New Intel: The Decline of Pres. Monson

[_Doctor Scratch]

I heard this morning from one of my informants--this is the person who supposedly has a rather deep connection to the Church hierarchy in Salt Lake City. Compared with the intel I receive concerning the Maxwell Institute, this is much harder to verify, so as always, take it with a shaker-full of salt.

In any case, I was told that Pres. Monson has entered a period of decline due to Alzheimer's Disease. Allegedly, he has begun to do "embarrassing" things in public venues, and he is now surrounded by Church-appointed handlers virtually 24-7. The interesting thing is that the Brethren have (again, allegedly) divided into competing factions. One of these is led by Elder Uchtdorf, who basically wants to take over in much the same way that Pres. Hinckley did after Pres. Benson became incapacitated.

The other faction is, of course, led by Elder Packer. Interestingly, according to my informant, Elder Packer wants to stage a kind of "coup" whereby the Brethren would vote to give Pres. Monson "emeritus" status, thus allowing Packer to ascend to the throne in spite of the fact that Monson is still alive. My informant added in the detail that Pres. Packer's patriarchal blessing said that he would one day hold the office of Church President, so he may view this as his chance to fulfill this "divine calling."

Again: I want to stress that, as of right now, this pretty much has the status of a "believable rumor." As with a lot of the intel I am given, its truthfulness (or falseness) will be borne out in the coming weeks and months. So treat this with skepticism.

[Guest]

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[_Garbo]

I heard this morning from one of my informants--this is the person who supposedly has a rather deep connection to the Church hierarchy in Salt Lake City. Compared with the intel I receive concerning the Maxwell Institute, this is much harder to verify, so as always, take it with a shaker-full of salt.

In any case, I was told that Pres. Monson has entered a period of decline due to Alzheimer's Disease. Allegedly, he has begun to do "embarrassing" things in public venues, and he is now surrounded by Church-appointed handlers virtually 24-7. The interesting thing is that the Brethren have (again, allegedly) divided into competing factions. One of these is led by Elder Uchtdorf, who basically wants to take over in much the same way that Pres. Hinckley did after Pres. Benson became incapacitated.

The other faction is, of course, led by Elder Packer. Interestingly, according to my informant, Elder Packer wants to stage a kind of "coup" whereby the Brethren would vote to give Pres. Monson "emeritus" status, thus allowing Packer to ascend to the throne in spite of the fact that Monson is still alive. My informant added in the detail that Pres. Packer's patriarchal blessing said that he would one day hold the office of Church President, so he may view this as his chance to fulfill this "divine calling."

Again: I want to stress that, as of right now, this pretty much has the status of a "believable rumor." As with a lot of the intel I am given, its truthfulness (or falseness) will be borne out in the coming weeks and months. So treat this with skepticism.

Wow, this is pretty weird. I don't know if you remember how in the last General Conference, Monson was nowhere to be seen on Sunday Morning when the Pres. of the Church traditionally gives the opening address. Then he suddenly appeared and went to the podium to give his talk. I forget exactly what he said when he got there, but it was really off the wall. Inappropriate almost. I have some experience dealing with Alzheimer's patients, and I turned to my mother (I was at parent's house for conference) and said "That almost seemed like something an early Alzheimer's patient would do."

I think this "intel" sounds really believable. It makes me wonder what they will do, because as you may know, it just gets worse and worse. Sometimes it can progress very quickly, and people with the disease can really become hard to handle at times.

[_Bob Loblaw]

An emeritus system makes sense to avoid such situations, but Packer is in terrible shape and doesn't look to have much time left on earth.

Don't know if your source is legit, but it wouldn't surprise me.

[_Stormy Waters]

I've also heard a couple of faithful TBMs speculate that he had Alzheimer's.

[_DarkHelmet]

The health rumor doesn't surprise me. He has seemed a little "weird" (for lack of a better word) during recent GCs. Was it the April general conference when he walked up to the podium, waved and said "Hi"? It got a lot of laughs. He did other goofy things like that, hamming it up for the crowd. I thought maybe he was trying to make his mark as the comedian prophet.

[_Garbo]

The health rumor doesn't surprise me. He has seemed a little "weird" (for lack of a better word) during recent GCs. Was it the April general conference when he walked up to the podium, waved and said "Hi"? It got a lot of laughs. He did other goofy things like that, hamming it up for the crowd. I thought maybe he was trying to make his mark as the comedian prophet.

Exactly. I've also thought he has done lots of off the wall things, almost like he had forgotten where he was and what he was doing, and trying to be funny was his way of dealing with the fact that he was confused.

[_Sophocles]

An emeritus system makes sense to avoid such situations, but Packer is in terrible shape and doesn't look to have much time left on earth.

Don't know if your source is legit, but it wouldn't surprise me.

I wouldn't be surprised if this had been considered every time a church president begins to decline mentally or physically.

Probably the only thing stopping them from instituting a system that makes a lot more sense than what they've always done is that they can't agree on who authority should transition to.

[_Kishkumen]

Well, if Packer does become president really soon, that may be good news for the Obama campaign. Bad news for the LDS Church, but potentially great news for Obama, especially if Packer were to stage a deeply reactionary General Conference in October.

[_Joe Geisner]

In any case, I was told that Pres. Monson has entered a period of decline due to Alzheimer's Disease. Allegedly, he has begun to do "embarrassing" things in public venues, and he is now surrounded by Church-appointed handlers virtually 24-7. The interesting thing is that the Brethren have (again, allegedly) divided into competing factions. One of these is led by Elder Uchtdorf, who basically wants to take over in much the same way that Pres. Hinckley did after Pres. Benson became incapacitated.

I can say that I have had various people who either were in attendance, have friends in leadership, or Church security; who have said that President Monson has dementia. This has been as early as the Provo Tabernacle meeting a year or two ago and the Hawaii trip. The fact that his dementia is progressing is not unusual and should be expected. Embarrassing events occurred on both occasions.

The Church actually faced such a situation with Pres. Benson. I know one of his treating physicians who told me after his death that when he treated him in 1990 or so, he had no idea where he was or who the people were that surrounded him. Mike Quinn has said that when Romney had the possibility of becoming Prez., the leaders were panicking. This would have been the first time they had a full blown dementia patient taking office. There was supposed to have been serious discussion about jumping over him and putting Hunter in as Prez. Which ultimately happen. Obviously God is watching over his Church.