Who Should Be Mormon of the Year?
Kent Larsen, December 27, 2008
Its that time of year. The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is traditionally the media’s time for reflection on the past year — the time when we see story after story on the best or most important stories of the year, or the most important person of the year (as Time magazine just named — no surprise there). I enjoy these looks at the past year, and given how much LDS Church members don’t usually know much about news that involves the Church, it seems to me these lists might be quite useful.
So let me pose the question: “Who should be the Mormon of the Year?”
Now, I do think there are some factors that should be taken into account in trying to make a selection. First, I think the Prophet should be excluded from consideration. I am NOT saying that the Prophet is not important, or even that the Prophet isn’t a good candidate for the Mormon of the Year. Quite to the opposite. My fear is that if the Prophet is a candidate, he will be selected as the Mormon of the Year every year.
We already love and respect the Prophet, so where is the advantage in making such a nomination? Doesn’t predictability turn the nomination into yet another empty and meaningless award? On the same basis I’d probably exclude the Apostles also - I’m afraid the designation would just rotate among them. Much more interesting, at least to me, is who deserves such a recognition without having the admiration that comes with these Church positions.
Another factor that should be considered is whether this recognition is about the person’s positive actions during the year, or whether it is simply about how much the person’s actions made the news. Time recognized Adolf Hitler as its Person of the Year in 1938 because of his impact, despite its negative nature. If the Mormon who makes the largest impact has made a negative impact, should that person be recognized? Or should that be some other designation? Personally, I’m not opposed to noting someone because of their negative impact, but I doubt everyone will agree with me on this.
The person’s membership in the LDS Church might be another factor. Non-LDS Church members, such as members of the FLDS Church and other organizations also consider themselves Mormons, as do many who are disaffected, inactive or excommunicated. Might they be considered also for Mormon of the Year? To those outside of the LDS Church, the difference seems minor, and the situation is perhaps analogous to our claim to be Christian. If we want to be considered Christian because we believe in Christ, despite the attempts of others to define us out of Christianity, shouldn’t we allow others to call themselves Mormon for reasons other than belonging to the LDS Church? Once again, I’m sure others will disagree with me on this.
While I’m interested in reading about your thoughts on these factors, I’m more interested in who might be considered for this recognition. So, I call for nominations. I’ve left out anyone that might run afowl of some of the above factors, but if you agree with me, feel free to suggest others that aren’t as conventional.
To get things started, I have a few names that, off the top of my head and without doing much of a search through the year’s news, might be considered:
- Mitt Romney - I know its kind of hard to reward a lack of success, but his candidacy in the past year has certainly brought attention to the Church and to Mormonism. And as far as LDS candidates for President go, he may have gone farther toward the Presidency than any other Mormon.
- Harry Reid - As the Senate Majority Leader, it is kind of hard to ignore Reid, since he is the highest ranking Mormon in government ever. He also provides a nice antidote to the assumption that Mormons must be Republicans (to say nothing of the fact that his politics are probably more in line with the vast majority of Mormons — when you take into account those that do not live in the United States).
- Stephanie Meyer - Like or hate her books, she is certainly the face of Mormonism among many people around the world, especially this year, with the first Twilight movie in theaters and news articles frequently mentioning her religion.
- David Neeleman - The JetBlue founder and well-known Mormon has started his fourth airline - this time in Brazil, bringing with it multiple profiles of Neeleman, why he was born in Brazil and how he served his mission there.
- David Archuleta - The American Idol finalist brought a lot of attention to Mormons during the show’s recent run.
I’m sure there are others who should be considered for this kind of recognition. I look forward to your suggestions, and to the inevitable criticism that this is somehow a waste of time or bad for the Church. I reject such criticisms, because, I might as well confess, my real motivation for this is: I own the domain name mormonoftheyear.com! [GRIN]
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Categories: Mormon Life, News and Politics
Your criteria selects only those, who win popularity contests or make the most money. That would not have the criteria Jesus would have selected.
Mitt Romney and Harry Reid just don’t seem to fit in at all.
