SUNSTONE UPDATE GENERAL CONFERENCE MARKS created and more than four thousand new wards and CHURCH PROGRESS, CHALLENGES branches,” said President Hinckley. “Three million new mem- bers have been added.” During a rare press conference, held on 11 March to offi- cially mark the administration’s tenth anniversary, President Hinckley said that the Church’s two major challenges are growth and the training of leadership to manage that growth. In response to a question about misconceptions about the Church, he replied, “The biggest . is that they say that we’re not Christians. I don’t know how in the world they arrive at that.” PHOTO. LDS.ORG General Conference saw the appointment of a new General The current LDS First Presidency has been together for ten years. Primary Presidency and twelve new Seventies, including President Hinckley’s 63-year-old son, Richard G. Hinckley. “I THE APRIL 2005 GENERAL CONFERENCE MARKED THE feel extremely sensitive about the matter,” said President tenth anniversary of the administration of President Gordon B. Hinckley during the priesthood session. “As the lawyers say, I Hinckley and his two counselors, Thomas S. Monson and recused myself from participating [in the decision to appoint James E. Faust, as the First Presidency of the Church. During him]. However, I believe he is worthy and qualified in every re- conference, members of the First Presidency and the Quorum spect. In the first place, he had a great and wonderful mother.” of the Twelve reported on the Church’s progress during these He then quipped, “I wish I could recommend his father.” ten years, announced appointments of new general authorities With no other mention than and officers, pleaded for more full-time missionaries, and a one-sentence announcement warned against the evils of gambling and pornography. during the sustaining of church President Hinckley also praised Pope John Paul II, who died officers at conference, the between the Saturday conference sessions (see story on facing Church once more has an offi- page). cial historian. On 2 April, Elder During the priesthood session, President Hinckley spoke at Marlin K. Jensen was sustained length about gambling, lamenting the prevalence of state lot- as Church Historian/Recorder, teries, Internet gambling, and the popularity of poker among inheriting an office rich in tradi- college and high school students. “[Gambling] becomes addi- tion but in flux for the past sev- tive,” he said. “In so many cases it leads to other destructive eral decades. Following the PHOTO. LDS.ORG habits and practices.” According to a Deseret Morning News re- 1977 release (never officially an- Elder Marlin K. Jensen porter, the prophet added that gambling is as addictive “as il- nounced) of Leonard J. Arring- legal drugs”—a comparison not present in the version of his ton, the first professionally trained historian ever to serve in talk posted on the Church’s official website, <www.lds.org>. that capacity, the office of Church Historian has been filled Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Twelve focused on the recurrent only irregularly, and since Arrington, only by general authori- theme of pornography, which he called “addictive. It im- ties. Elder Jensen has been a member of the First Quorum of pairs decision-making capacities, and it ‘hooks’ its users, Seventy since 1989, serving in the presidency of the Seventy drawing them back obsessively for more and more,” he said. since 1998. Oaks read from a letter he’d recently received from a man who claimed that trying to quit pornography was for him even JEWS ASK AGAIN THAT LDS STOP harder than his earlier battle to quit using cocaine. HOLOCAUST BAPTISMS Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Twelve focused on preparing youth for missionary service and pleaded for more full-time LDS AND JEWISH LEADERS MET missionaries. “We are asking [bishops] . to find at least one in Salt Lake City 11 April to recon- more young man, above those already committed, who can be firm a ten-year-old agreement in called to serve,” he said. According to Elder Ballard, if all the which LDS leaders committed to wards and branches of the Church send one more missionary no longer baptize Holocaust vic- than planned, the Church will “move closer to our divine man- DESERET MORNING NEWS tims. Last year Ernest Michel, chair date to take the gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and of the American Gathering of people.” RAVELL CALL, Holocaust Victims, found evidence President Hinckley offered an assessment of the Church’s Elder D. Todd Christofferson that the original agreement had progress since his appointment to its highest post. “In these (left) greets Jewish activist been violated and threatened to past ten years, more than five hundred new stakes have been Ernest W. Michel sue. PAGE 72 MAY 2005 SUNSTONE LDS LEADERS PRAISE