Anyone have a chance to go downtown to Deseret Book lately? I was there at S. Temple last week and thought I'd check and see what's for sale. I was astonished beyond comprehension to see that they had removed half the store, half the books are gone. And in it's place the church has set up a 15'x50' montage of Russel and Wendy, blown up pictures old furniture and junk. Skiing memorabilia of when they would all go to Alta, the whole family, and it must of cost a fortune. But all this hullabaloo is apparently an advertisement for Ms Dews new book for $34.99

It was beyond belief, I mean sure we all want to make a buck, but to throw out all the rest of the books so that a certain author could display her own?..... hmmm.... And monuments are usually built after a man is dead. Like the Hinkley shrine at the Hinkley institute BYU.

Anyway it's suppose to be taken down soon and replaced with a giant replica of Solomon's temple that people can walk through instead.

I was embarrassed for the tourists coming in and seeing that. What is DB thinking?

https://deseretbook.com/p/insights-from-a-prophets-life-russell-m-nelson-by-sheri-dew?variant_id=172666-hardcover

Here's the fluff piece on Ms. Dew in re her position with Deseret Book:


"SHERI DEW
Vice President DMC
CEO Deserect Book Company

"Sheri Dew is executive vice president of Deseret Management Corporation and the CEO of Deseret Book Company. She served in the General Presidency of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1997-2002 and was a White House delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations. Ms. Dew serves on the National Advisory Council of BYU’s Marriott School of Management. She is a best-selling author, public speaker and recognized leader. Ms. Dew is the author of the official biographies of Gordon B. Hinckley and Ezra Taft Benson as well as a number of other best-selling titles including, No Doubt About It, Women and the Priesthood, and Amazed by Grace. Ms. Dew is a graduate of Brigham Young University."


http://www.deseretmanagement.com/our-mission/about-us/leadership-team/#prettyphoto[names]/1/

"SHERI DEW
Vice President DMC
CEO Deserect Book Company

"Sheri Dew is executive vice president of Deseret Management Corporation and the CEO of Deseret Book Company. She served in the General Presidency of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1997-2002 and was a White House delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations. Ms. Dew serves on the National Advisory Council of BYU’s Marriott School of Management. She is a best-selling author, public speaker and recognized leader. Ms. Dew is the author of the official biographies of Gordon B. Hinckley and Ezra Taft Benson as well as a number of other best-selling titles including, No Doubt About It, Women and the Priesthood, and Amazed by Grace. Ms. Dew is a graduate of Brigham Young University."

IMO, she's got everything she wants--without having to hook herself to a husband. Maybe she doesn't like men? (prefers women?)

Hummmm.

pollythinks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "SHERI DEW
> Vice President DMC
> CEO Deserect Book Company
>
> "Sheri Dew is executive vice president of Deseret
> Management Corporation and the CEO of Deseret Book
> Company. She served in the General Presidency of
> the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ
> of Latter-day Saints from 1997-2002 and was a
> White House delegate to the Commission on the
> Status of Women at the United Nations. Ms. Dew
> serves on the National Advisory Council of BYU’s
> Marriott School of Management. She is a
> best-selling author, public speaker and recognized
> leader. Ms. Dew is the author of the official
> biographies of Gordon B. Hinckley and Ezra Taft
> Benson as well as a number of other best-selling
> titles including, No Doubt About It, Women and the
> Priesthood, and Amazed by Grace. Ms. Dew is a
> graduate of Brigham Young University."
>
> IMO, she's got everything she wants--without
> having to hook herself to a husband. Maybe she
> doesn't like men? (prefers women?)

It does seem very odd. She's a real Molly Mormon. Maybe she was married to her job...

As for preferring women, she wouldn't be the first LDS lesbian (if she was) to marry a man.

But I've never thought of her as a "Molly Mormon" in any traditional sense of the term. She's far from having any of the following characteristics traditionally associated with the "Molly Mormon" concept: (i) aspiring to be a stay-at-home mom; (ii) a love of "pioneer" dresses; (iii) an aficionado of scrap-booking, recipe trading and similar "homemaker" related activities; and (iv) someone who made it a high priority to marry a worthy returned missionary in the temple.

