The popular Uchtdorf, sometimes dubbed "Mormonism's Pope Francis," was actually a refugee twice in his life — once while leaving Czechoslovakia and again while moving from then-East Germany to West Germany.
I've never heard Uchtdorf referred to as Mormonism's Pope Francis. Nor do I see any parallel.
“When we are confronted with evidence that challenges our deeply held beliefs we are more likely to reframe the evidence than we are to alter our beliefs. We simply invent new reasons, new justifications, new explanations. Sometimes we ignore the evidence altogether.” (Mathew Syed 'Black Box Thinking')
I agree with Philo. Francis has been a breath of fresh air in modelling a new approach to people who have traditionally been excluded by the church. I don't know much about Elder Uchtdorf, but I'm not aware that he has, for example, given his blessing to a transsexual couple or symbolically washed the feet of Muslim refugees. Or indeed taken a strong line against climate change and economic injustice.
The thing is, though, one day the LDS Church will have its own Pope Francis. And then a lot of conservative LDS apologists will be caught off-guard, having spent their careers defending an authoritarian model of religion and suddenly being required to explain away what their leader is doing. Some of our conservative RC friends are caught in precisely that dilemma right now.
Johannes wrote:I agree with Philo. Francis has been a breath of fresh air in modelling a new approach to people who have traditionally been excluded by the church. I don't know much about Elder Uchtdorf, but I'm not aware that he has, for example, given his blessing to a transsexual couple or symbolically washed the feet of Muslim refugees. Or indeed taken a strong line against climate change and economic injustice.
The thing is, though, one day the LDS Church will have its own Pope Francis. And then a lot of conservative LDS apologists will be caught off-guard, having spent their careers defending an authoritarian model of religion and suddenly being required to explain away what their leader is doing. Some of our conservative RC friends are caught in precisely that dilemma right now.
The problem for Mormonism is the process is way more predictable than the Catholics. Their replacement system means a new pope can come from a range of people.
For Mormonism, we already know who the next few leaders will probably be (depending on life expectancy) and it's not looking likely that a Francis is on the horizon any time soon.
Unless of course Bednar is going to perform the most amazing "bait and switch" ever and turn out to be a liberal moderniser.
Johannes wrote:I agree with Philo. Francis has been a breath of fresh air in modelling a new approach to people who have traditionally been excluded by the church. I don't know much about Elder Uchtdorf, but I'm not aware that he has, for example, given his blessing to a transsexual couple or symbolically washed the feet of Muslim refugees. Or indeed taken a strong line against climate change and economic injustice.
The thing is, though, one day the LDS Church will have its own Pope Francis. And then a lot of conservative LDS apologists will be caught off-guard, having spent their careers defending an authoritarian model of religion and suddenly being required to explain away what their leader is doing. Some of our conservative RC friends are caught in precisely that dilemma right now.
The problem for Mormonism is the process is way more predictable than the Catholics. Their replacement system means a new pope can come from a range of people.
For Mormonism, we already know who the next few leaders will probably be (depending on life expectancy) and it's not looking likely that a Francis is on the horizon any time soon.
Unless of course Bednar is going to perform the most amazing "bait and switch" ever and turn out to be a liberal moderniser.
mackay11, you make a good point about the differences in how the RC selects a new pope and how the LDS seniority system works. The LDS system works much more towards avoiding a reformer making it to the top.