Boyd K. Packer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Boyd K. Packer
Photo of Boyd K. Packer
President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
February 3, 2008 (2008-02-03) – incumbent
Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
June 5, 1994 (1994-06-05) – January 27, 2008 (2008-01-27)
End reason Became President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
April 6, 1970 (1970-04-06) – incumbent
Called by Joseph Fielding Smith
Apostle
April 9, 1970 (1970-04-09) – incumbent
Called by Joseph Fielding Smith
Reason Death of David O. McKay and reorganization of First Presidency
Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
September 30, 1961 (1961-09-30) – April 6, 1970 (1970-04-06)
Called by David O. McKay
End reason Called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Military career
1942-1946
Service/branch United States Army Air Forces
Rank E4 USAF SAM.svg Senior Airman
Battles/wars World War II
Personal details
Born Boyd Kenneth Packer
September 10, 1924 (1924-09-10) (age 87)
Brigham City, Utah, United States
Alma mater Utah State University (B.S., M.S.)
Brigham Young University (Ed.D.)
Spouse Donna Smith
(1947–present)
Children 10


Boyd Kenneth Packer (born September 10, 1924) is an American educator and religious leader, and the current president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He served as Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve from 1994 to 2008, and has been an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve since April 1970. Packer has served as general authority of the church since 1961. Currently, he is the second most senior apostle among the ranks of the church.

Contents

[edit] Background and education

Packer was the tenth of eleven children born to Ira W. and Emma (née Jensen) Packer in Brigham City, Utah. After graduating from high school, he served as a pilot in the United States Army Air Forces from 1942 to 1946. Packer flew a number of bombing missions in the Pacific theater of World War II.[1]

After leaving the military, Packer initially attended Weber College (now Weber State University), where he met his wife Donna (née Smith) Packer.[2] They married in the Logan Utah Temple in 1947, and eventually had ten children. After their marriage, Packer attended Utah State University, earning bachelor's and master's degrees, and later earned an Ed.D. from Brigham Young University.[1]

[edit] Church service

[edit] Early employment and service

Packer worked in the LDS Church's education department, where he held various administrative positions overseeing seminary and Institute programs, including assistant supervisor of the church's Native American seminary programs, general assistant administrator of seminaries and institutes, and later as supervisor of Church Seminaries and Institutes.[3] These positions were professional rather than ecclesiastical, as the LDS Church has a lay ministry in which church leaders are unpaid.

In 1961, Packer was called by Church President David O. McKay to serve as an Assistant to the Twelve, a discontinued general authority position.[4] While serving in the position, Packer was assigned to serve as mission president of the New England States Mission of the church.[3] He also served for a time as the managing director of the church's military relations committee.

[edit] Quorum of the Twelve

Following David O. McKay's death in January 1970, Packer, then 45 years old, was called by newly-ordained Church President Joseph Fielding Smith as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at the church's April 1970 General Conference.

On September 12, 1991, Packer dedicated Ukraine "for the preaching of the restored gospel".[5]

Packer has served as an advisor to the Genesis Group.[6] He is credited with having suggested singing a hymn to drive off bad thoughts.[7]

The only LDS Church temple that Packer has dedicated is the Regina Saskatchewan Temple. In one of the Spanish language dedication sessions at the dedication of the San Diego California Temple, Packer read the dedicatory prayer.[8]

Packer has been active in obtaining genealogical records on microfilm for the church through its Genealogical Society of Utah. In 1977, Packer was a key figure in getting Native American-related records filmed from the federal records centers in Los Angeles, Fort Worth, Seattle and Kansas City.[9] He was involved in negotiations that same year with archivists and scholars at Jerusalem to microfilm Jewish records.[10]

As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Packer is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator.

[edit] Acting President and President of the Quorum of the Twelve

When Howard W. Hunter, who had been President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, succeeded to the presidency of the church in 1994, he called as his counselors in the First Presidency Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson, who were the only two apostles senior to Packer. As a result, Packer was named Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve. When Hunter died in 1995 and was succeeded by Hinckley, Monson was again retained in the First Presidency and Packer was again asked to be Acting President of the Twelve. There have been five acting presidents of the Quorum in the church's history. Packer served the longest in that capacity and is the only one to serve in the position twice under two different church presidents.

