Thomas S. Monson New President of LDS Church

As expected and in accordance to precident, Thomas S. Monson has been named the new President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Elder Monson seemend destined for the role from the time he was named to the Apostleship at the age of 36, making him one of the youngest men to be ordianed to that office in the 20th Century (Eighty years of age at the time of his ordination as President, he is also relatively young for that office, in comparssion to some of his recent predeccesors). A Time Magaizne reporter once called Monson a "slightly less capable Hinckleyite. Having the public relations instincts of Hinckley, but not the high level skills." As President Hinckley's way with the media was so groundbreaking for a Mormon leader, President Monson has almost impossible shoes to fill in that regard, but I think he will handel himself capably, he was after all generial manager of a major newspaper (the Deseret News).

The term Hinckleyite works though as the new President has long been very much in line with the late presidents polices and world views. He is a moderate by Mormon standards, and I think it reveling of where he wants to go with his administration in his 'stay the course' calling of two men Gordon B. Hinckley ordanided to the Apostleship (Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf) as his councilars in the First Presidency (I hope to comment more on the new First Presidency in the future). Anyway after nearly 13 years of President Hinckley's rule, the only Church president whose administration I clearly remember as such, it's going to take a little getting use to of Monson (the consement second in command) as President of the Church. I think should be a mostly smooth however.

Thomas S. Monson Video 1

Thomas S. Monson Video 2

In Memory of President Gordon B. Hinckley

Major Media Summations on President Hinckley's Passing

New York Times (New York, USA):“With his buoyant personality and affinity for public relations, Mr. Hinckley made Mormonism more familiar to the public and more accepted in the Christian fold. He gave news conferences and was the first church president to sit for interviews on ‘60 Minutes’ and ‘Larry King Live.’ When the Winter Olympics went to Salt Lake City in 2002, the church’s home base, he guided the church outreach campaign.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/us/28hinckley.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin


Los Angeles Times (California, USA):“Though he became the Mormons' 15th president and prophet at age 84, Hinckley's energy, style and longevity, which drew comparisons to Pope John Paul II, allowed him to engage millions throughout the world and provided the church a media-friendly face.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-hinckley28jan28,0,1888134.story


Houston Chronicle (Texas, USA):“As a leader of the fastest-growing faith founded in the United States, Hinckley guided the church as it more than doubled its number of temples and expanded membership well beyond the boundaries of its center in Salt Lake City.”

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/5490149.html


The Estado of Sao Paulo (Brazil):“During his 13 years as the head of the Mormon Church, he made countless trips to meet with members of the Mormon Church which now has 13 million members in 171 countries.”

http://www.estadao.com.br/vidae/not_vid116153,0.htm


National Public Radio (Washington, D.C., USA):“Most Americans know it as ‘The Mormon Church.’ Hinckley launched an effort to stamp out that phrase. He asked news media to use the formal name, ‘The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.’ And, in case anyone missed the point, he changed the official Mormon logo so that the name ‘Jesus Christ’ appeared in oversized letters.”

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7017514


Reuters (Great Britain):“In the year 2000, in spite of his advanced age, Mr. Hinckley completed an 11-day tour of the Pacific Rim where he traveled more than 35,400km and spoke to more than 26,000 people.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1423a42c-cd60-11dc-a3da-000077b07658.html


China View (China):“His grandfather knew church founder Joseph Smith and followed Brigham Young west to the Great Salt Lake Basin.”

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/28/content_7511648.htm


Herald Sun (Australia):“He was the first church president to travel to Spain, where in 1996 he broke ground for a temple in Madrid, and to Africa, where he met thousands of Mormons in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.”

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23123145-663,00.html


Argus Observer (Ontario, Canada):“In 2004 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civil award, by President George W. Bush. He also received the Silver Buffalo Award of the Boy Scouts of America and has been honored by the National Conference (formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews) for his contributions to tolerance and understanding in the world.”

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23123145-663,00.html


BBC (Great Britain):“The post is held for life, and Hinckley lived to become the oldest ever president, seeing church membership expand to 13 million people.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7212488.stm


Diario Buenos Aires(Argentina):“President Gordon B. Hinckley was known as a tireless leader, even at the age of 97, who always dedicated his life to a full-day’s work at the office and traveled the world extensively.”

http://www.diariobuenosaires.com.ar/nota2.asp?IDNoticia=22585


Turkish Press (Turkey):“As a member of the First Presidency, the highest governing body of the church, he has had a major role in administering both the ecclesiastical and temporal affairs of the Church, whose members are spread over some 171 nations and territories.”

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=212693


Austria National Radio (Austria):

http://mbl.is/mm/frettir/erlent/2008/01/28/forseti_mormonasafnadarins_latinn/

The passing of President Hinckley was discussed extensively on the “blogosphere.” The day following his death, a new blog post was published about him every couple of minutes. According to Blogpulse, a service that tracks trends in blogs, President Gordon B. Hinckley was the third most mentioned person in the blogosphere on Monday, 28 January.

Some Quotations regarding President Hinckley's Passing

President George W. Bush:

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.


Governor Jon Huntsman:

“Mary Kaye and I are truly mourning tonight’s death of President Gordon B. Hinckley. The President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has served as a transformational religious leader and tremendous ambassador for Utah with his unprecedented outreach to all corners of the world.We join with thousands of others, who have been touched by his words and deeds, in remembering all he has done for so many in our community and in the world. His leadership in humanitarian efforts around the world was matched only by his efforts in his own beloved state and community as a committed citizen. He has stood as a remarkable example of selflessness, charity and humility and he will be greatly missed byall.We extend our deepest of sympathies to the family and the community who loved President Hinckley. May we all be comforted in the knowledge of his beloved positive outlook on life.”

