How is Pres. Hinckley doing?

Post by **_Jason Bourne** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 10:04 pm

He is 97 and looks and sounds tired. But he still goes to his office, speaks at conferences, travels. He had surgery for colon cancer a year or two ago and I believe may have had some Chemo. But he is in remission and looks like he could be around for a while.

Say what you will about him but he is pretty amazing for 97 and fairly active. He has his wit and his sense of humor still intact as well.

Post by **_harmony** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 10:13 pm

I look at him and I feel the most profound pity. The church stole his life. Even today, it sucks the life out of him. He never gets to go on vacation, never gets to relax, always carries the weight of 12 million on his shoulders every day. He has no privacy, his wife raised his kids virtually alone, and he never ever gets to just do what most of take for granted every day.

Post by **_Jason Bourne** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 12:56 am

harmony wrote:I look at him and I feel the most profound pity. The church stole his life. Even today, it sucks the life out of him. He never gets to go on vacation, never gets to relax, always carries the weight of 12 million on his shoulders every day. He has no privacy, his wife raised his kids virtually alone, and he never ever gets to just do what most of take for granted every day.

Such can be the life of those who end up in a position of the limelight so to speak. As the Neil Pert of Rush wrote:

Living on a lighted stage
Approaches the unreal
For those who think and feel
In touch with some reality
Beyond the gilded cage

Cast in this unlikely role
Ill-equipped to act
With insufficient tact
One must put up barriers
To keep oneself intact

Living in the limelight
The universal dream
For those who wish to seem
Those who wish to be
Must put aside the alienation
Get on with the fascination
The real relation
The underlying theme

Living in a fish eye lens
Caught in the camera eye
I have no heart to lie
I can't pretend a stranger
Is a long-awaited friend

All the world's indeed a stage
And we are merely players
Performers and portrayers
Each another's audience
Outside the gilded cage

Living in the limelight
The universal dream
For those who wish to seem
Those who wish to be
Must put aside the alienation
Get on with the fascination
The real relation
The underlying theme

Post by **_moksha** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:41 am

thestyleguy wrote:They could sell his flat and get twenty houses for need families.

Communist! I think this proves you are left handed.

Post by **_karl61** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:40 am

moksha wrote:
thestyleguy wrote:They could sell his flat and get twenty houses for need families.

Communist! I think this proves you are left handed.

I wish I were left handed because then I could draw something more than a stickman.

Post by **_SatanWasSetUp** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 7:14 pm

Jason Bourne wrote:He is 97 and looks and sounds tired. But he still goes to his office, speaks at conferences, travels. He had surgery for colon cancer a year or two ago and I believe may have had some Chemo. But he is in remission and looks like he could be around for a while.

Say what you will about him but he is pretty amazing for 97 and fairly active. He has his wit and his sense of humor still intact as well.

I sense another ETB walking-dead prophet within the next couple years. There are a lot of reasons to dislike The Brethren(R) but there is something wrong with a system that does not allow people to retire and live out the remainder of their lives on a golf course, or at least on a sofa watching golf. These guys are still expected to put on the suit and tie and report to the office in their 70s , 80s, 90s, up until they die. If there was one change the church could make, that I think even the members would support, it would be to allow these men to retire. I also realize this isn't a problem just wthin Mormonism. I think the Pope serves for life too, as do Kings and Queens, and dictators. I don't have anything against Hinckley personally, and I really don't want to see him in the situation that ETB was in towards the end of his life, barely conscious while the Q12 props him up each conference and tells everyone that he really is running the church.

Post by **_Runtu** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 7:22 pm

SatanWasSetUp wrote:
Jason Bourne wrote:He is 97 and looks and sounds tired. But he still goes to his office, speaks at conferences, travels. He had surgery for colon cancer a year or two ago and I believe may have had some Chemo. But he is in remission and looks like he could be around for a while.

Say what you will about him but he is pretty amazing for 97 and fairly active. He has his wit and his sense of humor still intact as well.

