... speaks with a lot of energy which is misinterpted as authority. I've heard 2 other apostles in person and Bednar takes the cake in coming the closest to a Joseph Smith character. i.e., full of himself.
I've posted this elsewhere ... Bednar's visit to our stake helped me in my current path of unbelief, so I thank him. Here is the story:
It was a few months ago ... I was already questioning and so I approached the stake meeting with a critical mind. A lot of little things did not seem right. Here they are in no particular order:
-- Standing up for the Apostle: I've done that before, but I just didn't get it this time. A little too Catholic for me.
-- His constant harping about how Christian Anti-mormons keep on using the same, old attacks against us Mormons. All my info in the past year had come from active Mormons and FAIR (with the exception of John Larsen and Mormon Expression)
-- His hinting that we were the only true christians because we have been endowed in the temple... and his asking us not to share that with our christian brothers and sisters.
-- His preaching that our stake president was like a prophet to our stake. Knowing what I know about Mountain Meadows, I can't accept the word of my stake president as the literal word of God. He's one of these guys who thinks we need to wear white shirts to church.
-- His pushing for tithing.
-- His constant "are you ready brothers and sisters?" just before he would share some great revelation, that really wasn't a great revelation. Mostly talking about how we don't believe in Free agency, but in moral agency. It just felt manipulative like we were supposed to hang on his every word.
-- His statement, "that was then, this is now" when refering to how we should listen to living prophets and not dead prophets or old doctrine.
-- His hint that we had "expended our moral agency" when we went to the temple and his subtle hint that we don't want to break our covenants ... "just look at the scriptures to see what happens to those who break their covenants". I saw this statment as a threat.
Anyway, I was not filled with the spirit. I saw past the smokescreen and was shocked that most people did not. It was like I was in a huge brainwashing meeting.
I went home and finally finished Mormon Enigma in a couple of days. It was "down hill" from there.
I asked my mother about this conference. I will now return and report.
Haha, not much to report really. She said, "Oh, it was very good." When I tried to tease more info out of her, she just responded with the same "it was really good" line.
I agree with you and others that his relative youth, energy, and full head of perfectly combed hair are such a refreshing change for everyone - I think the members are wanting a GA they can really love.
Also, similar to what other posters have said, Bednar is like the temple - we are told how great the experience will be, and afterward everyone is all too eager to agree how great it was. I know my parents were excited Bednar was coming, so of course my mom thought his talk was so good, even if she didn't take anything substantial away from it.
Thanks Seymour ... hey, if you want to see her go pale, ask her this question:
"So a friend told me he said the Mormons were the only true Christians because they had been to the temple ... kind of an allusion to annointing I supposse. But he also said not to share it with our friends of other faiths. Is that true?"
I think the "Bednar-as-a-temple" analogy is perfect. He shared a big secret and got the group to covenant never to divulge it.
I know you're a good son ... so if makes her too uncomfortable, don't do it ... but I'm pretty sure she will balk at revealing too much info.
@outafutah ... I'm guessing you are a believing christian from your other posts. So you may find this offensive, but it is a concept I was introduced on my mission. If I recall, it is also alluded to in Jesus the Christ by Talmage. The concept is that Christ and Messiah are both translated to mean anointed one, so when we say, Jesus the Christ, we are really saying Jesus the Anointed One.
Please open your (LDS-Approved) scriptures, brothers and sisters, and turn to the Bible Dictionary, under "Anointed One".
We read:
"Jesus is spoken of as the Christ and the Messiah, which means he is the one anointed of the Father to be his personal representative in all things pertaining to the salvation of mankind. The English word Christ is from a Greek word meaning anointed, and is the equivalent of Messiah, which is from Hebrew and Aramaic term meaning anointed. See Ps. 2: 2; Isa. 61: 1-3; Luke 4: 16-32; Acts 4: 23-30; Acts 10: 38."
So it follows, if you are washed and anointed in the temple -- like Christ was -- you are a "christian".
As best as I can remember, Bednar said: "The title of Christian is reserved for those who go through the temple. Please do not share this with your Christian brothers and sisters. This is not meant to offend etc. etc. Please keep it in your heart"
What really got me was the way the room got quite and everyone hung on his every word. This was one of the big revelations. But, it really wasn't in my book.
Don't know much about this guy except that he showed up at Ricks College, threw the prophet's name around, and turned it into BYU-Idaho. I can't really judge that this was a good thing or not... but he did it.
And the next thing you know, ol' Bednar's an Apostle!