Senator Joseph Lieberman:

America and the world mourn the passing of the President Gordon Hinckley of the Church of Latter-day Saints. President Hinckley was known and beloved throughout the world for his spiritual guidance and good works. His life story was quintessentially an American one - and he tirelessly dedicated his life to building his Church and promoting our nation's ideals of understanding and tolerance. My prayers are with President Hinckley's family and the members of the Church of Latter-day Saints.


Governor Mitt Romney:

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.


Mayor Peter Corroon, Salt Lake County:

President Hinckley was a good man, a holy man, a man of the people. His keen sense of humor and intellect were true hallmarks of his character. His lifetime of devoted service showed us all that we can act with compassion, integrity and vision. He was not only a religious leader – he was also a community leader. He will be greatly missed. We express condolences to his family and all those who join in remembering President Hinckley’s remarkable life.

The Passing of Gordon B. Hinckley

Sunday January 27th 2008
9:00 PM Mountain Time

The Mormon phone and text tree went swiftly into action following the official announcement of President Hinckley’s death. I first learned about the prophets passing through a text from an old mission companion who lives in the Salt Lake area, he learned about it through a text news alert sponsored I believe by a local TV station or newspaper. Of course the Deseret News and KSL web pages were crashed by multitudes of Mormons eager for news on what is the LDS equivalent of the death of the Pope.

I’m really surprised how truly shocked I am, the man was after all 97. I didn’t expect to be quite so affected, though Gordon B. Hinckley was the prophet of my young adulthood, my highschool years and my mission. Many Mormons say you always harbor a special affection for the Church President of your youth. I don’t remember President Kimball who died in I was five, and President Benson I remember more for his General Conference absences do to ill health, then I do his actual presence. President Hunter was only in office for nine months, so when he passed I was honestly confused, hadn’t we just been through this.

I do indeed harbor a good deal of affection for President Hinckley, despite my cynicisms. He had an undeniable charisma and media savvy, he was a hard and dedicated worker, as well as a theological moderate. In the coming days much will be said about him, we will find out more details about the passing, though I imagine they will be nothing spectacular. There will be a funeral service, words of remembrance from political and religious leaders, internet chatting from all perspectives and the matter of succession and reorganization in the highest corridors of Mormon power. I hope to keep a record of my thoughts and experiences with these matters over the coming days and weeks on this blog, for now though I think I need some time to reflect.

September Dawn (2007)

First Impressions.

I’ve long said there is a good and potentially powerful movie to be made out of the events
of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, however September Dawn is not that movie. Almost universally panned by the critics (it merits a mear 15% approval rating at Rotten Tomato’s, a website that composites the reviews of newspaper and magazine critics across the nation). Perhaps the most pertinent comment on the film from a national critic that I can recall comes from Roger Ebert, who said something along the lines of: “What a sad and unpleasant movie this is”. I echo that statement.

Director Cain was by his own admission quite taken by the now eerie date of the massacre of a wagon train of Missouri and Arkansas immigrants by a group of Mormon settlers and Paiute Indians, September 11th. Cain can be heard in the DVD’s own bonis material (and elsewhere), to say that he intended the feature to point out that acts of religious violence have occurred in our own nations history and not just among the Muslims we now fight. Any intelligent person knows this, and examples can be cited from the murder of colonial Quakers, to Jehovah’s Witness being betan for there pacifism in World War II, to two 1844 events: Anti-Catholic riots in Pennsylvania and the murder of Mormon spiritual leader Joseph Smith.

Yet for all the apparent appeals to tolerance this film would like to aggrandize to itself, it has not one positive thing to say about Mormonism. It is eager to embrace any wild 19th century notion of Mormon nefariousness, including Danites (a Mormon militia of Missouri days whose continued existence in Utah is questionable) and blood atonement (a particular strain of frontier Mormon belief that has been formally repudiated by the modern LDS Church, and of which only one instance of its actual application, saving that of splinter groups, is clearly documented). The story plays like a pulp Victorian novel, employing sensationalist presentations of Mormon life and belief, and making no efforts to strive for balance. Let us not forgot that Mountain Meadows is arguably the worst episode in Mormon history, no similar massacres of “gentile” by Mormons having occurred before or since.

The desire to believe the worst about the Mormons can be seen down the line. The idea that Brigham Young sanctioned the massacre is delivered as fact, and historian Will Beagly, a strong propionate of that belief, is shown in the special features advocating that position. Yet this is a controversial call that divides scholars of Mormonism and to which no real hard or conclusive evidence exists. But history is secondary to metaphor in importance to Cain. Here the Fancher party are all saints, save maybe one, and the Saints all zealots, save one who eventually leaves the Church. The true story of the Massacre at Mountain Meadows will not be told effectively in film, until a film maker comes along who is willing to develop the humanity of the Mormons and the Immigrants involved beyond just stereotyped levels.

The Nativity Story (2006)

Direct and likable adaptation of the story of the birth of Jesus. The film is largely made viable by the engaging performance of Keisha Castle-Hughes as Mary, her characterization is endearing and sympathetic, and her dynamic with Joseph brings out the whole, stunned young couple aspect, that the Biblical narrative always implies but doesn't sketch out in any detail. I've seen other interpretations of the Magi that were more compelling however.