I sense another ETB walking-dead prophet within the next couple years. There are a lot of reasons to dislike The Brethren(R) but there is something wrong with a system that does not allow people to retire and live out the remainder of their lives on a golf course, or at least on a sofa watching golf. These guys are still expected to put on the suit and tie and report to the office in their 70s , 80s, 90s, up until they die. If there was one change the church could make, that I think even the members would support, it would be to allow these men to retire. I also realize this isn't a problem just wthin Mormonism. I think the Pope serves for life too, as do Kings and Queens, and dictators. I don't have anything against Hinckley personally, and I really don't want to see him in the situation that ETB was in towards the end of his life, barely conscious while the Q12 props him up each conference and tells everyone that he really is running the church.

They've already done it with the First Quorum of Seventy. That used to be a lifetime calling, but several years ago they set the age of 70 as the age at which you would be give "emeritus" status, so you could retire. I don't know why they couldn't do that with all church offices. It would probably make for a better-managed and more lively church. Oh, wait. Scratch that. I don't believe in Mormonism, so I have no business having an opinion on how it's run.

Post by **_Bond...James Bond** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:31 pm

SatanWasSetUp wrote:I sense another ETB walking-dead prophet within the next couple years. There are a lot of reasons to dislike The Brethren(R) but there is something wrong with a system that does not allow people to retire and live out the remainder of their lives on a golf course, or at least on a sofa watching golf. These guys are still expected to put on the suit and tie and report to the office in their 70s , 80s, 90s, up until they die. If there was one change the church could make, that I think even the members would support, it would be to allow these men to retire. I also realize this isn't a problem just wthin Mormonism. I think the Pope serves for life too, as do Kings and Queens, and dictators. I don't have anything against Hinckley personally, and I really don't want to see him in the situation that ETB was in towards the end of his life, barely conscious while the Q12 props him up each conference and tells everyone that he really is running the church.

I gotta agree....I hate seeing people have to do something till they die. Like Pope John Paul II (I'm a bit too young for ETB)....He was a major outdoorsman in his early life, and at the end he was just a shriveled up shadow of his former self. Emeritus status seems like the obvious way to more effectively handle some of these life time positions that were created when the average age was much less than it is too today.

Post by **_TAK** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:54 pm

On a somewhat related note maybe Infymus or someone can respond ..

On http://www.mormoncurtain.com/topics.html it states under the heading of General Authority..

Members of the LDS Church that rise past the rank of Stake President are considered General Authorities. They leave their current jobs and work for the LDS Church full time. In exchange, the LDS Church provides them a full salary and often lavish living expenses. Those who rise to the rank of Apostle must sell any business they own and renounce any board of directors for companies that are not directly own by the LDS Church (Hinckley 1996). Generally those who reach Apostle sell their businesses and hand the money over to the LDS Church.

In Bold, I had never heard that .. They turn over thier wealth? Is that documented anywhere?

Post by **_Polygamy Porter** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:14 am

harmony wrote:I look at him and I feel the most profound pity. The church stole his life. Even today, it sucks the life out of him.

Oh please, it is his job. He was hired as the PR spin doc right after his mission. He has always had money and power.

harmony wrote:He never gets to go on vacation, never gets to relax, always carries the weight of 12 million on his shoulders every day.

Riiigghhtt. He does not carry the weight of 12 million members on his shoulders. First off there are not 12 million active members. Second he is a CEO, the only thing on is shoulders is keeping the customers happy and paying their temple dues. Never goes on vacation? Yet, he was never around to help with the kid rearing..

harmony wrote:He has no privacy, his wife raised his kids virtually alone, and he never ever gets to just do what most of take for granted every day.

He has gobs of privacy. He has hired body guards. He can and does what ever he likes. Look at how he pissed away billions on temples that hard get used. Look at how he is now pissing away BILLIONS to improve the view out his penthouse.

As for Margie raising the kids alone, guess what reward awaits her in heaven? Finally getting time alone with Gordo? Hell no! He will have a friggin harem that she must share him with! And then he will be busy building worlds, plans of salvation, rules, a hell for his bad kids, and then the task of judging will take for friggin ever.

Gordo is probably not looking forward to passing through the veil. He will go from one desk job that seemed to last forever to another that will.