Packer became the new President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on February 3, 2008, when Thomas S. Monson, became President of the Church. As President of the Quorum of the Twelve, Packer is second in line of seniority to Monson.

[edit] Teachings and positions

[edit] Sexuality

In a General Conference Session in October 1976, Packer discouraged boys of the Young Men organization in the Aaronic priesthood from pursuing activities which the LDS church defines as immoral, including masturbation and the use of pornography.[11]

Packer made international news in October 2010 when, in his sermon given at the 180th Semiannual General Conference of the LDS Church in Salt Lake City,[12] entitled "Cleansing the Inner Vessel",[13][14] he stated, "Some suppose that they were preset and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and unnatural. Not so! Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone? Remember, God is our Heavenly Father."[13][15] Because his statements characterized homosexual acts as "impure and unnatural" and implied that homosexuality is not an in-born condition, a petition was submitted to LDS Church headquarters on October 12, 2010 by the gay activist organization, Human Rights Campaign (HRC).[16] In response to the petition, church leaders acknowledged that while they disagree "on many fundamentals"[17] they join the HRC in condemning any "acts of cruelty or attempts to belittle or mock any group or individual that is different – whether those differences arise from race, religion, mental challenges, social status, sexual orientation."[17]

Packer commented at the next general conference: "Some suppose that they were unfairly singled out for a specific temptation. This is the purpose of mortal life — to be tested. We must, and we can, resist temptations of any kind."[18]

[edit] Faith-promoting history

See also: Mormonism and history

Packer has advocated that LDS historians should refrain from discussing history that does not promote faith. In a 1981 speech to educators in the LDS Church Educational System, he cautioned, "There is a temptation for the writer or teacher of Church history to want to tell everything, whether it is worthy or faith promoting or not. Some things that are true are not very useful."[19] Arguing that teachers should "give milk before meat",[20] he stated that "some things are to be taught selectively and some things are to be given only to those who are worthy."[21] Packer's opinion applied to all historians who were members of the LDS Church: he stated, "One who chooses to follow the tenets of his profession, regardless of how they may injure the Church or destroy the faith of those not ready for 'advanced history', is himself in spiritual jeopardy. If that one is a member of the Church, he has broken his covenants and will be held accountable."[22]

Packer's comments have raised criticism by some prominent Mormon and non-Mormon scholars. Soon after Packer's 1981 speech, Mormon historian D. Michael Quinn gave a speech highly critical of Packer's views, and suggested that a historian who followed Packer's advice would sacrifice their honesty and professional integrity.[23] Quinn also discussed what he viewed as a Mormon tradition of portraying LDS leaders as fallible people.[24] C. Robert Mesle has criticized Packer as having created what Mesle views as a false dichotomy "between the integrity of faith and the integrity of inquiry".[25]

[edit] Arts and church worship

Packer has spoken on the dynamic between the arts and church worship, characterizing some "highly trained" musicians as, "temperamental...more temper than mental." But added, "That, I suppose, describes all of us at one time or another." He encouraged musicians in church settings to focus on inviting a spirit of worship.[26] He has also suggested that organists playing prelude music for worship services should focus on hymns, rather than classical music, in order to better prepare congregants to feel the Spirit.[27]

Packer self-illustrated two books first published in the 1970s: Mothers (1977) and Teach Ye Diligently (1979).[28] The church's Museum of Church History and Art, although characterizing it as the work of an amateur, exhibited Packer's wildlife paintings and sculptures in 2003 and 2004.[29]

[edit] Temple worship

One of Packer's most popular books[30] is The Holy Temple.[31] This book gives a doctrinal description of the church's temples and also explains the importance of family history work.

