Maybe not anticipation, but definitely the response…

In fact, everyone knew it–the Proclamation was composed while the Church was participating in the first lawsuit over the right of gays to marry in Hawaii, so there’s nothing particularly prophetic about its anticipation of that issue.

Sorry, pet peeve. /end threadjack/

Absolutely, Kathy. Those of us lifetime members in–what, say, our mid-to-late 30s through our mid-to-late 40s?–a certain age bracket for the most part didn’t start thinking seriously about the church leadership until sometime during out teenage years in the 1980s, during which we had a feeble and dying President Kimball, followed by President Benson, who after a few good years descended rapidly into the same state. Next to all them was Elder Hinckley, active but already well into his 70s, Elder Hunter, old and crippled by disease, Elder Packer, healthy but usually scowling and seemingly prematurely aged…and then Elder Monson: a towering, hearty, laughing, energetic presence, a leading general authority who wasn’t even at retirement age yet. He could have gotten himself a second career working at Wal-Mart.

There was a book written by Harold Bloom in the late 1980s, titles The American Religion, which spent a while talking about Joseph Smith and the Mormons; the thing I remember best about the book were the estimates he ran on upcoming church leaders, and his hypothesis that the “powerful Thomas S. Monson” would likely reign over the church for decades, changing it as no other church leader ever before could have imagined. Of course, that could still happen…but Hinckley’s longevity has certainly taken a bite out of Bloom’s prediction.

Go to the sltrib dot com site and add a forward slash with this behind it: ci_8105755 (sometimes your filter hasn’t liked links, so I am trying it this way).

Plenty has been written about Pres. Hinckley’s great and impressive expansion of the church (there was a lot to write about!). Pres. Hinckley is one of the great prophets to have ever lived. He truly has accomplished more than many of his predecessors combined.

It stands to reason that Pres. Monson will build on his good friend’s foundation, and launch the church into places we have not yet dreamed of. Pres. Monson, with a fresh First Presidency, years of top-leadership experience, and presumably many years of life left in him, could lead the church not through a similar expansion, but an explosion of growth and development.

That said, my money is on Elder Eyring reprieving the role of counselor in the First Presidency. Then again, Pres. Monson could go a completely different route, just to give T&S another juicy topic to blog about. :)

Jon

In the April 2001 Conference, Pres. Hinckley relayed a favorable story about the church after the successful Salt Lake Olympics…

she concluded her story by writing: “It is simply the mix of a serious and upright religion, of families who foster and insist upon providing the highest levels of culture right along with the highest modern technology, and of generally sensible organizing and governing. In short, it is a modern mix of the old America” (“Salt Lake City and State of Utah Reveal Themselves to the World,” Salt Lake Tribune, 15 Feb. 2002, A15).

I remember at the time feeling that he was so proud of this article because it is what he embodied and what he saw (and hoped for) in all of us. In a sense, he was “a modern mix of the old America” – industrious, thrifty, humble, optimistic, inventive, hopeful and enduring. What a life to look to!

Well, anyway, so Hinckley and Monson–more than two decades of continuous service together in the church’s highest council. A pretty impressive record–and pretty intimidating one for soon-to-be President Monson to contemplate stepping beyond.