Supreme Directional Control

The Supreme directional control controversy was a dispute among the leadership quorums of the Community of Christ (then known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), the Latter Day Saint movement's second largest denomination. It occurred during the 1920s and caused lasting repercussions. President Frederick Madison Smith asserted that First Presidency decisions were binding on the church, preempting even General Conference votes. Some church leaders and hundreds of other members left the Community of Christ for other Latter Day Saint churches, particularly the Church of Christ (Temple Lot). Although Dr. Smith was initially successful in asserting the First Presidency's authority over the Council of Twelve Apostles and Presiding Bishopric, the ensuing schism persisted, and the administrative changes were short-lived. By 1931, the church's debts and the onset of the Great Depression allowed the Bishopric to reassert its authority over church finances.

From its beginnings, the Latter Day Saint movement has been concerned with the idea of Zion, though the exact nature of this concept has varied from denomination to denomination and even from generation to generation. Frederick Smith, president of the Community of Christ during the 1920s, wished to apply principles of the newly emerging fields of sociology and social welfare to his church's concept of Zion. Holder of a Ph.D. in psychology from Clark University, Smith was deeply interested in the Social Gospel movement, which endeavored to apply Christian ethics to problems including social justice, health care, and care for the poor, for the orphans, and the elderly. In broad terms, Smith felt the need to address these issues as part of the overall call to "build Zion," which had formed a cornerstone of the Latter Day Saint movement since its inception under Smith's grandfather, Joseph Smith Jr.. In this way, Smith hoped to modernize his predecessor's vision of building a literal city of Zion in Independence, Missouri.

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