When it comes to expressing his Mormon point of view during the 2008 Primary Debate, Romney lost me. Mike Huckabee was far more effective in representing his Christian beliefs than the former Governor of Massachussett. These two men just don’t know, what makes a Mormon, not only a Christian but also a Latter-day saint. Huckabee was the better Christian of the two, at least in his talks and demeanor.
My main criteria would have been COURAGE. I nominate Steve Young, especially his wife for daring to express a very unpopular concept, civil rights. She saw through the smoke and mirrors of the Christian outcry in favor of Proposition 8 in California. I certainly would have like to have heard more of this line in the discussion of Prop. 8.
Joseph Smith, Jr. was the first person to request civil rights for Mormons from President Buchanan. The JosephSmithPapersProject will bear that over the next 10 years. He was told that your cause is just, but I [Buchanan] don’t have the power to grant Mormons the right to worship in the States where they live. So our pioneers came to Utah under Brigham Young.
The bad news is there are no more wildernesses to start expirementing on new ideas. So we had better learn to live with one another.
President Johnson, with all his past political baggage, had the courage to do the unthinkable and that is to give the black citizens their civil rights.
So, I nominate Steve Young’s wife to start this discussion.
edu erdtsieck.
“Your criteria selects only those, who win popularity contests or make the most money. That would not have the criteria Jesus would have selected.”
Really? I don’t see how this is true. Could you map out your logic for me?
As for Romney and Reid not fitting, the criteria are everything. My own view is that this is most about who is in the news, NOT who is popular. Both Romney and Reid were in the news a lot during the year, certainly enough to make them near household names among those who pay attention to politics. And as for “knowing what makes a Mormon,” again, I need details. What did they do or fail to do that shows they didn’t know what makes a Mormon?
I’m afraid you lost me on Huckabee. How can you defend someone as “Christian” who vilifies and mocks the beliefs of others?
I get the feeling that your own political views have heavily colored your take on this. I included Romney despite the fact that I was quite disappointed in him. I included Meyer in spite of the fact that I’m not very impressed with her writing. And I included Archuleta despite his youth and inexperience. I’m not retracting those nominations, merely pointing out that in making these nominations, I think we should at least try to recognize other viewpoints and the impact they might have.
I do think your nomination of Barbara Young is defensible, although it again seems quite influenced by your political views. To me, she doesn’t seem to have has as much impact as others. But we’ll see what others think.
I would probably vote for Mitt, but I’ll throw the name Julianne Hough into the ring. I think she’s been a very positive Mormon role model.
I have four daughters. In our house, it’s a battle between Stephanie Meyer and David Archuletta - probably ending in a tie.
If the vote is purely on the amount of coverage the Church received as a result of the person’s activities, I don’t see an alternative to Mitt Romney. If, however, it includes consideration of whose activities were the most positive and least negative, I woud agree with Kevin and vote for Julianne Hough. I can’t think of a more strictly positive example with such wide coverage.
Great story in today’s WSJ: Harry Reid…in Uphill Reelection Bid
I wonder how Nevada Mormons hard hit by a housing slump will vote.
I nominate Marlin K. Jensen for:
Making the Joseph Smith Papers happen and being a great spokesman on the PBS show. (that was this year right?)
Ok, so the PBS thing was last year, but Jensen gets it for the JSP alone plus his consistently being awesomely awesome.
Margie Christoffersen gets my vote.
How about Glenn Beck? Hihg-profile move from CNN to Fox News, number one book on NYT list, and, most recently, had an interview thrown off Focus on th Family’s website because of his beliefs.
Here’s a wikipedia link to Julianne Hough, for those that don’t recognize the name.
Jack, I assume you mean the Margie Christoffersen that ran El Coyote Cafe?
Folks, please provide a link for further information about everyone you suggest!!
FWIW, here’s the wikipedia article on Glenn Beck.
Also, to be complete, here is a link to the wikipedia article on Steve Young. Wikipedia doesn’t yet have an article on his wife, the former Barbara Graham.
And, I think I’ve covered all those nominated by linking to wikipedia’s article on Marlin K. Jensen.
Elder Marriott, an area seventy who publicly, but politely, distanced himself and his company from support of Prop. 8.
Depending on how the playoffs go, Matt Ryan, the rookie quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, might be worth considering for Honorable Mention. He’s a lock for Rookie of the Year, and coverage often mentions the Church.
