How To Survive a Bear Attack. The Art of Manliness is a great recent find.
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Mormons from the right and left discuss political issues
Mormon Conversation
While some conversations have audiences in the thousands or even millions, most are much, much smaller. But all conversations have an impact on those who participate in them. Perceptions of the Church are established one conversation at a time.
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Why does the AP have to go to church critics as the go-to guys for commentary on the Church?
Yesterday, Jennifer Dobner of the AP, wrote a story on Church leadership succession which mostly quoted two outspoken Church critics, Grant Palmer and Ed Firmage (“WWII vet, 80, likely next Mormon leader“). This led Ryan at RomneyExperience to say:
Hint: When covering a story within Mormonism, if you find that your three quoted sources are a famously disfellowshipped Mormon (something close to excommunication) a famously lapsed Mormon, and a non-Mormon, consider a re-write.
Perhaps sensing some problems with her sources, Dobner filed another story last night based on the commentary of D. Michael Quinn and Steve Benson (“Mormon succession holds little suspense“). At least it includes comments from Richard Bushman and Richard Ostling, but it also fails to mention that Benson is an ardent ex-Mormon, not just a “grandson of former church president Ezra Taft Benson.”
GetReligion rightly questions why church critics are used in this kind of story but missed the first article.
The Church has put plenty of material on its Newsroom website for reporters to use and I’m sure a spokesperson would be more than happy to offer a statement on behalf of the Church. Instead the AP has to resort to church critics. I would suggest that Dobner get a bigger Rolodex.
Another example why Mormons should get more involved in the old and new media.
Jan Shipps blogs on President Hinckley’s Legacy:
In dealing with this extraordinary growth, Hinckley supervised implementation of a standardized program known as correlation. While critics sometimes complain that this program turns Mormonism into “franchized religion,” its purpose is guarding against the creation of many different forms of Mormonism as well as guaranteeing that Mormonism will be the same wherever it is found.
It’s fairly straightforward history of his administration but the blog itself, Spiritual Politics, looks very interesting.
Patrick Ruffini:From Rudy to Romney
There has been a fair amount of discussion of flip-flopping in this race. Well, McCain has changed a few of his positions too. He changed away from conservatism. In the 1980s and early 1990s, he was a solidly credentialed member of the Reagan-Goldwater coalition who was right in line with the people of Arizona. In the late 1990s, when he saw that he could get better press for his dark horse Presidential aspirations as a “maverick,” he changed. McCain could fairly point out that he stood on “principle.” But it is equally fair to point out that those principles aren’t ours.
Unfortunately Rudy doesn’t feel the same way.
Latter-day Center for Moral Liberalism
Promoting the Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government, and the American Way.
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The Liberty Letters
Daily quotes from the Founding Fathers and other great thinkers on the principles of liberty with commentary from NewsMax.com columnist Steve Farrell. Additionally, legislative alerts, and social commentary from Steve and his contributors.
Metafootnotes
Books. Shoes. Music. The Web. What else is there? I am a middle-aged, middle-class writer, reader, wife and mother languishing in the Great American West. I have spent several years lurking online, but I’m ready to join the conversation. I just hope I have something to say. Look for posts on books, American culture, thrift shops, shoes, family, politics, religion and maybe even the occasional rant.
Helaman’s Army
To further members and non-members knowledge, faith, understanding and love for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Mullings and Musings
My mullings and musings about the mundane and the marvelous (especially the “marvelous work and a wonder” that is the center of my life)
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If you’re in the Salt Lake area, you can be part of the President Gordon B. Hinckley Cane Wave Tribute. Sounds like an excellent idea.
President Hinckley worked to the end. His last day of work was Friday:
His mind was clear to the end. He was at work on Friday, doing what he had done for the past seven decades – making decisions and directing affairs for the church he loved and to which he had devoted his whole life.
President Hinckley’s funeral scheduled for Saturday. It starts at 11 a.m. in the LDS Conference Center.
Special programming tonight on BYU-TV about President Gordon B. Hinckley.
High schoolers show respect for President Hinckley by dressing up for school. They coordinated last night through text-messaging, the 21st century version of phone-trees. Prieshood leaders take note.
