather than compulsion and it acts only upon principles of righteousness.

President Moyle said, the Mormons do not believe or teach that all non-Mormons will be lost. Every good act which a person performs will be rewarded according to its merits. They do believe, however, that everyone must obey and abide the laws of God in order to gain eternal salvation.

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