Sorry, this is the Wikipedia link - which does not mention the Church, ironically:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Ryan_(American_football)#Personal
Let us first ask the question “Why should there be a ‘Mormon of the Year’?”
To follow up on DavidH, here’s the wikipedia page on Elder Marriott.
Mark N (17): The question was already asked in the post. Why don’t you try answering the question, if you don’t think there should be one.
I don’t know about your case, but I suspect that many annoyed with this kind of thing question whether or not we should pay attention to famous Mormons, Mormon News, Mormon products, etc., because they don’t want to deal with the fact that they find a lot of them annoying.
While I also find many of these things annoying, I think they are a part (probably a necessary part) of a culture.
“Personally, I’m not opposed to noting someone because of their negative impact, but I doubt everyone will agree with me on this.” Oh, come on! We’re Mormons! Do you really think we’re going to accentuate someone with negative impact? =)
No, Tatiana, I don’t. But I’m not sure that is wise. Too often we hide from the negative instead of trying to learn from it and learn how to avoid it. And then there is that whole Yin/Yang or “Opposition in All things” concept. Doesn’t exactly imply we should ignore the negative, does it?
Is it bad that I really don’t feel wholeheartedly enthusiastic of any Mormon at all in public life? My vote for Mormon of the year this year is that we wait and vote for someone on a year when there’s someone we really want to vote for. I liked Mitt (except for his politics) until he gave his speech about religion. I loved his off-the-record remarks about his religion in the studio caught on you-tube. They were so honest and good. Had that been the tone of his official speech about religion, I would have liked him. Had he given the sort of speech about religion that Obama gave about race, I would have loved him and been proud of him and chosen him for Mormon of the year, though still not for President.
So, like the Nobel committee, I think we should have nobody as our pick for MotY on years in which there’s nobody we want.
Kent, I understand what you’re saying, and I don’t believe in hiding from the negative. Particularly if the purpose is a positive one, to understand what happened and learn from our mistakes. The idea just struck me as funny. I guess my attempt at a joke didn’t come off very well.
Tatiana (22): Well put. We’ll enter a nomination for nobody.
Come to think of it, there is also the option of choosing a class of persons, or “YOU” like Time did a couple of years ago.
Anyone think we should nominate The Bloggernacle (perhaps that is too self serving?)
Perhaps the Church’s Internet team for their advances and improvements?
Another possibility might be Danny Ainge, because of his role in helping the Celtics to their first championship in 20 years.
Mormon of the year? … “the least among you”
ed42 (26):
I agree. So who does that mean, in your opinion?
The idea of “least among you” might mean a lot of different things. I’m sure many Church members could make the argument that Pres. Monson is “least among us” in some sense.
Recognizing someone’s impact doesn’t necessarily mean that we are recognizing someone who is NOT “least among you,” although I do admit that recognizing someone makes it harder to remain “least among you.”
Perhaps the problem and advantages or disadvantages of recognizing the good works of others would be a post here on T&S, if it hasn’t happened already.
re: 15, where’d you read/hear Matt Ryan is a member? My 16 yr old son idolizes the very impressive Mr. Ryan, but I have never heard he’s a member. If he is, then I wholeheartedly second the nomination. We live two towns over from Exton, his hometown, and I have never heard him or his family mentioned at church.
I’ve got to go with Mitt Romney. He brought the church into the limelight nearly all year and was the most visible and talked Mormon of 2008.
I nominate Marjorie Christoffersen, the part owner of the El Coyote Cafe in Los Angeles.
Right or wrong, her support of prop 8, her experience with the most hateful of its opponents (*), and her inner turmoil and dissonance about the whole issue represents the quasi-trap Mormons in California faced this year. Perhaps by extension, her experience is a harbinger of any future time LDS beliefs no longer sufficiently align with the zeitgeist, what we might choose to do during the fallout, and what we might experience as a consequence.
Thus, the Mormon of the Year is one of the “least among us”, making the news for expressing her faith at a level one ten-thousandth of that of, say, Bruce Bastian, to name someone high profile from the other side.
