Monday, January 8, 2018

Monson in passing

I admit I have mixed feelings about the passing away of President Monson.  He honestly wasn't someone I felt much connection to.  I respected and loved him out of a sense of duty when I believed in Mormonism, but his leadership wasn't a great fit for me.  His behind the scenes style of leadership left me without much to strongly react to.  I often got lost in his story telling sermons, feeling as if the sequence of stories didn't always have a clear theme or thesis that they were supporting.  All the stories of helping widows were nice but I've felt awkward about how much he talked about it.  Seems it would be better to let someone else sing your praises.  He was in charge at a time when changes of direction were made that severely undermined my faith and that caused intense suffering to many.  I also recognize that he is intensely loved by many people.  I honestly can't summon up feelings of righteous indignation against misdeeds performed during his administration or feelings of tragic loss at the passing of someone viewed as an righteous individual by many.  It feels like learning that someone's grandfather just died but not only is it their grandfather he is the grandfather of practically everyone you've known for your whole life even if he made you feel unwelcome when you hung around.  It is a big deal in the community but personally I don't know how to feel about it.

I'm just glad my coworkers didn't try to talk to me about it.  I don't go around advertising that I am an ex Mormon so generally speaking my coworkers don't know that I am one.  I didn't want to deal with people trying to explain to me why President Monson was special to their faith when I already understand that in painstaking detail.  And I didn't want anyone to expect me to show any particular outpouring of interest or sympathy.  I mean, if one of my religious leaders passed away I doubt any Mormons would care and they would think it odd if I tried to insist that they care about it the same way that I do.

In some ways I feel kind of puzzled by the outrage over the New York Times article.  LDS people may feel that criticism of their leaders is inherently spiritually wrong and this leads to a culture where LDS leaders are only ever written about or spoken about in a hagiographic style where only their positive traits are spoken of while holding them up as moral examples.  At a time of death and sadness it should be no surprise that Mormons might feel this impulse especially strongly and feel a kind of culture shock and a sense of sacrilege when it isn't followed.  So in a sense I sympathize with their feelings.  It is downright jarring to read about your own culture and leaders from a different cultural perspective.

That being said, the New York Times is not the Deseret News.  It isn't owned by the LDS church nor does it share the political and spiritual priorities of the LDS church.  The New York Times is not writing for a predominantly Mormon audience and is under no obligation to follow Mormon cultural norms.  They are a liberal newspaper discussing the public affairs of the country from a liberal perspective.  So it should be unsurprising for them to view President Monson, a conservative leader of a conservative church who led his church into newsworthy political clashes against liberal causes, with a goal of interpreting how his public personality interacted with social issues important to liberal non Mormon readers.  Which is exactly what the New York Times article did.

While it is natural for Mormon's to want the world to honor their beloved dead the same way they do, that isn't the way the world or newspapers work.  It would be as odd as Hillary Clinton dying and expecting the Deseret News to publish a glowing obituary talking about her being a devout Methodist who believed in the power of forgiveness, valued marriage, provided a public example of sticking together through hard times even when things go wrong, and spent her life trying to follow the example of Jesus by making sure that people could be healed from their diseases just like Jesus healing the sick.  If Mormon's want to read another story of all the widows President Monson visited they know where to find them, but they shouldn't expect the New York Times to write it for them. 

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