The Salt Lake Tribune remembers President Hinckley: Gordon B. Hinckley: The most extraordinary LDS leader since Brigham Young.
Hinckley, who died Sunday at the age of 97, had many of Young’s gifts as a leader and a builder, though not Brother Brigham’s rough-hewn ways. Hinckley was famously at home in any company, from world leaders and presidents to the Mormons at home and abroad who both revered and admired him. He was a leader with vision, stamina, native wit and the intelligence to apply his many gifts to his calling as a religious leader, but also as the brilliant chief executive of an enormous and complex corporation.
White House release: President and Mrs. Bush Deeply Saddened by Death of Gordon B. Hinckley
Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of our friend, Gordon B. Hinckley. While serving for over seven decades in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gordon demonstrated the heart of a servant and the wisdom of a leader. He was a tireless worker and a talented communicator who was respected in his community and beloved by his congregation. As President of his church, he traveled to more than 60 countries to spread a message of love and optimism to the millions of people around the world who shared his faith.
A Mayflower descendent and the grandson of Mormon pioneers, Gordon was a deeply patriotic man. His leadership and service strengthened the Board of Trustees of Brigham Young University, the Boy Scouts of America, and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. In 2004, I was honored to present him with the Medal of Freedom, our Nation’s highest civil award, in recognition of his lifelong public service.
Laura and I will miss Gordon’s friendship and wisdom. Our thoughts and prayers are with his five children and the rest of the Hinckley family.
# # #
The Deseret News has compiled the condolences of other leaders as well.
Soon after I read that President Hinckley had passed, I came across this photo. It was posted by someone not a member of the Church, but an admirer of the Lousiville Kentucky temple. What a fitting tribute to President Hinckley’s visionary leadership.
It’s amazing to review what was accomplished during his 12 years as President of the Church. A too brief overview of President Hickley’s administration includes:
- The Family: A Proclamation to the World
- an unprecedented expansion of temples, nearly tripling in number
- the creation of the Pertpetual Education Fund
- a drive to travel and meet the Saints of the world
- a new era in Church public relations, including when the Winter Olympics came to Utah
- his three-point formula for strengthening new converts
- the construction of the Conference Center (which I suggest should be rededicated as the Gordon B. Hinckley Conference Center; his tree is the pulpit, after all)
I first came to love President Hinckley as a missionary in the MTC. Growing up as a semi-inactive youth, I was fairly clueless about the Gospel but still wanted to serve a mission. When I arrived at the MTC, I was sort of mystified by my fellow trainee missionaries talking about their favorite General Authorities as if they were sport stars with their own trading cards.
Watching my first General Conference in the MTC, I’ll never forget how President Hinckley won me over with his mix of humor with the discussion of serious issues. That October 1991 priesthood session was a perfect example:
Altogether too many men, leaving their wives at home in the morning and going to work, where they find attractively dressed and attractively made-up young women, regard themselves as young and handsome, and as an irresistible catch. They complain that their wives do not look the same as they did twenty years ago when they married them. To which I say, Who would, after living with you for twenty years?
I will miss his humor, humility, optimism, and practical counsel. He did not lay claim to many dramatic revelations but his teachings were real and inspired.
Gordon B. Hinckley will be remembered as a great prophet and leader of a church of millions. But more than just being a great leader, Craig rightfully calls President Hinckley a mentor. He was a mentor for me; his leadership was much more personal. And he will be sorely missed.
LDS Newsroom: Succession in the Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
When the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints passes away, the following events take place:
1. The First Presidency is automatically dissolved.
2. The two counselors in the First Presidency revert to their places of seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Seniority is determined by the date on which a person was ordained to the Twelve, not by age.
3. The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, now numbering 14 and headed by the senior apostle, assumes Church leadership.
4. The senior apostle presides at a meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve to consider two alternative propositions:
i. Should the First Presidency be reorganized at this time?
ii. Should the Church continue to function with the Quorum of the Twelve presiding?5. After discussion, a formal motion is made and accepted by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
6. If a motion to reorganize the First Presidency is passed, the Quorum of the Twelve unanimously selects the new president of the Church. The new president chooses two counselors from among the Quorum of the Twelve and the three of them become the new First Presidency. Throughout the history of the Church, the longest-serving apostle has always become the president of the Church when the First Presidency has been reorganized.