(*) Whatever else, we can still be glad that the extent of the backlash is basically a boycott and an angry word or two.
Julianne Hough as Mormon of the Year? Are you kidding me? Besides the fact that I don’t think Julianne considers her religion very important anymore, she is every thing a Mormon is NOT. She said in a magazine article that she was a virgin and would remain that way until marriage and then retracted that comment when she started seeing a tour mate who was 10 years older and also was involved with another woman for 4 years. This man made all kinds of lewd induendos about the nature of their relationship while Julianne just giggled and didn’t do anything to stop it. Now she is supposedly living with him in Nashville and sharing hotel suites with him in Vegas. At the same time she has been taking pot shots at her ex fiance who is a good Mormon guy who has decided not to say anything about the way she has been treating him in the press. Hey — how about him for Mormon of the Year? He is at least worthy of it.
Matt Ryan went to Boston College, He is Catholic.
Elder L. Whitney Clayton Of the Seventy
Interesting that people nominated LDS who are opposed to Prop 8 as Mormon of the Year.
I think that the opposite should be true - we should respect those who had to step forward with this hugely successful undertaking under such very short notice.
Also for consideration -
Maurine Proctor - publisher of Meridian Magazine. She has done a fine job of embracing 21st century media to get out the word on the LDS story.
California Roland (33):
Regardless of what you think of Maurine or Meridian (I don’t know Maurine, but I don’t care for Meridian), I can’t help but observe that Meridian hasn’t made a significant change to its interface in years, and has yet to use any Web 2.0 or social network tools. So i can’t agree with your statement that Meridian represents “a fine job of embracing 21st century media to get out the word on the LDS story.” If you are serious about nominating Maurine, I suggest you give us some logic as to why she deserves it this year as opposed to last year.
FWIW, here is the wikipedia article for L. Whitney Clayton. I assume from your other comments that Elder Clayton was involved in the Proposition 8 promotion?
I disagree with Tatiana, to the extent that I’m proud of all of Kent’s nominees. I vote David Archuleta (for some reason), though I like the Marlin K. Jensen and Margie Christoffersen picks as well.
Before Prop 8 it would have been silly to vote for anyone except Romney. Successful Mormon and presidential candidate with a serious shot, endorsed by the National Review, no less, who is well-known by Americans as a Mormon and both liked and disliked very much because of that fact. Not even close.
RE 33 and 34:
I must concur that Meridian is hardly in the 21st century in terms of technology. Their interface is still quite 90s-era in design and its production values are quite low in terms of journalistic and editorial quality, visual design, etc. (especially compared to the Church’s own web presence). To say nothing of their extreme right-wing-echo-chamber content and depressingly cheezy advertisements for Mormon kitsch. And they’re not doing so well, either; they’ve just put out a plea for donations.
I think the Mormons with the most lasting impact will be those that stretched beyond the Utah-centric, Americo-centric, hyper-Cleaver white bread stereotype. So no, in my book, to Mitt. Harry Reid, perhaps. Steve Young and family, more likely. But my candidates would be two rather atypical Mormons, both of them atypical in drastically different ways:
Brandon Flowers, the church-going, eyeliner-wearing lead singer of The Killers.
and
Dieter F. Uchtdorf, the newest 2nd Counselor in the First Presidency.
#17: Mark N — this is the second time in a week or so when I read an LDS blog post, knew what I was going to write in the comments, and found you had already said it. We need to meet sometime. :-)
As the post and all the comments above demonstrate, it pretty much boils down to what criteria you use both for exclusion and for selection. I suspect the real “Mormon of the Year” is likely someone none of us knows or has heard about. As is often the case, I’m reminded of a passage from The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis (I’ve abridged it quite a bit here), which describes a procession on the outskirts of Heaven honoring a woman who is arriving:
I suspect there are some Sarah Smiths in the Church; they would be the best candidates for “Mormon of the Year”, IMHO. But by their very nature, we are unlikely to know of them or fully appreciate their scope of influence. ..bruce..
re: 8
Yes, Margie!!!
Pete and I know her. In fact, we were thrilled to see her back at El Coyote last week and pulled her into our booth for a long chat, with many hugs and a few tears involved. It was just wonderful. She’s back in town and doing great.
