In my last post of “Back to the basic principles and doctrines of the gospel” I have a poll at the bottom. I would like people to take this poll. The question is Who is “your president of the church?” In others words, which president of the church do you remember the most growing up or when you were baptized? etc.
I’ve only known two: Pres. Hinckley and Pres. Monson. It was weird when Pres. Monson was the new prophet. Did anybody else notice a subtle change in demeanor and authority when Pres. Monson became prophet?
Can you expound on your question? What do you mean by demeanor and authority?
Can’t really answer as asked, Bill. I can remember back to David O. McKay, especially as a Primary child celebrating his birthday year after year. But Spencer W. Kimball is the one I think of as “my” president, the one who set the tone and agenda as I became a more responsible and thinking young adult, the one who called me on my mission, the one whose name I absent-mindedly say when I’m not very careful to say “Pres-i-dent-Mon-son.”
Bill, I don’t know. I just notice a subtle, indescribable change in Pres. Monson once he went from counselor to prophet. Kind of like the mantle was passed. Several other people I know remarked on the same phenomenon.
I have noticed it, too. Before, he seemed content to be everybody’s favorite uncle, telling stories and smiling and just being a good ol’ boy. There’s a seriousness to him now that wasn’t there before.
Geoff, not that I have a tremendous amount of experience in such matters, but my experience is consistent with the various new presidents of the Church I’ve had experience with (going back to when Pres. Benson became president).
From a psychological standpoint this is understandable. It’s a little different when there isn’t some other man down the hall that outranks you in the ranks of the mortals. I’m not saying that any of these men took their responsibilities unseriously prior to become President of the Church, but being President is a singular office. On a smaller scale, think of the difference between being the bishop or EQP and a counselor. I love being a counselor because (at the end of the day) the pressure is so much different without the mantel of keys.
Which leads to the real reason in my mind. The mantel of the Priesthood is a real and almost tangible thing. I think I am not out of line in suggesting that the ordination and office carries with it a certain dignity that is apparent to those with eyes to see and ears to hear. The fact that you (and many others) see the difference is a indicator of some measure of discernment.
My Answer is Gordon B. Hinckley. I was born in November 1976. By the time I was starting elementary school, President Hinckley was the 3rd counselor and the rest of the 1st President was very sick. Even during the time the President Benson and President Hunter were in office, President Hinckley was the public face of the First Presidency.
I remember learning all about Spencer Kimball in primary and that he was from Arizona. Growing up in Arizona that gave us a special connection to him. I remember the morning I found out he’d passed, I was in 7th grade at the time. Pres. Benson was the prophet of my teenaged years, although I don’t seem to remember him as much as Kimball. Pres. Hunter signed my mission call then passed away the next week. I will always remember Pres Hinckley as the “happy” prophet. He was always happy it seemed.
Pres. Hunter was prophet when I was baptized, but he passed away shortly thereafter, so I consider Pres. Hinckley to be “my prophet”. He is the one I remember through my teenage years, and his signature is the one on my mission call.
I was born when George Albert Smith was the prophet, but since I was only 2 years old when he passed away in 1951, I have no memory of him. For me, my prophet was David O. McKay. He was the only prophet that I had known when I was growing up, he called me on my mission, and he died while I was on my mission in 1970. It was so odd to me to then bear my testimony to investigators that Joseph Smith was a prophet and so was Joseph Fielding Smith.
Even though Hinckley basically ran the show for the better part of the last three decades, I voted for Kimball. I really paid attention in those general conferences of the late seventies/early eighties even though I was young, and they retain an incandescent quality in my memory.
President Kimball was the first prophet that I remembered even though there were two others that were the prophet before. SWK was my mom’s stake president in Safford. President Benson was my dad’s stake president in the D.C. stake. President Benson signed my mission call. I do not really remember major things when SWK was president as I was ages 2 to 14 when he was alive. As we get older, we remember more.
Presidents Hinckley and Monson were counselors for so long. I just thought they would always be counselors.
Now if we could only get Ziff to analyze the results of the poll and tell us the mean, median and average age of the Bloggernacle.
It’s a hard question for me. I was only vaguely aware of President Kimball as a young kid, mostly by way of the “Latter-day Prophets” song we sang in primary and hearing him talk when conference was on TV. (As the version of the song was back then, the last syllable of President Kimball’s name was sung on the last note, and all the kids would jump and shout the sound out, similar to how kids still act when singing “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam.”)
President Benson was the prophet for most of my childhood, from ages 7 to 15. What I remember most about him was his absence, something that has made me more appreciative of having prophets who are healthy enough to do things like appear at conferences. I still picked him for the poll’s purposes.
I liked President Hunter, but I must confess that when I heard of his death, the first thing I thought was, “Yes! President Hinckley’s now the prophet!” President Hinckley was my mom’s stake president before he became an assistant to the Twelve, and I had independently come to admire him a lot during his years as a counselor in the First Presidency. He was the prophet when I finished high school, served a mission, got married, finished college, and became a father. If the poll question had been worded differently, I might have picked him instead of the earlier prophets of my lifetime.
I joined the Church in 1975 at the age of 16. So Pres Kimball is the president of my youth. I’d place Presidents Benson and Hinckley as the next two (though not sure the order).
I met Pres Hinckley during the dedication of the South Korean temple in 1985. He talked with the English speaking choir for about 15 minutes, and we had a great time with him.
My wife had a great experience with Pres Benson once, when we were in an endowment session in the Jordan River temple, and he sat across the aisle from her.
If this same poll was given 30 years from now, the results would be different as younger people would be getting older.