mentalgymnast wrote:There's something about this particular BKP quote and others similar to it that just doesn't sit right with some of those that see themselves as intellectual giants, placing intellect above faith when push comes to shove.
SWK was a sweet little old man. Not a grizzly bear type. Kind of hard to pick on him...unless you get down to particulars like his book, "Miracle of Forgiveness".
I think this (what Packer said) appeals to certain mindsets, MG. SWK's brother-in-law, for example, Henry Eyring Snr., would most likely, I think, not have agreed with Packer about "intellectuals". I think you underestimate the intellectual acumen of Spencer W. Kimball, and far from being a "sweet little old man", reserved judgements about matters that Packer dished out liberally, which, in my opinion, was a wiser course (SWK's) to take. And I might add, as an aside, that SWK is the Mormon president I admire the most. It's probably no coincidence I joined the Church when he was president. He is also responsible for, perhaps, the most "revolutionary" change in Mormonism since it's inception in 1830, the removal of the "curse of Cain". "Sweet little old men" don't usually take such radical and revolutionary moves to virtually turn belief history on its head.
Packer appeals to a raw and fundamentalist element which encourages intimidation and judgementalism on scales I find disturbing.
As for
The Miracle of Forgiveness, that is where SWK shows his, in some aspects, "religious zeal". In spite of this, he remains, for me anyway, the most important and influential Mormon leader of the 20th century. Imagine overturning almost two centuries of embedded religious tradition. Now
that is what I call "prophetic".