We really really really need to have an L.A.-area bloggersnacker at El Coyote. That would be the coolest thing ever.
I just found and re-read the original article I saw about Matt Ryan a couple of months ago, and it appears that the writer was comparing him to John Beck (BYU grad and Miami Dolphins QB) and misapplied Beck’s religion to Ryan. I can’t find anything else that mentions Ryan’s religion, so I guess he isn’t Mormon.
Sorry, Kent. How about Steve Martin?
I nominate myself.
Aaron B
“I think the Mormons with the most lasting impact will be those that stretched beyond the Utah-centric, Americo-centric, hyper-Cleaver white bread stereotype.”
I agree with Jeremy’s criteria, and I would nominate Darius Gray and Margaret Blair Young, co-directors of the trail-blazing and provocative documentary film, “Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons.” The exciting collaboration of Gray, who was called as a counselor in the original presidency of the Genesis Group, which helped lay the foundation for thie 1978 extension of the priesthood to black males, and Young, a professor of English at Brigham Young University, has produced a work of art that will have impact, inside and outside the LDS Church for years to come. Their film is remarkable follow-up to their earlier trilogy of novels about black Mormon pioneers.
I would nominate the collabrative group that gave us the Joseph Smith papers volumn one and will also bring us the rest.
I also vote Margie Christofferson. She is one of “the least of these” who has had to suffer for her beliefs and seems to encapsulate the entire issue of Mormon faith during interesting times.
Why not the wonderful Mormon lawyers who provided the legal underpinning for torture, or the two marvelous Mormon psychologists who came up with a crackerjack method of interrogation that horrified the FBI? How about a round of applause for these guys?
Glenn Beck? Are you serious?
STEPHENIE MEYER!!!!
Katherine Heigl
I honestly think Stephenie Meyer is the MORMON OF THE YEAR !!!! Stephenie has touched alot of people out of the religion dramatically !!!
You spelt Stephenie Meyer’s name wrong. It’s not “Stephanie;” there’s no “a” in her name. It’s “Stephenie;” note that there’s an “e” after the “h,” not an “a.”
The fact that TSM was named Person of the Year by a gay SLC magazine — for his perceived role in firing up the troops in support of gay marriage — as well as the whole Prop 8 issue, seems like enough evidence to reconsider TSM as Mormon of the Year, without having to rest on his laurels as simply being the president of the Church.
If the Mormon of the Year is that certain vampire author, maybe I don’t want to be Mormon…
I could support Margaret Young. Maybe Lance Wickman, for his being the non-apostle most closely linked to any policy clarifications or statements?
Kent:
you may own the domain mormonoftheyear.com, but it appears that you have not made much use of it lately. I see your 2001 nominees though, and I am impressed that Gray and Romney are still in contention.
#1, you say Barbara Young exemplified “courage” by publicly stating an unpopular position. Let me see if I’m clear on your reasoning …. The First Presidency sends a letter to the California congregations to be read in church regarding the Prop 8 issue. In the letter they encourage members of the church to do all they can to support the proposition. Barbara turns around and publicly announces her opposition to the proposition. And you describe her actions as courageous? Perhaps her actions would be noble if one believes the First Presidency is a confused and unenlightened lot of buffoons. But if one views them as inspired leaders of God, it seems more appropriate to brand Barbara’s actions as well-intentioned but misguided, at best, or disloyal, at worst. Frankly, I’m not sure how her nomination is even “defensible,” as Kent put it, unless I’m completely missing something.
I’m happy with the success of Glenn Beck, Stephanie Meyers et al. (even Brandon Flowers, for some strange reason, though I don’t listen to his song “Mr. Brightside” because the message is not, ummm, uplifting), but my vote is for Mitt Romney. Politics aside, his candidacy brought far more exposure (not all good, of course) to the Church (which obviously is my biggest criteria). Any other year, this discussion might be more interesting, as Romney’s run was a pretty rare event (though word has it that Jon Huntsman’s name is becoming more well known in national GOP circles).
The women at FMH are going to burn me over this, but would anyone care about Barbara Young’s opinion if she had married an accountant?
