President Gordon Bitner Hinckley, of the LDS (Mormon) Church, died tonight. He was an honorable man who did much good and will be missed.
We will miss his smile and his sense of humor.
Anyone who fronts for the Mormons gets no sympathy from me for dying. Let me know when they abandon their completely fucked up philosophies and then we’ll talk about feeling sorry when one of them dies.
I wonder how such fucked up philosopihies can produce such great folks. Mormons are very decent people.
I’m sure that some of them are. Substitute pretty much any group name for “Mormons” and the statement is likely equally true. However personally decent Hinckley or any other Mormon may or may not be doesn’t change the fact the Mormons have caused untold misery. Point me toward some sources that show me that Hinckley tried to undo some of that misery and maybe I’ll feel sorry that he’s dead. Otherwise, oh well.
You’re all class, Otto.
What are you speaking of? The Mountain Meadows incident? Making it tough to buy booze in Utah? Racism? I hardly think denying a group entry to your wacky whitebread church is tantamount to inflicting untold misery. Most blacks have probably never heard much about the church, much less thought about joining, so what are you talking about?
If anyone cares enough, feel free to Pit Otto instead of hijacking this thread.
Otto, knock it off.
Your comments are uncalled for in a memorial thread.
Cajun Man
for the SDMB
Whatever disagreements I have with that church – and they are many! – I do feel for his family, and I’m sure he’ll be missed by many.
We watched the news coverage of his passing last night after my mother-in-law called and told us the news. My kids had a hard time of it, he was the only church President they knew (My six-year-old went to bed with tears on his cheeks saying “I really loved President Hinkley”.) Me, I’m much less affected - he was a great man, but he was 97 and, from what I understand, spent the last years of his life really missing his wife, who passed away a few years before.
Not so much as a response to Otto and his Ilk, but more as a tribute, i want to mention a few of his accomplishments that benefitted people throughout the world, LDS or not.:
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He created a program to teach neonatal resuscitation training to medical personnel in 23 different countries, sending doctors, nurses and therapists to these countries, at no cost, to not only train the medical personnel of those countries, but to also train them to train others. This is estimated to help almost a half a million children who would otherwise die or become disabled due to oxygen loss in infancy. This program, at last count, had trained 30,000 medical personnel, provided them with equipment, and trained a number of them to train others.
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After the major earthquake hit in Indonesia in May, 2006, he directed a program that provided immediate materials and food, at least 2,000 meals a day, to the local people as they recovered from the destruction. After that the CHurch spent millions in reconstruction efforts, like building boats for fishermen and homes for their families.
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He created “The Wheelchair FOundation”, providing thousands of wheelchairs, often modified (at great cost) to the particular circumstances of the needy individual, to the poor throughout the world. For example, in 2004, 500 wheelchairs (worth $80,000) were donated in Kosovo without regard to nationality, religion, ethnicity or cultural background. At the end of last year, this program has provided 60, 537 wheelchairs to people around the globe.
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Sent millions of dollars in farm equipment to struggling families worldwide. For example, in February, 2006, he sent $580,000.00 dollars worth of farm equipment, seed and animals so a collective of 25 families couild grow food for themselves in Jamaica.
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Created a worldwide clean water program to provide safe water to millions. For example, in 2004, he provided cleam water wells with pumps to 70 villiages in Ghana without charge. AT the end of 2007, this work had provided clean water to an estimated 1,000,000 beneficiaries.
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Recieved the PresidentiaL Medal of Freedom, Silver Buffalo Award of the Boy Scouts of America, honored by the National Conference (formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews) for his contributions to tolerance and understanding in the world.
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Recieved the Distinguished Service award from the NAACP.
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Created the Perpetual Education Fund in which individauls, mostly in third world countries, are given loans to pay for technical training to get better jobs in their communities. When they finish schooling and have better jobs, they repay the loans which then go back into paying for loans for the next recipients.
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With the Red Cross and the UN, created the Measles Intiative, which, by 2010, should have immunized 200 million children and prevented 1.2 million deaths.
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Sent doctors to assist with eye care to South America and Africa, including specialists to train local opthamoligists there. For example, in Kenya they set up 6 clinics which performed My Brother-In-Law, an eye doctor who speaks Spanish due to his LDS mission, travels at his own expense to South America every year to help out.
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Helped rebuild homes after Katrina, and provided 6 full-time
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After the 2004 Tsunami, Pres. Hinkley sent immediate aide to the victims.
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Sent out tens of thousands of missionaries whose sole job is to provide humanitarian relief (not proselitizing missionaries).
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Thousands of other programs can be seen at http://www.providentliving.org/project/0,13501,4607-1-2005,00.html. From 1985 to 2006, while President Hinkley was in the LDS church’s leadership, LDS Humanitarian Services provided more than $900 million in total assistance to needy individuals in 163 countries.
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None of this counts that millions who have been served in little ways, buying groceries, making rent, etc. that the Church assists every day. I myself, recieved help when I was laid off a few years back.
Sorry, there was more to this post, including filling in edits, but I took too long and it was lost.
Just understand, he was a great man who will be missed.
Righto. Just remember, every time you think it would be super kewlies to trash someone who’s just died and never even touched your life directly, that person was someone’s son, or father, or grandfather. That was someone’s wife, sister, daughter, mother. I wish them strength in their time of grief.