[edit] Race

In 1977, Packer gave a speech in which he discouraged interracial marriage among members of the LDS Church, on the grounds that for every happy "exceptional" marriage (exceptions such as interracial, underage, short courtship, and others that go against church counsel), he believed there are hundreds or possibly thousands of unhappy ones.[32]

[edit] Publications

  • Packer, Boyd K. (1962), Manual of Policies and Procedures for the Administration of Indian Seminaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Field Project (Ed.D.), Provo, Utah: Department of Education, Brigham Young University, OCLC 22009489 
  •    (1975), Teach Ye Diligently, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., ISBN 087747558X 
  •    (1976), To Young Men Only, pamphlet, Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, OCLC 20473672 
  •    (1977), Mothers, booklet, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, OCLC 19655993 
  •    (1980), The Holy Temple, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, ISBN 0884944115 
  •    (1982), "That All May Be Edified": Talks, Sermons & Commentary, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, ISBN 0884944735 
  •    (1984), Our Father's Plan, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., ISBN 0877475237 
  •    (1986), A Christmas Parable, booklet, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, ISBN 0884946053 
  •    (1991), Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, ISBN 0884947874 
  •    (1996), The Things of the Soul, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, ISBN 0884949516 
  •    (1997), Memorable Stories and Parables, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, ISBN 1570083363 
  •    (1998), The Shield of Faith, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, ISBN 157008582X 
  •    (2000), Memorable Stories With a Message, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., ISBN 1573457884 
  •    (2008), Clyde J. Williams, ed., Mine Errand from the Lord: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Boyd K. Packer, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, ISBN 1606410237 

[edit] See also

Portal icon Biography portal
Portal icon Latter-day Saints portal

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b NNDB: Boyd K. Packer
  2. ^ Greg Hill, "Develop courage, Pres. Packer counsels", Deseret News, November 17, 2008.
  3. ^ a b "Boyd K Packer", Improvement Era, May 1970.
  4. ^ Gerry Avant, "President Packer is at half-century milestone of service", Church News, 2011-10-01, accessed October 5, 2011.
  5. ^ Marina Mikhailovskaya and Benjamin Gaines, “Putting Family First in Ukraine,” Ensign, September 2004, 46.
  6. ^ Lloyd, R. Scott. "Revelation rewarded those who waited", Church News, 1999-12-18.
  7. ^ Ezra Taft Benson has acknowledged that this idea originated with Packer: see Ezra Taft Benson, "First Presidency Message: Think on Christ", Ensign, March 1989.
  8. ^ LDS Church News, May 1, 1993.
  9. ^ Allen, James B., Jessie L. Embry and Kahlile B. Mehr. Hearts Turned to the Fathers: A History of the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1894-1994 (Provo, Utah: BYU Studies, 1995) p. 247.
  10. ^ Allen. Hearts Turned to the Fathers. p. 250–251.
  11. ^ Packer, Boyd K. "To Young Men Only". General Conference Priesthood Session. October 2, 1976
  12. ^ "Mormons defend leader's statements on homosexuality", abc4.com, 2010-10-11.
  13. ^ a b "Full, unedited video of Boyd K. Packer's Talk", lds.org 2010-10-21.
  14. ^ "Full text of Boyd K. Packer's talk with Packer's Edits", lds.org 2010-10-21
  15. ^ In the published text of the sermon, Packer changed the word "tendencies" to "temptations" and deleted the sentence "Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone?". A church spokesperson said that in making the change, "President Packer has simply clarified his intent.": "LDS Church addresses changes made to Pres. Packer's talk", ksl.com, 2010-10-08.
  16. ^ "HRC Delivers 150K Petitions to Mormon Church", HRC.org 2010-10-21
  17. ^ a b "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) Responds to HRC Petition", YouTube.com 2010-10-21
  18. ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (April 3, 2011). "Mormons urged to do ‘day of service’". Salt Lake Tribune. http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51551749-76/church-lds-women-members.html.csp. Retrieved 6 April 2011. 
  19. ^ Packer (1981, online ed. p. 5).
  20. ^ Packer (1981, online ed. p. 6) (apparently referring to 1 Cor. 3:2).
  21. ^ Packer (1981, online ed. p. 6).
  22. ^ Packer (1981, online ed. p. 7).
  23. ^ Quinn (1992) ("If I were to write about any subject unrelated to religion, and I purposely failed to make reference to pertinent information of which I had knowledge, I would be justifiably criticized for dishonesty. What is true outside of religion is equally true in writing religious history.").
  24. ^ Id.
  25. ^ Mesle (1992).
  26. ^ Packer, Boyd K. (1 February 1976), "The Arts and the Spirit of the Lord", Speeches, http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6143, retrieved 2008-01-31 
  27. ^ Bateman, Merrill J. (July 2001), "The Power of Hymns", Ensign: 15, http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=65a2759235d0c010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1, retrieved 2008-06-21 
  28. ^ Chapter Twenty-Three The Art of Boyd K. Packer, http://gospelink.com/next/doc?book_doc_id=265027, retrieved 2008-01-31 
  29. ^ Previous Exhibits, www.lds.org, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/museum/exhibits/previous/0,16086,4088-1-,00.html, retrieved 2008-01-30 
  30. ^ Packer's books on Amazon sorted by Bestselling. Amazon sales rank of #47,047 vs #566,148 for his second most popular book
  31. ^ Packer, Boyd K. (2007) [1980], The Holy Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, ISBN 0-88494-411-5 )
  32. ^ Follow the Rule, Brigham Young University, http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6172, retrieved December 14, 2009 

