President Monson has passed away.

[falafel]

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Things becoming more clear. The guy is a nut.

[UVACoug]

I'm a little surprised at how strongly people are reacting to the NYT obituary.

It seems to me that the information in it is a little impersonal, exactly consistent with the way that TSM lived his life - behind the scenes, working hard, not drawing attention to himself. That kind of life doesn't really lend itself to public information that would appear in an obituary written by a secular newspaper. All we really have to go on - from a public point-of-view - is the stuff that happened while TSM was in charge of the LDS church - prop. 8, Ordain Women, etc. Pretty much what the writer included. President/Prophet Monson the human remains largely elusive. I believe this was quite deliberate on Monson's end.

IMO, people who are getting all irate over this NYT treatment of Monson are missing Monson's greatest lesson.

What Monson taught me is that it's not about what the world thinks, or how it interprets your actions. It's about trying to do the right thing, helping people who need help, regardless of the photo opportunities or press releases. Monson wasn't an in-the-spotlight kind of guy, he just tried to do the right thing, regardless of "the optics" or how it would play in the press.

If people wanted to honor Monson's memory, they would STFU, roll up their sleeves, and go and help someone quietly without bragging about it on twitter. Then, they would share a small, anecdotal story about it in a humble sort of way about 40 years later, and not give a rip if it shows up in their obituary some day.

Wow. I couldn't agree more with this. The angst over the NYT obituary was silly and the opposite of how President Monson would have, himself, reacted.

With that said, the NYT's piece did seem pretty ignorant ... as if everything they knew about Monson came from Kate Kelly and the Salt Lake Tribune headline writer. The excuse about not having access to his private ministry is obvious hogwash. I guess that shouldn't be surprising though. To the NYT, he was probably considered a pretty insignificant character.

[UVACoug]

I'll take that bet. Prop 8 and the exclusion policy both happened on his watch. These are very far from loving actions.

But apparently less hateful than reading the Family Proclamation from the pulpit at General Conference, right?