Her favorite thing as a young woman was playing basketball. She aspired to having a successful career and succeeded, having found a way to work connections and career paths available to her within the LDS system. She's now a major player in running and managing the for-profit businesses owned by the LDS church and she travels around the world on private jets in the company of her BFF Wendy, who happens to be the wife of the most powerful man in the Mormon empire. She's working the Mormon thang for all it's worth, but she's not doing it Molly Mormon style, as far as I can tell.

Okay Molly Mormon is a bit unfair, but I do see her with that big hair, that type of dress etc that I tend to associate with it.

I do find it strange she never married. You'd think it was practically compulsory for such a high up LDS woman.

for a guy who had recently moved into our ward to run a newly established branch office for a national company. He had just recently gotten married to someone whom he had gotten to know through a common interest in sports. They were both from multi-generational Mormon families.

TBH, all the stereotypes applied to my boss's wife. But people in the ward generally just hoped that they were happy and assumed that, despite all appearances and indications to the contrary, she wasn't a lesbian. But a year later, she left my boss and moved in with a girlfriend. People felt sorry for him, but they had a hard time faking surprise at how things turned out. They seemed more surprised that my boss was surprised. If Sheri is as some suspect, at least she's had the decency and self-awareness to avoid getting into a sham marriage.

"If Sheri is as some suspect, at least she's had the decency and self-awareness to avoid getting into a sham marriage."

Yes I agree. And shame on the LDS to expect people to get hurt when they find out that their spouse isn't interested in them, or s/he is made ro lead a life which is contrary to their nature.

She could also be asexual. I always thought Gordon B. Hinckley was along those lines. Not very interested in it, but did his duty. Can

Having been one of those spouses--well, I knew before I married him. IF someone was going to get out of the situation, it should have been him. I was told to save him by the LDS. You bet it hurt to find out he is gay, but not for the reasons people think. I wanted to know he would be OKAY, that he could go live his life with a partner and he wouldn't be damned as that is what they told me in 1983.

My husband does not act or look gay. People are still shocked that he is. He can fix anything. Keeps cars running for too long. He lays floors, puts on roofs, like I said, fixes ANYTHING and does a perfect job.

I have and always will love him as a person no matter what he did to me and our children. It doesn't mean it didn't hurt as IT DID. Not that he is gay, but how he handled everything.

Until you've been through it, you have NO IDEA. And he was damn lucky to get me. I was considered by the bishop the best looking girl in the singles ward. He couldn't figure out why I wasn't married. I had been proposed to by 3 nonmormons by that time. And NOW I'm with one of those nonmormons.

"Until you've been through it, you have NO IDEA."

It's not an experience I crave. It is unfair on both parties. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

I did briefly date a girl at high school who I suspect leaned heavily towards lesbianism. I didn't notice much at the time, but there were hints and rumors that I later heard (one of them off a very credible witness). She never displayed much interest in the boys at high school and I suspect going out with me was kind of an experiment for her. We were friendly enough while we were dating, and I think we both enjoyed a lot of the dates, but there was always something missing - something a bit cold, and we never did bedroom stuff. We never "clicked". I haven't seen or heard from her in decades, since I left high schopl, but I have wondered what it would have been like if we had gotten married and then this came out.

There was also an LDS YSA (that I was never interested in at all) who I strongly suspected was gay. I found her profile on Facebook after a space of many years (she has an unusual name), and sure enough there were all the pictures of rainbow flags and a picture of her with her girlfriend. That was really no surprise, but she wasn't open about it while an active member, and the leadership probably bullied her to date and/or marry men.

"My husband does not act or look gay. People are still shocked that he is. He can fix anything. Keeps cars running for too long. He lays floors, puts on roofs, like I said, fixes ANYTHING and does a perfect job."

I think we've been led to think of gay people acting in certain ways which are stereotypical. I've met many gay men who don't act or look obviously so. These include soldiers, rugby players, carpenters, and so on. (The reverse is true - I know a very camp guy who appears to be happily married to a woman as far as I can tell.)

FWIW, gay women are often harder to spot, particularly when they're not stereotypically butch.