[edit] References

[edit] External links

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints titles
Preceded by
Thomas S. Monson		 President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
3 February 2008—		 Succeeded by
incumbent
Preceded by
Thomas S. Monson		 Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
April 9, 1970—		 Succeeded by
Marvin J. Ashton
Presidents of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Marsh (1835–1839) • B. Young, Sr. (1839–1847) • Hyde (1847–1875) • Taylor (1875–1880) • Woodruff (1880–1889) • Snow (1889–1898) • F.D. Richards (1898–1899) • B. Young, Jr. (1899–1901) • J.F. Smith, Sr. (1901) • B. Young, Jr. (1901–1903) • Lyman (1903–1916) • Grant (1916–1918) • Lund (1918–1921) • Clawson (1921–1943) • G.A. Smith (1943–1945) • G.F. Richards (1945–1950) • McKay (1950–1951) • J.F. Smith, Jr. (1951–1970) • Lee (1970–1972) • Kimball (1972–1973) • Benson (1973–1985) • Romney (1985–1988) • Hunter (1988–1994) • Hinckley (1994–1995) • Monson (1995–2008) • Packer (2008– )
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Packer • Perry • Nelson • Oaks • Ballard • Scott • Hales • Holland • Bednar • Cook • Christofferson • Andersen
Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
J. Smith • Cowdery • Harris • Whitmer • Marsh • Patten • B. Young, Sr. • H.C. Kimball • Hyde • M'Lellin • P.P. Pratt • L.S. Johnson • Wm. Smith • O. Pratt • Boynton • L.E. Johnson • Page • J. Taylor • W. Woodruff • G.A. Smith • W. Richards • Wight • H. Smith • A.M. Lyman • Benson • Rich • L. Snow • E. Snow • F.D. Richards • J.M. Grant • Wells • J.W. Young • G.Q. Cannon • J.A. Young • J.F. Smith, Sr. • B. Young, Jr. • Carrington • Thatcher • F.M. Lyman • J.H. Smith • Teasdale • H.J. Grant • J.W. Taylor • M.W. Merrill • Lund • A.H. Cannon • M.F. Cowley • A.O. Woodruff • Clawson • Smoot • H.M. Smith • G.A. Smith • Penrose • G.F. Richards • Whitney • McKay • Ivins • J.F. Smith, Jr. • Talmage • S.L. Richards • R.R. Lyman • M.J. Ballard • Widtsoe • J.F. Merrill • Callis • Clark • A.A. Hinckley • Bowen • S.Q. Cannon • Lee • S.W. Kimball • Benson • Petersen • M. Cowley • Moyle • Stapley • Romney • L. Richards • Bennion • Evans • Morris • Brown • Hunter • G.B. Hinckley • Tanner • Monson • Dyer • Packer • Ashton • McConkie • Perry • Haight • Faust • Maxwell • Nelson • Oaks • M.R. Ballard • Wirthlin • Scott • Hales • Holland • Eyring • Uchtdorf • Bednar • Cook • Christofferson • Andersen
Assistants to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Boyd_K._Packer&oldid=475340564"
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Interaction
Toolbox
Print/export
Languages