By Jerald and Sandra Tanner
In April, 1995, Gordon B. Hinckley was sustained as the 15th prophet of the Mormon Church. President Hinckley was eighty-four years old at the time he became the “living Prophet” of the church. While he appears to be in good health and of sound mind, it seems unlikely that he will be effective in his position for very many years.
In our book, The Changing World of Mormonism, published by Moody Press in 1980, we pointed out that the church has an extremely serious problem. While church leaders maintain that it is absolutely necessary to have a “living Prophet” to guide the Saints and receive revelation for the church, it is obvious that some of these prophets were so old that they became only figureheads before their deaths:
During the past few years Mormon leaders have been faced with some serious problems. Their response to these problems plainly shows that they are not led by revelation. Several of these problems appear to be complicated by the fact that some of the Mormon leaders are very old. David O. McKay, the ninth president of the church, lived to be ninety-six years old. But he was in very poor health toward the end of his life and was hardly in any condition to function as prophet, seer and revelator for the church. Instead of appointing a younger man after McKay’s death, church leaders chose Joseph Fielding Smith who was ninety-three years old. Smith lived to be ninety-five, and the leadership passed to Harold B. Lee who was seventy-three years old. Lee lived for less than two years and Spencer W. Kimball became president. . . . The way the Mormon hierarchy is structured there seems to be little hope of a younger leader, and apparently less hope for any new revelation. The claim of being led by a “living Prophet” has for a long time appeared to be just an idle boast. (The Changing World of Mormonism, page 439)
As we had suggested, the seriousness of the situation became more and more apparent as time went on. The problem is that the Mormon leaders have set up a tradition which has become almost like the “law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not” (Daniel 6:8). Church leaders believe that the man who has seniority in the Council of the Twelve Apostles is the one who should become the “living Prophet” of the church. This often means that those who take on the mantle of the prophet do so at a time in their lives when they are least competent to adequately perform their duties. They are often impaired both physically and mentally when they reach the highest office in the church.
Spencer W. Kimball, the 12th president of the church, whom we mentioned above, was in bad shape toward the end of his life. Nevertheless, he continued as a figurehead president until he died at the age of ninety. Ezra Taft Benson became the 13th president of the church in 1985. As Benson became older it became obvious that he was not really leading the church. On July 10, Vern Anderson of the Associated Press reported that President Benson’s grandson, Steve Benson, was deeply concerned regarding his grandfather’s growing problem of senility:
As Mormon Church President Ezra Taft Benson approaches his 94th birthday, the years have stilled his voice, clouded his mind and raised questions about the faith’s rigid order of succession.
Attired in a sweatsuit and fed by others, Benson spends his days in supervised seclusion in an apartment . . . He is an infirm retiree in a church that doesn’t officially retire its “prophet, seer and revelator.”
The incongruity struck a 13-year-old Benson great-grandson the other day as he poured his breakfast cereal: “Dad, why do they call him prophet when he can’t do anything?”. . .
His son’s question is one reason [Steve] Benson decided to speak openly for the first time about his grandfather’s decline. . . .
A more compelling motivator, however, is what he believes are misleading efforts by the church’s hierarchy to preserve an image of a more vibrant Ezra Taft Benson, an image less problematic for the core Mormon belief in a literal prophet of God.
“I believe the church strives mightily to perpetuate the myth, the fable, the fantasy that President Benson, if not operating on all cylinders, at least is functioning effectively enough, even with just a nod of the head, to be regarded by the saints as a living, functioning prophet,” he said.
That is not the grandfather Benson saw . . . in March . . . whom he has seen struggle with encroaching senility during much of his 7-year administration.
“The last time I saw him he said virtually nothing to me,” said Benson . . . “He looked at me almost quizzically, as if he were examining me.”. . .
Benson, who has not spoken in public for more than three years, was already suffering memory loss when he assumed the presidency in 1985 at age 86. His grandson said facing church audiences became a frightening experience for a man who once had relished the pulpit. . . . Steve Benson, 39, said it has been some time since his grandfather has been capable of participating in any way in the administration of the church’s affairs, although that is “an image that people deeply, almost desperately want to believe.
“And I’m not demeaning or ridiculing that desire to believe. I’m just saying that what the church is presenting to the members to believe is not factual,” he said. (Salt Lake Tribune, July 10, 1993)
In the same interview, Steve Benson observed: “I don’t think God would expect us to be bound legalistically or structurally to a system that obviously isn’t working. . . .” Steve Benson’s words seem to be almost prophetic. On May 30, 1994, his grandfather died. Instead of changing this unusual system, church leaders choose Howard W. Hunter, who was 86 years old and in poor health, to be the 14th prophet. Hunter was so weak at the time that he became the “living Prophet” that he had a difficult time speaking, and within nine months he was dead.
Historian D. Michael Quinn pointed out that the Mormon Church faced a succession crisis after Joseph Smith’s death because Smith had not made it clear how his successor should be appointed. Church officials went so far as to falsify some documents to slant opinion to their point of view. Dr. Quinn commented:
A scholarly advocate of Brigham Young acknowledges that only “approximately half of those who were members of the Church at the death of Joseph Smith did follow the Twelve through all the difficulties of the succession-exodus period [of 1844-52].” A church which loses 50 percent of its previous members within eight years is in a severe crisis. (The Mormon Hierarchy, page 242)
Quinn believes that this great apostasy in Brigham Young’s time caused church leaders to be fearful that there could be another split. Consequently, to prevent this the General Authorities decided to go with a system of seniority. This system makes it very difficult for a power struggle over who should be the “living Prophet” to develop.
The Bible relates that the prophet Moses was extremely old at the time of his death. Nevertheless, it also reports that at the time of his death, “his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated” (Deuteronomy 34: 7).
In the case of the Mormon prophets, however, it is very obvious that as they grow older they become infirm and senile like other men. There seems to be no special protection for these “living prophets.” Joseph Smith became the prophet of the Mormon Church when he was only about twenty-five years old. Today, it is very difficult for a man to achieve that high position until he is somewhere between seventy to ninety years old. Things have certainly changed!
As the Bible says, it is dangerous to put our trust in man:
Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord (Jeremiah 17:5).
Instead of putting all their trust in a so-called “living Prophet,” members of the Mormon Church would do well to give their full attention to Jesus:
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, by whom also he made the worlds.
(Hebrews, 1:1)
D. Michael Quinn has a very good discussion of the question of succession in his book, The Mormon Hierarchy. On pages 253-260, he addresses the serious problem of older men being called to head the church. He also demonstrates that there has been some opposition to the policy within the highest ranks of the church.
Originally appeared in:
Jerald and Sandra Tanner, “Fleeting Prophets,” Salt Lake City Messenger, no. 88, May 1995, 13-14.