Pres. Hinckley Quote about Lowell Bennion: A StayLDS Motto

[Anonymous]

Today, I ran across the following statement about Lowell Bennion, at his funeral, from Pres. Hinckley. (quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune) I thought it was a wonderful tribute – but I also thought immediately of so many of our discussions here. It seems to me to be something that could be said about many of my friends here at this site:

Quote:

“His methods,” (Pres.Hinckley) said of Lowell, “sometimes were unorthodox, but his ends were 100% orthodox. Lifting people, encouraging people, helping people, and loving people.”

I hope when I die that someone can say that about me.

[Anonymous]

That’s great because it acknowledges there is more than one way of getting to our ultimate goal, and that our ultimate goal is in the end, rather simple. Brilliant!

[Anonymous]

I’ve read two of Bro. Bennion’s books and I’ve heard about a ranch that he ran. Can anyone give me an example of his “unorthodox” methods? He seems pretty traditional to me. (In one of his books he does thank the assistance of Eugene England as one of his former students. Could it be that his methods of attempting to square church teaching with scholarly learning produced students that came to unorthodox conclusions? Is this what is meant by Unorthodox? Or am I simply reading too much into it?)

[Anonymous]

Lowell Bennion founded the Utah Boys Ranch, now called West Ridge Academy, a private reformatory school for boys and now girls perceived as wayward by parents willing to shell out around $50 K per year or thereabouts to encarcerate their child in an attempt to scare them straight. It’s a tough-love hard-labor approach to make kids straight, with a number of lawsuits demonstrating unorthodox methods. Bennion founded it, but later sold it or left the academy to others to run. the boys ranch was the stimulus of the movie “Holes”, although with a lot of artistic license. Alumni of Bennion’s Boys Ranch call it the “Mormon Gulag“.

I think this is what “Unorthodox” meant in this context. personally, I would NOT like to be known for that type of unorthodoxy.

[Anonymous]

wayfarer wrote:

I think this is what “Unorthodox” meant in this context. personally, I would NOT like to be known for that type of unorthodoxy.

Thanks for the info. Wayfarer –

[Anonymous]

He was a believer in and preached and taught about grace as opposed to works and that and his feeling about the ban got him fired from the U of U institute. He went on to either found or chair the Social Work department at the U and set up the first food bank in SLC. What I’ve read on the early days at the boys ranch didn’t sound so bad. Mostly that he was trying to give kids the experience of working on a ranch to help teach some life skills and self discipline.

[Anonymous]

My own exposure to and research about Brother Bennion was very similar to GB’s. I don’t know much about the Boy’s Ranch, but I do know about so many other things he did.

Regardless, I still love the quote. 🙂

[Anonymous]

The following link will take you to the bibliography of Bro. Bennion:

https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/066-31-35.pdf

I think it is fair to say that he was prolific.

[Author]

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