The Yellowstone Syndrome: A System Of Geezers

Friday, November 3, 2006

Gordon B. Hinckley today became the oldest man ever to be President of the LDS Church. He is 96 years and 132 days old. At the time of his death, Joseph Smith, Jr. was only 38 years old. Brigham Young was a spry 43 when he assumed the job of top dog a few weeks later. John Taylor, Young's successor was 72, the first of the geezer parade.

You see, when Brigham became church president he set into motion what I call "The Yellowstone Syndrome: A System Of Geezers". His assention established the practice of making the senior Apostle the next church president. It also made it so that the LDS Church will never again be led by a young, vibrant man. They will now, instead, be forever helmed by old men.

Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were different kinds of men entirely from Gordon B. Hinckley. Much if this is because of their relative youth. Those men had an appeal and charisma an older man can never have. They also governed the church in a way a much older man can't.

Joseph Smith surrounded himself with rugged frontiersmen. His counselors, apostles and friends were all his peers. I wonder if he ever imagined a room full of stuffy old farts in wheelchairs directing his wild west, rootin' shootin', big-tent revival church. I think he much more thought of himself as the Warren Jeffs, David Koresh type.

I am also certain that Smith and Young would not recognize today's Mormonism as the one they practiced.

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