all-encompassingly

all-encompassingly picks new apostle (golf clap welcome)

this summer, the church of jesus christ of latter day saints lost two beloved apostles. [link] many began speculating about who would be called to fill their shoes. one site had a poll [link].

i visited this site in the middle of august, over six weeks ago. however, i was disapppointed with the poll because the names it had to choose from did not include the one person i was sure would be selected to fill the vacancy in the council, david bednar. i'm not kidding. of course, he turned out to be one of the two men church leaders called to the position.

i even wrote an email to the guys hosting the poll to inform them of their oversight, but the poll remained as it was. the other new apostle, dieter uchtdorf, received 4% of the vote on this poll, placing him in a four-way tie for sixth. other popular choices (in the poll and in the comments to this article in times and seasons) included former BYU president merrill bateman, provost bruce hafen, seventy marlin jensen, and a number of european and latin american seventies.

over the more than 170 years since the lord called an uneducated farm boy to restore his church upon the earth, the calling of apostles has become more and more about qualifications...kind of like landing that job you've always wanted.

this guy lays down a pretty good analysis of the recent tendencies here. [link]

it is a shame that my email was never published by misfitmormon.com, because it appears that no one else on either of the aforementioned blogs picked him to get the job. i picked bednar because one day i was watching a re-broadcast of a BYU-I devotional on TV, and, i dunno, he just seemed like the obvious choice. two of the last four new apostles came from the BYU president's office, and bednar oversaw the change from ricks college to BYU-idaho, and can claim responsibility for what can only be called a tremendously successful transition.

the choice of dieter uchtdorf as the other apostle is also hunch-affirming, for a couple of reasons. first, the church is becoming more and more an international church--now with more members outside the US than within. it is only natural that this one of the new apostles would be of a nationality other than american. that he was not from latin america, however, is surprising, since this is where much of the church's growth has been concentrated over the last 30 years. instead, elder uchtdorf's appointment seems to affirm a theory of one of my (most boring) religion professors at BYU, victor ludlow. dr. ludlow theorizes often on the scattering and gathering of israel in his course on the writings of the prophet isaiah. indeed, it is one of the central themes in isaiah and the gospel of jesus christ. well, the huge growth of the church in latin america began with president spencer kimball, because he took a great interest in that people. and according to dr. ludlow, eastern europe is one of the great, unconverted areas of the globe, where some converts from the lost tribes could begin to be found. he suggests that president thomas monson, next in line to fill the presidency of the church, is the man to lead this work. ludlow notes president monson's love for these people, specifically his special work in east germany during the years of communist tyranny in that land. the calling of native german dieter uchtdorf as a special witness of christ appears to support dr. ludlow's theory of the role of prophets and apostles in the gathering of israel.

church press release, as well as other interesting, related links [here]

Posted by travis at October 3, 2004 11:23 PM | TrackBack