Stephenie Meyer, by far. And yes, it’s with an “e,” not an “a.”
Stephenie Meyer and yes it’s with an E ! This universe Stephenie has created is an obession for so many people and it’s done so much for others out of the religion.
Hello Stephanie Meyer should be Mormon of the year she has brought many people into this religion and if she isn’t chosen she could take as many or more people out of it!
I think its rather obvious who should win- Stephenie Meyer
she’s an amazing influence on every one of her fans (which, lets face it, is millions and millions of people) and she just plain deserves it. she has done soooo many things this year-
-The Host, her new bestseller came out.
-she went on tour for The Host and gave speeches, thousands of signetures, and hundreds of pictures
-She edited and worked hard for her last book in the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn, to come out
-She worked hard with Summit Entertainment on her Twilight turning into a $213,048,358+ movie that EVERYONE has been talking about
-She had Breaking Dawn, and you guessed it-another bestseller come out in August
-She went on tour again this year, doing everything she did in her past tours-maybe even double
-She was at the Twilight movie premire-and gave autographs and had her picture taken numerous times
-and now she is working close with Summit Enteratinment AGAIN for her 2nd book in the Twilight Saga, New Moon, to become a movie…which should begin filming in March
AND
she did all of those things while having three little boys, and never loosing her faith and keeping strong with her religion.
if Stephenie Meyer doesn’t get Mormon of the Year, then i don’t know who deserves it more than her
Stephenie Meyer 150%
I second Aaron Brown.
Stephenie Meyer. Definitely. :)
Stephenie is the most well-known, yet people are still misspelling her name.
I am nominating anyone and everyone who voted in support for Prop 8. It’s not easy to stand up for something that is “unpopular”. Way to go all those that stood your ground in California. If we don’t stand up for what it right, than who will?
My second vote is for Stephenie Meyer. She gets mentioned as a Mormon in every interview with her or the actors more than anyone in the media. She has giving more positive exposure for the church than anyone. She doesn’t have a political agenda, she is what she is and she is a great role model for young girls. She is the kindof Mormon that makes the rest of us look good. She is a great example.
My next vote would be Brandon Flowers, the lead singer of the Killers. Some friends of mine worked w/ him recently and said that he is a great guy with very strong convictions. He is just cool.
Stephenie Meyer
Stephenie Meyer!!
Stephenie Meyer, yay . (:
Mitt Romney or Stephenie Meyer for Mormon of the Year? Shows you what kind of a year it’s been.
Stephenie Meyer. She is in the face of fame and fortune, and she hasn’t done anything “wrong” yet. She’s still humble and modest about this whole Twilight ordeal. Her books are appropriate for anyone to read, (aside from being the greatest series to hit this earth since C.S. Lewis wrote Narnia) and she is just such a sweet, honest, down to earth person. Not that she needs any MORE recognition, (I wouldn’t want it, personally!) but I think she deserves it the most from your list. She has given this earth something beautiful, original and full of hope with fundamental truths we need to bring America back to. (True love, chastity, friendship, the greater good, sacrifice, selflessness… need I continue listing?)
My vote, as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is for Stephenie.
1. Stephenie Meyer, Twilight is a Phenominon. The books are uber popular. The movie was B rate and still was one of the most anticipated and highly grossing films of 2008, even though it’s only been out for a month, and she is a wonderful example.
2. Secondly, Mitt Romney. And not because his campaign was so great, but because he was. His concession speach to McCain brought tears to my eyes.
3. David Archuleta was good (and adorable) and he’s a strong third in my book, but I think mostly only mormons knew he was one.
4. the jet blue guy, the fact that I don’t remember his name from reading this article should explain why.
5. Hary Reid, Listing him as MOTY in my eyes is like Time Magazine listing Vladimir Putin as 2007 person of the year, it’s not a good thing and everyone should feel a little dirty afterwards. Is that a political bias, probably, but his “SanFrancisco values” and friends (Pelosi) are not the kind of publicity the mormon church should be showcasing.
How sad that we rate the quality of our writers or performers by their dollar return within popular and commercial culture. I don’t think that’s what President Kimball had in mind when he articulated his vision for the arts in Mormondom.