I don't think she is molly-mormon. I think she knows that's the product that is being sold. She is a good business woman and knows the right words to say to move up the corporate ladder.

As far as her being gay. Its hard to say. But, the church does encourage gays to marry and just suppress their natural urges. Also finding a man to marry in a highly traditional church is just good business.

"She is a best-selling author." Best selling author? By whose standards? I just did a google search and couldn't find any best selling books she authored.

Oh, it has nothing to do with the totality of the number of books she's sold.

It has to do with her character.

Of those authors who have ever sold a book, even one, there are good selling-authors, better selling-authors, and then best selling-authors.

Ms Dew is a best selling-author, of the highest quality and character, as judged by a panel of her employees and one friend.

In that same vein, I am a great golfer! No, no, don't look at my scores! Don't look at the way I advance the ball! Instead, look at the way I follow the rules and obey the rigid etiquette in which the game is steeped! And the esteem in which I am held by the men whose bets I pay off at the end of a round...

heartbroken Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "She is a best-selling author." Best selling
> author? By whose standards? I just did a google
> search and couldn't find any best selling books
> she authored.

I think she is a best selling author. True, she is no JK Rowling, but she has shifted a lot of copies. Within Mormondom, she's queen bee. She sells many more books than the average author does.

She has done official biographies of church presidents, which are practically guaranteed to shift hundreds if not thousands of copies from loyal LDS.

Please mention on book she's written that is a best seller.

Maybe she thinks she's going to sell more books if that's all the store is going to show when people walk in?

If the Deseret blitzes people with Sherri Dew, Russ and Wendy, what's left? Not much.

The Church of Wendy, Rusty, and Dew. They are the face running TSCC, like Big Brother runs Oceania. They only wish they were that *big.*

And here we are talking about them. What are they going to do to us? Are the Thought Police going to take away our computers or zap us on our foreheads? No. Nyet.

Our freedom of speech transposes theirs. Their thoughts do not supercede ours. Take that! Wendy, Rusty, and Dew.

All very true. If she can make royalties of a dollar on each book she sells it maybe million dollars. It's just bad taste though, she's not playing fair with the other authors. And she's suppose to be the example of fairness to other morgbots.

It's like Miss Piggy has taken over, and has to have her way...

Deseret Book use to be a place back in the early 90's where there was some scholarship. Intellectuals had a place. Michael Quinn use to sell Mormon Hierarchy series there. There is a real need for cultural enhancement and intellectual progress in Utah. Mormondom could get more involved in encouraging social change and push for progressive issues, like closing the wealth gap. And a good place to start is with their book store. It starts with community learning.

Such potential, but they just don't see it, or don't care?

macaRomney Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Anyone have a chance to go downtown to Deseret
> Book lately? I was there at S. Temple last week
> and thought I'd check and see what's for sale. I
> was astonished beyond comprehension to see that
> they had removed half the store, half the books
> are gone. And in it's place the church has set up
> a 15'x50' montage of Russel and Wendy, blown up
> pictures old furniture and junk. Skiing
> memorabilia of when they would all go to Alta, the
> whole family, and it must of cost a fortune. But
> all this hullabaloo is apparently an advertisement
> for Ms Dews new book for $34.99
>
> It was beyond belief, I mean sure we all want to
> make a buck, but to throw out all the rest of the
> books so that a certain author could display her
> own?..... hmmm.... And monuments are usually built
> after a man is dead. Like the Hinkley shrine at
> the Hinkley institute BYU.
>
> Anyway it's suppose to be taken down soon and
> replaced with a giant replica of Solomon's temple
> that people can walk through instead.
>
> I was embarrassed for the tourists coming in and
> seeing that. What is DB thinking?
>
> https://deseretbook.com/p/insights-from-a-prophets
> -life-russell-m-nelson-by-sheri-dew?variant_id=172
> 666-hardcover

Clicked on the link earlier this evening and I am now on FB. Guess what? Getting an ad from Deseret Book advertising the same darn book! LOL

Holy McGhost loves you and only wants what's best for you!

macaRomney Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What is DB thinking?
>
> https://deseretbook.com/p/insights-from-a-prophets
> -life-russell-m-nelson-by-sheri-dew?variant_id=172
> 666-hardcover

DB is thinking whatever Sheri Dew is thinking. DB is a legal fiction called a corporation. Sheri Dew is one of the top executives who make DB do what they want DB to do. Obviously Sheri Dew wants DB to do whatever it takes to sell her book. (Due to Dew's close relationship with the Nelsons, she's probably more powerful in reality than the DB president, even though she's the vice-president.)