7. Following the reorganization of the First Presidency, the apostle who has served the second longest is sustained as the president of the Quorum of the Twelve. The only exception is when the second-longest-serving apostle has also been called into the First Presidency as a counselor, in which case the third-longest-serving apostle becomes acting president of the Twelve.
8. The president of the Quorum of the Twelve, along with the rest of the apostles, sets apart the new president of the Church through a formal laying on of hands.
Salt Lake Tribune – LDS prophet who cherished history now takes place in annals of his faith
For all his reading and knowledge of history, Hinckley was never torn by inconsistencies or conflicting accounts.
“There is something about his internal workings that is very direct and efficient,” said LDS historian Richard Bushman. “He didn’t lose energy through anxiety. He had straightforward, simple answers when most of us would be agonized. He had an unusually conflict-free personality.”
Campaign release: “Governor Mitt Romney On The Passing Of Gordon B. Hinckley”
West Palm Beach, FL – Today, Governor Mitt Romney released the following statement regarding the passing of Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints:
“I was saddened to learn of the death of Gordon B. Hinckley. Ann and I respect him as a man of great faith and character. Like all people who knew him, we were deeply touched by his humility, his sense of humor and by the way he inspired so many people around the world. We will miss his leadership.”
Romney remembers President Hinckley in a press conference this morning:
“We will miss him as a family, respect him as a man of great character and courage but particularly his humility and ability to touch the lives of each individual is something for which he will long be noted,” Mr. Romney said. “His ability also to talk to people throughout the world and to make close relationships with people in the public sector and in the media distinguish him as one of the great leaders in our faith and his effort to reach out across the world and to faraway lands and to build temples for our church is something which will also give him a legacy that will last many, many years, indeed. And we will miss his leadership. . . .
“I was in Salt Lake and had the chance to go by him and see him and told him that our family was going to be thinking about running for president,” said Mr. Romney. “He smiled and said it would be a great experience if you won and a great experience if you lost.”
Thanks to Council of Fifty.
The Deseret News: President Gordon B. Hinckley dies at age 97:
“President Gordon B. Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through explosive growth during his more than 12 years as president, died at 7 p.m. today of causes incident to age, surrounded by family. He was 97.”
The Church’s Newsroom site now has a release on the Prophet’s passing”
President Gordon B. Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through twelve years of global expansion, has died at the age of 97.
President Hinckley was the 15th president in the 177-year history of the Church and had served as its president since 12 March 1995.
The Church president died at his apartment in downtown Salt Lake City at 7:00 p.m. Sunday night from cause’s incident to age. Member of his family were at his bedside. A successor is not expected to be formally chosen by the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until after President Hinckley’s funeral within the next few days.
The remainder of the obituary and biography of President Hinckley can be read at the Newsroom.lds.org site.
Of all the standard works, the Bible remains the best source for an intimate understanding of the character and personality of Jesus Christ during His mortal mission. While the Old Testament offers a prophetic foretelling of that mission, the New Testament provides an unmatched account of the events, experiences, teachings and personal interactions of Christ. The Book of Mormon strengthens and reinforces His teachings through additional witnesses and provides moving accounts of the personal experiences many individuals had with Him. According to Elder Ballard, “The Book of Mormon does not dilute nor diminish nor de-emphasize the Bible. On the contrary, it expands, extends, and exalts it.”
Perfection Pending
The command “Be ye perfect” is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible…If we let Him–for we can prevent Him, if we choose–He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess…The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said. – C.S. Lewis, “Beyond Personality”
Strong and Immovable
“It is so tremendously important that the women of the Church stand strong and immovable for that which is correct and proper under the plan of the Lord.” Gordon B. Hinckley, “Standing Strong and Immovable,” Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting, Jan. 10, 2004, 20.
Tickle the Pear
Adventures of a non-traditional Mormon in Washington DC
So Great a Cause
A convert’s perspective
Nomrom.com
Mormon news aggregator
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It shouldn’t be much of a shocker that Republicans don’t seem to garner many A-list celebrity endorsements. Although I was originally stumped why McCain was campaigning with Wilford Brimley, I now realize that when they’re side by side, Brimley makes McCain look young and spry.
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