Heather, I find your dismissal of Reid offensive. I’m proud to be a co-congregant with him. It would be a sad day for the church indeed if we claimed a diverse, global scope and were only represented in the political sphere by right-wingers. We’re a stronger church because of the diversity of political opinion that upstanding members can espouse while partaking of the sacrament together.
5. Hary Reid, Listing him as MOTY in my eyes is like Time Magazine listing Vladimir Putin as 2007 person of the year, it’s not a good thing and everyone should feel a little dirty afterwards. Is that a political bias, probably, but his “SanFrancisco values” and friends (Pelosi) are not the kind of publicity the mormon church should be showcasing.
See, I think that Mormondom should take a long shower to get rid of Mitt Romney…
Methinks a call to arms has been circulated among tweeny Twilight fans who must be taking this T&S poll as an election. Now I begin to see how the editors at Time feel when certain Mormon constituencies decide to bomb them with votes for some Mormon as Man of the Year.
I predict a serious decline in spelling and punctuation and a sharp uptick in caps and exclamation points, a la the Twilight thread on Mormon Mommy Wars. As in:
TWILIGHT IS TEH GRATEST!!!!! I luv Staphney Mayors ALMOST as much as Edward!!!! VOTE FOR STEHPNEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Okay, I take it back… Darius Gray and Margaret Blair Young ftw! Excellent choices.
Stephenie Meyer of course! Her books changed my life!
Ray (39):
LOL!
Paul Swenson (41):
I agree with your sentiment about Darius Gray and Margaret Blair Young, BUT, I don’t see what the 2008 connection would be. I could support their nomination for 2005 Mormon of the Year or perhaps for earlier, when their books came out.
I think we need to keep in mind that this is a 2008 award.
STEPHENIE MEYER hands down
BronwynJT (47):
Thanks for the nomination. For those who don’t know, here is the wikipedia page for Katherine Heigl. FWIW, she is at least inactive at the moment, although has indicated an interest in returning to activity according to wikipedia.
Queuno (51):
I assume you are referring to Lance Wickman’s statements on the media confusing the LDS Church with the FLDS?
Eric Boysen (52):
Mormon of the Year was originally part of my Mormon News project — which has been on hold since 2002. I discussed it here recently.
Sophtine (62):
I’m afraid that the spelling difference between Stephanie and Stephenie is so slight that it has to be pointed out to you to notice it. (As I understand it, most people read mostly by the shape of words, and not as much by spelling details — so Stephanie and Stephenie look the same when you read normally.
At least that’s my excuse for the error. I hope Stephenie will forgive me.
Kabes (68) wrote “She’s still humble and modest about this whole Twilight ordeal.”
Ordeal? Really? I think most of us wouldn’t mind that “ordeal.”
But, of course, that doesn’t take anything away from Stephenie.
STEPHENIE MEYER!
Heather (69) wrote that Harry Reid’s ” ‘SanFrancisco values’ and friends (Pelosi) are not the kind of publicity the mormon church should be showcasing.”
Did you borrow that line from Rush Limbaugh or from Sean Hannity?
If you paint Democrats with that broad a brush, perhaps you won’t mind if Mormons are painted with “polygamous” values in the media?
Please.
Jeremy (70) wrote: “How sad that we rate the quality of our writers or performers by their dollar return within popular and commercial culture.”
I’m not sure why you think that’s what is going on here.
I don’t know about everyone here, but my own take is that the Mormon of the Year simply recognizes the current and potential future impact the person has had on others, NOT necessary the quality of their work.
Perhaps that is just me, but it seems very rational to me.
Never mind Harry Reid’s values, how about the fact that he made the dumbest statement by any politician all year when he proclaimed the Iraq war was LOST right before the extremely successful troop surge where the military all but wrapped up a victory! How embarrassing.
Kent — I wasn’t talking about the premise of your post, just the general adulation for Meyer (as a writer) in some of the comments.
Trenden — your assessment of the troop surge within the overall war is a point that could be argued at length in another forum, but your calling Reid’s statement about the surge the “dumbest statement by any politician all year” makes me wonder if you read fewer newspapers than the governor of Alaska…
Stephenie Meyer!!!!!!!!!