Is the Church a "Cult of Personality"?

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February 28, 2022 at 9:29 pm #213128

Anonymous
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I saw a documentary on TV titled: A Cult of Personality. There were multiple episodes that dealt with:

– Jehovah’s Witnesses.

– Moonies.

– Charles Manson.

– Warren Jeffs.

– etc.

It made me think and consider, can the LDS church be included or defined as a cult of personality?

I’m sure it is a matter of degree between various members in my ward & stake. For example:

I have friends who take pride in the fact that they have gotten autographs of various General Authorities

over the years. There are articles & books about Joseph Smith & other church leaders that sounds like we

almost worship them as well.

The temple recommend questions include the following: Do you have a testimony of the restoration of the

gospel in these the latter days? Underneath is the question, do you believe fully in Joseph Smith & his role

in the restoration?

There is a web site I look at from time to time that is very traditional. It is titled:

LDS Living. They will carry biographies & stories about GA’s & they introduce various articles by saying:

“Why you will love him even more”. I like and feel closer to certain GA’s but, I can honestly say that I’ve never

“loved” them.

I hope it is not an exaggeration on my part. I was curious what other people felt.

February 28, 2022 at 10:40 pm #342155

Anonymous
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I think the early church under Joseph Smith and Brigham Young was very much a cult of personality. The modern church still has elements of that, but nowhere near as extreme.

I think in the modern church GAs are treated just like other celebrities. Everyone knows who they are, it’s a big deal when they visit, and the church media is full of stories about random events in their lives.

But I think there are varying attitudes among individual members. Many are indifferent and don’t care about attending general conference or special firesides just because some apostle is there. Others, to borrow a term from the Kpop world, are “stans” and eat up every bit of news about their favorite apostle, travel to SLC to see them in person at conference, long for the day when they can shake their hand, hang a picture of them in their bedroom, etc

March 1, 2022 at 2:31 pm #342156

Anonymous
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The most blatant leader worship is from the leaders themselves. Constantly saying how great each other are. Quoting each other. Backslapping at its finest. It is a system built on the notion that we are all equal but some are more equal.

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March 2, 2022 at 1:59 pm #342157

Anonymous
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Disclaimer: It’s always hard for me to tell which changes more, what I interpret or how I interpret things.

I’ve seen many people on the bloggernacle comment about how references to the sitting president of the church (PotC) have increased during Russell Nelson’s tenure. Usually there are increased references to the sitting PotC during a changing of the guard period. Like the general conference right after a new person becomes PotC there’s lots of testifying and quoting of the new guy in charge but after a while that dies off and it’s back to base levels of references to the PotC (which is still pretty high).

The claim I see many make, and a claim I agree with, is that even after four years the heightened period of references to the new PotC haven’t died down. There’s still lots and lots of focus on the PotC, more so than in the past.

An example: On Feb. 27, 2022 there was a special devotional for California. I don’t think the devotional is officially online, meaning the church hasn’t put it out there, but the devotional is out there for those interested. I was surprised by the level of focus on the PotC. It was all about the PotC, so much so that it was distracting. Like, “Whose church is this?” levels of distracting.

I ask why this might be.

As far as the devotional is concerned, I guess Nelson was the man of the hour. Maybe it was all talking up the keynote speaker. The church could also be reacting to recent pushback that they’ve experienced from members upset about suggestions to wear masks and get vaccinated. Maybe they fear the PotC is losing influence, so that becomes the focus. That really doesn’t explain the focus on the office of PotC before that suggestion was issued. Maybe it’s a reaction to fears over losing members and they feel that reminding people of the authority of a prophet is the best safety net.

All speculation but I can’t imagine Nelson is going around to everyone saying, “Talk me up. Wait, wait. I’m worried what you just heard was, ‘Talk me up a lot.’ What I said was, ‘Talk me up as much as you possibly can.’ Do you understand?” (Ron Swanson reference).

March 2, 2022 at 2:29 pm #342158
Anonymous
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In the previous post I was careful to refer to president of the church and not Russell Nelson specifically. That was intentional.

With a few exceptions, maybe the church is less of a cult of an individual personality and more of a cult of mantle. Once a new person becomes PotC, the old PotC is largely forgotten, the idea of a prophet is the personality more than any one individual person is the personality.

There are exceptions:

Joseph Smith – the more obvious choice. He was the prophet of the restoration and even modern day revelations are filtered through his revelations.

He’s a controversial subject. This is blunt, but too many members are willing to lower their expectations of god so they can justify Smith’s imperfections. This usually takes the form of members believing whatever it was that Smith did wasn’t wrong because god wanted him to do it. We’re often too unwilling to say, “No, god is better than this. It was Smith that was in the wrong.”

Brigham Young – the hero of the exodus that kept the church together after Smith’s death.
Spencer W. Kimball – lots of members still hold a place in their hearts for him.
Ezra Taft Benson – simply because so many members still take their political cues from him.
Gordon B. Hinckley – a charismatic guy that was good at public relations. He was your nice grandpa.
Russell M. Nelson – Some claim Nelson is actively trying to build a legacy for his name. Citing the rapid-fire changes and milestones (number of temples), changing church branding, releasing a new proclamation (remember that?), etc.
I’m not sure that plan will work out though. With a lot of thought I might be able to tell you who was PotC when some specific policy change was made (like moving to block meetings in 1980) but I mostly don’t care to put in that effort and that policy change will just be supplanted by future policy changes (like moving to the two hour block).

In that list of exceptions, I see only Smith truly emerging as a true cult of personality. The last four, SWK, ETB, GBH, and RMN will probably be forgotten once the people that remember them have died.