As part of the church's efforts to re-position its image as that of a mainstream religion, the church began to moderate its earlier anti-Roman Catholic rhetoric. In Elder Bruce R. McConkie's 1958 edition of "Mormon Doctrine", he had stated his unofficial opinion that the Catholic Church was part of "the church of the devil" and "the great and abominable church" because it was among organizations that misled people away from following God's laws. In his 1966 edition of the same book, the specific reference to the Catholic Church was removed.