I gave a PH lesson on one of his talks. I hated it. I told the class that I didn't like it, and it felt like a whack on the head to me. I didn't tell them that they should feel that way, I just asked what they thought of it at the beginning of class, then said what I thought.
Most liked it a lot. BTW, I was told after class that I couldn't say what I really thought, we had "Sustained these men as prophets seers and revelators" and I was out of line" said by a member of the bishopric.
The point is, what felt like a whack on the head to me, worked well for almost all of the others.
I think he's like Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh. If you are way into that groups way of thinking, these hardline guys sound great. For the TBM's, Bednar is like Beck and Limbaugh. He's preaching a strong message to the choir, and they love it.
That was my experience at the time I was a believer. Not anymore. I don't find any value in their talks since I'm not a believer, but I do understand why ecclesiastical leaders are respected and looked up to in most religions of the world. Many members are very clear on how to weed out opinion also!
Mormons value a lot of superficial things and I think Bednar represents a lot of superficial things Mormons value. They can readily identify with him. He's got that missionary, born n bred n Utah, clean cut, blond, blue eyed stereotypical Mormon look. I swear he's the same guy in the pic of a church brochure that showed the "appropriate" hair cut to have for boys about to go on a mission.
He's also young, good looking, charismatic and has a lot of "leadership" qualities which Mormons love. When Mormons think of prophets and apostles they're familiar with the traditional boring, grumpy wrinkly old men, so when a new apostle comes along that actually good looking, charismatic, and young it's very exciting. They probably think because of his age he is a future profit.
Why do Mormons love Bednar so much [more than other GAs, when to us on the outside, he seems like the most pompous, self-important, officious little pr*** of the bunch] ?
THAT is the whole question. You're welcome. :) [edit - and exCultMember basically nailed the answer IMHO.]
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/2010 04:22PM by Brother Of Jerry.
I've not really gotten the impression that Bednar is popular tbh. I think the most popular ones are Thomas S. Monson, Deiter F. Uchtdorf and Jeffrey R. Holland, whilst Boyd K. Packer is the least popular.
David A. Bednar is bound to become prophet sometime in the future though. Providing he doesn't get some crazy illness, he's bound to outlive everybody else, and I think he's aware he's got the best statistical odds of becoming prophet of all the Apostles.
I'd like to see Boyd K. Packer as a prophet for a little while tbh. I'd also like Jeffrey R. Holland to become prophet too, but that's just because we were in the same ward.
I was at BYU-I for a couple semesters under his dominion, and I agree with Ex-Cult Member. Bednar looks the part. But this goes beyond apperance. He projects an aura of self-discipline, obendience, diligence, loyalty, and responsibility. Whether any of this is real/sincere, I don't know.
What I didn't think he projected as a University President was a love of thinking and ideas. He said as much in a fireside, when he explained that his role was to say what the prophet would rather than express his own opinions on church policy. That's when I also got the inkling that he played it really safe in his mind. I also began to see I was different.
Some of the students, who met him also thought he was over the top. But probably just enough for him to convey the necessary inadequacy of your own effort to "live the gospel."
He mentioned BYU-I in his talk to our stake. I'll paraphrase:
"Every time some student would come to complain about the rules and how it violated their free agency, I would ask them if they signed the honor code (or maybe he said the acceptance letter -- can't remember). If the student answered yes, I would say that their moral agency was 'expended' at that point and they had to follow the rules"
He compared this to our temple and baptismal covenants. Of course, what he didn't mention the fact the church keeps the contractual fine print hidden rather well (i.e., stone in the hat, teenager boinking, BOA, Kinderhook, etc. etc.).
He came to our area a few years ago. Everyone was abuzz about how awesome it was gonna be. Afterward in church everyone was talking about how great and spritual he was, but outside of church nobody seemed to care for him very much.
I didn't go, but those who did talked about how he really tried to fire people up, and you could see what looked like a hint of defeat cross their faces. One of these days, I think people are just gonna throw their hands in the air and say "Enough!" when will we get a break? Why do we never get praise and uplift instead of constant browbeating?
General Conference looks more and more like stern fathers pretending to love wayward children, and like department heads giving people the obligatory call to meet quota.
When my son was on his mission he mentioned something about how all the missionaries talked about Bednar. How the part in his hair is so straight, how his hair doesn't move, etc. The way he described him it reminded me of robot.
So I think maybe he is seen as the perfect Morgbot.
I attended Ricks College for a few semesters when he was president there. He always came across as a self-righteous insincere prick. His wife was a bitch too.