Mormon church president prepares for 95th birthday

Not living to the age of 95, and certainly not becoming president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"Oh, no. Never in my wildest dreams, of course, as a young man did I ever think ... no," Hinckley said during a rare conversation with reporters at church offices in Salt Lake City on Monday.

"At one time I had the ambition to do what you're doing. What a wonderful thing it was that I escaped that," he joked.

Hinckley instead went to work in church public relations and rose through the ranks to become the 15th president of the 175-year-old church in 1995.

On Thursday, he'll mark his 95th birthday, saying he only plans to indulge in a small sliver of celebratory cake.

"I don't eat too many sweets," he said, revealing for the first time that he suffers from diabetes. He didn't elaborate on his condition.

Hinckley seems much younger than his years, and doesn't suffer any ailments incident to his age. He walks with a cane, but jokes that he's taken to using it as a means of keeping up with the styles of four earlier church presidents, including Brigham Young, who carried canes during their presidencies.

After 10 years at the head of the 12 million-member LDS church, Hinckley shows no sign of slowing down.

"When you get to this age, people look at you as if you were an artifact in a museum," Hinckley said. "The secret when you get to this age is to keep busy. Work, work, work is the best antidote for loneliness, incapacity, for any other thing that happens to impede your progress."

As if living up to his motto, next month Hinckley will preside over a public birthday celebration at the church conference center with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Donny Osmond, Gladys Knight and CBS newsman Mike Wallace, followed by a 13-day travel blitz of Mormon enclaves around the world.

The trip begins in Anchorage, Alaska, and continues with stop in Vladivostok, Russia; Seoul, Korea; Taipei, Taiwan; Nairobi, Kenya; Aba, Nigeria; Rome; and Paris.

With Hinckley at the helm the LDS church has added 3 million members, sent 60,000 missionaries around the world, and published 51 million copies of its central text, The Book of Mormon in 175 different languages. The church has also given some $641 million in humanitarian aid to causes around the world; built 72 temples in 21 countries; and restored or reconstructed numerous historical church sites including Palmyra, N.Y.; Kirtland, Ohio; and Nauvoo, Ill.

"It's been a wonderful era in the history of the church and hopefully that will continue into the future," Hinckley said.

He says he has no shortage of ideas and projects in mind, including building more temples around the world, although he won't say where.

He says his greatest concern is "moving the church forward" and that the challenge of the modern world is "reconciling our faith with the growing secularism in the world."

"I just think that come what may, we'll continue to do good work and we'll grow," he said. "If you dwell on the negative, it will hurt you. It will depress you, it really will destroy you."

A strong future for the church is assured by its organization, which will ensure its next president -- presumably, Hinckley's current first counselor Thomas Monson -- will know and understand the goals his administration has worked to achieve, Hinckley said

"...most of these funds went to the enemies of Christianity"

What a total display of ignorance! This information is readily available online:

The following information comes from a speech by:

By President Thomas S. Monson
First Counselor in the First Presidency

Adapted from an address given in Salt Lake City to Rotary International on 20 November 1997

The full text can be read online at:

http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/1998.htm/ensign%20june%201998.htm/our%20brothers%20keepers.htm?fn=document-frameset.htm$f=templates$3.0

snip

May I say a word or two concerning humanitarian aid as compared to conventional welfare aid. The term humanitarian aid is a relatively new designation for help extended beyond the basic welfare program. An example of humanitarian aid can be seen in the Church’s response in 1985 to the needs of famine-stricken Ethiopia. As the suffering there became apparent, our members in the United States and Canada were invited to participate in two special fast days. The contributions went to this cause. The proceeds received from these two fast days exceeded $11 million dollars and provided much-needed aid to the people in Ethiopia, Chad, and other sub-Saharan nations. Not one cent was deducted for overhead, for that was also an offering. The funds were not invested to obtain interest. Rather, they were given freely to meet the need.

We have collaborated in these projects with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (American and International), Catholic Relief Services, CARE, and so on. Hunger knows no ecclesiastical boundary. We can provide hope; we can preserve life. Rotary is part of that great pledge.

Examples of the Church working in partnership with other community, state, and private organizations to assist the needy include the following:

• Providing food from the Church welfare system and furnishings from the former Hotel Utah to local agencies as diverse as the Salvation Army, Jewish Family Services, Travelers Aid, and the Indian Alcoholism Recovery Center.

• Providing $75,000 and volunteers to help with Columbia University’s Family-to-Family “home evening” program in Harlem, New York City. Although in its initial stages, this program reportedly has already produced more positive results than many of the social and economic programs Columbia University previously initiated.

• Providing the Cambodian Royal University of Agriculture with the equipment and trained experts needed to establish a food canning and processing program.

• Helping the National Council of Negro Women in Zimbabwe support projects to assist people in need of food, clothing, and medical supplies.

We are often asked about the extent and nature of Church humanitarian assistance. While we feel that such work should not be trumpeted, the following provides a sense of what is being done. From 1985 to the present, humanitarian efforts have resulted in:

• Number of projects
2,340

• Countries served
137

• Total value of assistance
$162.5 million

• Food distributed
9,800 tons

• Surplus clothing distributed
20,798 tons

• Medical equipment distributed
894 tons

• Educational material distributed
794 tons

• Major disaster assistance efforts
76

Examples

• Mexico fire
1990

• Bangladesh cyclone and flooding
1991

• China earthquake
1991

• Philippines Mount Pinatubo volcano
1991

• Bosnia civil conflict
1992

• Africa drought
1992

• Croatia civil conflict
1992

• Hurricane Andrew
1992

• Midwest U.S. flooding
1993

• Northridge, California, earthquake
1994

• Rwanda relief
1994

• Bosnia-Croatia-Serbia relief
1994–96

• Japan earthquake
1995

• North Korea crop failure
1996–97

In 1996 alone, suffering populations in various nations around the world received through Church humanitarian aid the following:

• Sufficient clothing to outfit an estimated 8.7 million people in 58 countries.

• Over 1 million pounds of medical and educational equipment and supplies to 70 countries.

• English instruction to more than 3,000 people.

As famine has deepened in North Korea, where we have no members of our faith, they have had a great need for help to eliminate starvation among children and others. We have been able to provide:

• 2,150 tons of corn, powdered milk, flour, and medical supplies.

• 400 tons of fertilizer, pesticides, and seeds.

• Over 500 seedling apple trees.

• Total assistance to date amounting to $3.1 million dollars.

There are ships on the ocean waves right now taking more food to the starving in North Korea. I am happy we could help.

snip

A final comment: this speech was given in 1997. The Church has vastly expanded and increased the humanitarian aid work throughout the world. Like the original article mentioned at the beginning of the thread, we've donated over a half-billion in aid in the last ten years.

Where does all that money come from? The members of the church pay tithing and we don't pay our ministers. It's a volunteer operation through and through. It's an amazing thing to be a part of.

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