She's VP of Deseret Management, AND CEO of Deseret Book. She is totally the boss o' the books.

I wonder if they make her pour and pass the diet Pepsi when they have board meetings?

I guess nothing tells everyone who's the boss like converting half of the flagship store into a showcase for one book...the boss's book.

Probably that fun trip with Wends and Russ on the private jet boosted her confidence so much that she now feels like there's nobody above her in rank who will say anything about using DB as her personal plaything.

Hmmm...., I didn't know she is a VP of Deseret management. Potentially controlling billions of dollars of the for profit businesses such as: Beneficial life insurance, Ksl, Deseret Digital Media etc.

This is even more nauseating.

http://www.deseretmanagement.com/

$34.99???
Price gouge much???

SMH - I've been shocked by the price since I first saw it.

and now she wants to buy her own. They're not cheap. She may have to put out another couple of DB "bestsellers" just to get a down payment together.

I will now speak of Sheri Dew, and all that she has done:

It should be called “Highlights from the life”.

“Tales from the crypt” was already taken.

Ms. Dew considers her interview with Pat McMahon after Gordon B. Hinckley's death a "highlight of her life."

For those not in the know, Pat McMahon is a (now retired) talk show host on KTAR radio in Phoenix, Arizona. After Gordon Hinckley's death, he had Sheri Dew as a guest on his religious public affairs program where he asked Ms. Dew who the the next Mormon prophet would be. Sheri Dew's response? "I don't know. Wait and see."

As a former Roman Catholic, I can tell you that when the Pope dies or decides to leave his papal office, there is no knowledge as to who will be picked as the next pontiff. That decision is made by the cardinals who hold a vote in a conclave in Rome away from the prying eyes of the general public.

Compare that with what I learned from this Board after posting this tidbit about Sherri Dew on Pat McMahon's show so many years ago (I was never a Mormon though I have family and a fellow person in my field who are very ensconced in it). There is absolutely no doubt about who the next prophet of the LDS church will be after the current prophet passes: it is the person in the Twelve who has served longest (please correct me if I'm wrong) in the Seventy.

This of course wouldn't do for Sherri Dew who knew full well that her radio (and Internet radio) audience included both the curious and faithful. And my best guess is that that book she's written is full of lies and half-truths and shouldn't be purchased, especially if you wish to know the full truth about her and her church.

The heir apparent is the one who has served longest as an apostle (Quorum of the 12), rather than tenure as a Seventy.

130 years or so (when Sheri had the interview) and, at the time of Sheri's interview, there had only been 13 prior cases of succession, each of which had been determined solely on the basis of seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

So how could Sheri possibly have had any idea whatsoever WHO would be the next president/prophet/all-around big cheese?

I'm being sarcastic of course.

It's scary to think that Sheri would have genuinely been that clueless.

Perhaps it's even scarier to think that Sheri would have been that disingenuous (polite language for "dishonest").

During Monson's final days, my wife and her sister were speculating on who would be the next prophet. They both hoped it would be the Silver Fox, but figured it would be either Holland or Eyring.

When I stated that it was going to be Nelson, they said it wasn't likely because of his age.

I insisted and said that he was next in line, but both insisted in return that it's determined by the collective prompting of the quorum.

They really didn't know that it was as mundane as seniority.

In their defense, I have trouble remembering the seniority levels with people dying off all the time. You eould have to be a bit of a nerd to follow it all. For years, I thought that Boyd K. Packer, one of the more forthright GAs, might one day become president, but he died before that could happen. Some folk probably gasped a sigh of relief, but he would certainly have made the church stand against the Zeitgeist, rather than just rebranding it and cutting down meetings to two hours.