Hello again, everyone! I will get to my post honoring President Uchtdorf, but there is big news from the campus of Utah Valley University. Matthew S. Holland, who has served as the university's president since 2009, and is also the son of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has announced that, in view of his recently given call to serve as a mission president (which will start at the end of June next year), he is stepping down as UVU president. He said that he will still be committed to the university until his replacement is named, but wanted to give the governing board of UVU the next six months to find and inaugurate his replacement. He also said that he was given permission to make his new call public because of the time it will take to find the new president.
Now, that said, I did want to note that this news (especially because he is the son of an LDS apostle) may have Church critics crying "nepotism is alive and well in the Church", and may not make people happy. But in defense of both Elder Holland and the current and future President Holland, I also wanted to note that, as far as I can tell, Elder Holland has no role currently on the Missionary Executive Council, and he would likely say what President Eyring likely said about his son's call as president of BYU-Idaho, which surely echoed President Gordon B. Hinckley's response to the call of his son, Richard, as a General Authority Seventy in 2005, that none of them advanced their son's names, that that was done by others who have the right to do so, that they all are and were qualified because of their excellent mothers and perhaps in spite of their fathers. The Church is, always has been, and always will be very sensitive about matters of nepotism, and anyone who says otherwise obviously has never bothered to gain for themselves a testimony of the process by which such calls come.
All that aside, I will be back in a short while to publish my tribute post to President Uchtdorf, whose special day may have been overshadowed by all of this, but who is well deserving of the post which I hope will honor him sufficiently. That does it for this post. As always, any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in all that you do.
Monday, November 6, 2017
BREAKING NEWS: Matthew Holland to serve as mission president
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
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