POPE, STRESS COMMON BOND WITH CATHOLICS THE VERDICT IS UNANIMOUS: THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ANTI-CATHOLIC SENTIMENTS held historically by Latter- Church is no longer evil. In the wake of the death of Pope day Saints may go back to the very origins of Mormonism. John Paul II, LDS leaders praised the deceased pope, congrat- Book of Mormon passages about the “great and abominable ulated the new pontiff, and showed how far Mormons have church” have been interpreted as references to Catholicism. come since 1958, when Elder Bruce R. McConkie called the Even though scholars such as B. H. Roberts expressed more church of Rome the church of the devil. benign views toward Catholics, many LDS still remember the Upon learning of the 1958 edition of Mormon Doctrine by Elder Bruce R. passing of the pontiff be- McConkie, which identified the Roman church as the church tween Saturday sessions of of the devil. That statement was removed in subsequent edi- the April General Confer- tions. ence, President Gordon B. According to a recent biography, throughout the 1950s Hinckley issued a state- LDS President David O. McKay privately believed that the ment calling John Paul II Catholic Church and Communism were the two great anti- “an extraordinary man of Christs of the world, but he abandoned this hostility toward faith, vision, and intellect, Catholicism as he stopped perceiving the Roman church as a whose courageous actions threat to Mormonism and as he later developed a friendship have touched the world in with Catholic bishop Duane Hunt (see Greg Prince and Wm. ways that will be felt for Robert Wright, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern generations to come. The Mormonism [Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2005], Pope John Paul II pope’s voice remained firm 112–23). in defense of freedom, fam- Over the past two decades, LDS leaders have worked with ily, and Christianity. On matters of principle and morality, he Catholics on a number of humanitarian and political initia- was uncompromising. In his compassion for the world’s tives, including lobbying against same-sex marriage. In the poor, he has been unwavering.” early 1990s, the Church helped fund the renovation of the On 8 April, all three members of the First Presidency at- Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, and President tended a funeral mass for John Paul II at Salt Lake’s Cathedral Thomas S. Monson called the edifice “a source of inspiration of the Madeleine. A small LDS delegation, including Area in our lives.” Seventy Luigi S. Peloni, attended the pope’s funeral in Rome. While LDS literature has in the past praised the leaders of On 7–8 April, LDS-owned KBYU aired special programming the Protestant Reformation as important forerunners to the in honor of John Paul II, including conversations about his Restoration, positive acknowledgment of Catholicism’s role legacy and live coverage of his funeral. All day long on 8 has been sparse. BYU-Idaho professor Gerald Hansen Jr. has April, KBYU-FM played “Music in Memoriam.” recently proposed that the Saints do more to celebrate the Following the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the role the Catholic Church played in preserving the Bible and new pontiff, the First Presidency issued a statement congrat- spreading Christianity in the world, essential endeavors in ulating Pope Benedict XVI on his election. “We wish for him paving the way for the Restoration. “We give credit to the and his many followers continuing progress in furthering the Protestants and the reformers,” said Hansen at the 2004 cause of peace among the nations, and the alleviation of Sydney B. Sperry Symposium, “but I think it’s time we recog- poverty and distress throughout the world.” The statement nize that you don’t just go from the Roman empire [directly] was published in the Church News. to Martin Luther and Joseph Smith.” “We came to convince the Church that there has to be a tention of LDS leaders in 1995, when Michel discovered that the change in their attitude about the posthumous baptism of LDS Church had baptized his parents. As a result of the original Jews,” said Michel. “We cannot say we have eliminated all the agreement, the Church removed the names of some 400,000 problems . but in the sprit of this meeting, I am convinced Holocaust victims from its public databases. In 2002, the LDS they will be worked out.” Church reaffirmed its commitment to removing names—a “We don’t have the liberty to cease [baptisms for the dead], process that can be laborious and is prone to mistakes. because the Lord has not told us to cease,” said David Rencher, Over the years, the LDS Church has been criticized for bap- director of records and information in the Family and Church tizing Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun, Buddha, a mysterious “Mrs.