“The Family: A Proclamation to the World” was first introduced by President Gordon B. Hinckley in the Relief Society session of the October 1995 general conference. President Hinckley offered this introduction to the proclamation:

With so much of sophistry that is passed off as truth, with so much of deception concerning standards and values, with so much of allurement and enticement to take on the slow stain of the world, we have felt to warn and forewarn. In furtherance of this we of the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles now issue a proclamation to the Church and to the world as a declaration and reaffirmation of standards, doctrines, and practices relative to the family which the prophets, seers, and revelators of this church have repeatedly stated throughout its history. I now take the opportunity of reading to you this proclamation.¹

In a talk given over twenty years later, President Dallin H. Oaks, a member of the Twelve at the time the family proclamation was issued, provided a detailed explanation for how the family proclamation came into being:

The inspiration identifying the need for a proclamation on the family came to the leadership of the Church over 23 years ago. It was a surprise to some who thought the doctrinal truths about marriage and the family were well understood without restatement. Nevertheless, we felt the confirmation and we went to work. Subjects were identified and discussed by members of the Quorum of the Twelve for nearly a year. Language was proposed, reviewed, and revised. Prayerfully we continually pleaded with the Lord for His inspiration on what we should say and how we should say it. We all learned ‘line upon line, precept upon precept,’ as the Lord has promised (D&C 98:12).²

President Oaks referred to the creation of the family proclamation as a “revelatory process” and noted that the First Presidency made “further changes” before the final document was introduced by President Hinckley.³

In the years following the proclamation’s introduction, it has become a touchstone for Latter-day Saints in a world of continuously shifting values with regard to the family. President Oaks called the family proclamation “the Lord’s reemphasis of the gospel truths we need to sustain us through current challenges to the family.”⁴ On the proclamation’s twentieth anniversary, Bonnie L. Oscarson, the Young Women General President, noted, “Little did we realize then how very desperately we would need these basic declarations in today’s world as the criteria by which we could judge each new wind of worldly dogma coming at us from the media, the Internet, scholars, TV and films, and even legislators. The proclamation on the family has become our benchmark for judging the philosophies of the world, and I testify that the principles set forth within this statement are as true today as they were when they were given to us by a prophet of God nearly 20 years ago.”⁵

1. Gordon B. Hinckley, “Stand Strong against the Wiles of the World,” October 1995 General Conference.

2. Dallin H. Oaks, “The Plan and the Proclamation,” October 2017 General Conference.

3. Oaks, “The Plan and the Proclamation.”

4. Oaks, “The Plan and the Proclamation.”

5. Bonnie L. Oscarson, “Defenders of the Family Proclamation,” April 2015 General Conference.