Empathy: it’s not just for your little friend group anymore.
My sister, who became LDS a few years ago, has received endless assistance from the church. She’s totally disabled with Parkinson’s, and during the two years (!!) she was totally unable to work but hadn’t been able to get Social Security disability yet (another subject worthy of its own Pit rant – since when do people recover from Parkinson’s? Why make them wait for assistance?), she was not helped through the food bank, but by local families asking her to help out in ways she could – light housework, piano lessons, etc. – for a little $$ to help her keep her feet on the ground. And before she threw her controlling and abusive boyfriend out, the LDS folks were the only ones who came to see her regularly (besides family) to make sure she was okay, as well as opening their arms wide to her.
Even with my philosophical disagreements with the LDS church, I have never met a member who wasn’t a kind and helpful person; my favorite boss was LDS, and did a better job of living the tenets of his faith than any person of any faith I’ve met before or since, without any proselytizing whatsoever. And for what the church has done (and continues to do) for my sister alone is enough to make even our utterly-anti-Mormon mother do a complete 180. (She now thinks they’re “the NICEST people!”)
It’s not like President Hinckley was personally responsible for all this, but it also sounds like he steered the church firmly on a direction of humanitarian service. Which, on an individual level, can be just amazingly meaningful. I’m sure President Hinckley will definitely be missed.
What’s the process for his replacement? Do the rest of the top church officials vote, like for a new pope, or is there someone in line to step up now?
It’s a pretty straightforward process. The First Presidency is dissolved and all the Apostles meet to reorganize things. The apostles go in order of seniority (longest time served) and the one with the most seniority becomes the President. (In theory another apostle could be chosen, but it’s never happened.) The vote has to be unanimous. Here’s a more detailed description.
Assuming all goes as usual, Thomas S. Monson will be the President, and it will be announced after the funeral, but within the week.
Oops, missed the edit window. Make that “not only helped by the food bank”!
After the funeral, and a decent mourning period, the Twelve Apostles and President Hinkley’s two counselors (also sustained as Apostles) will meet in the Salt Lake City Temple and prayerfully consider the issue. Mormons believe that revelation is a strong part of the process. Then one of three things happens:
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The church continues under the joint direction of the 12 apostles (This hasn’t happened in over 100 years, and then Brigham Young and John Taylor, respectfully served as “acting president” a short time). This is unlikely.
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They will select from among themselves. Generally by seniority (by date they were made Apostles, not by age.) In reality, this is what happened, eventually, all the previous 14 times this happened. The most likely outcome is that Thomas S. Monson will become the 16th President of the Church, which would be great because he is much loved by every Church Member I know.
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They may select someone else, which is highly unlikely and would be a real suprise to whomever they pick. It is a possibility, but highly, highly unlikely.
The selected person, if they accept the calling, will be set apart by the others in this meeting. He will then choose Counselors (probably 2) from among the apostles, leaving 11 acting Apostles. The Counselors will be set apart and the decision will be announced.
Then, in April, at General COnference, a special meeting will be held, and broadcast worldwide, called “Solemn Assembly” wherein the general membership of the church will accept the new leader. Also at that meeting, a person will be called to be an Apostle to fill out the 12.
Just out of curiosity, again, since I was raised in a church with no hierarchy beyond the local minister, when you say Thomas Monson is much loved by every church member you know, is this because of his personality, humility, service, actions, all of the above? What are the criteria for selecting a new Apostle, as well? I’ve learned to recognize and ignore the ingrained bias I was raised with against Mormons – which was highly contradictory on my parents’ part since they raised us with no racial bias and allegedly in a spirit of ecumenism – but its most lingering effect is that I still have very little understanding of how your church works, both on an individual and a structural level.
And if you think this discussion is inappropriate for this thread, by all means feel free to say so. I’m not trying to be obnoxious, just trying to fight my personal ignorance here.
I did forget to include the word “theological” earlier, as in “theological disagreements.” I have no problems with individual Mormons at all. (I hope not, seeing as I now live in Idaho, though a very atypical part of Idaho!) As MT has said, my aunt has been hugely helped by the church, and we’re all very happy about her experience.
President Monson, I suppose, is known for all of those. He’s famous for telling stories over the pulpit and for his rather distinctive speaking style.
A new Apostle is selected pretty much the same way anyone is selected for any calling in the LDS Church. The people in charge of finding a new person get together (in this case the 14 Apostles now existing) and discuss it. After much prayer, both personal and communal, they select a new person, aiming to receive inspiration from the Holy Ghost as to who would be an appropriate choice. The selection should be unanimous. This is the basic procedure for anyone; I’ve done it myself. In the case of a new Apostle, of course, there will be a lot of thought and prayer put into the question, and the Quorum must be in complete agreement.
Then the person in question is called in for a meeting and asked to serve in the calling. One may answer yes or no, but for one of these major leadership callings I doubt anyone would dream of declining. It’s announced at General Conference and everyone sustains the calling (or not).
On a more general level, say for a Sunday School teacher, people do decline but you’re not really supposed to unless you have a good reason that the leaders don’t know about. The general spirit of the whole thing is “I’ll go where you want me to go” (that’s a hymn). And you would be sustained on Sunday by your congregation.
Hope that helps?