On April 14, Russell M. Nelson, 17th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, surpassed Gordon B. Hinckley, the Church’s 15th President, to become the oldest person in the history of the Church to hold that office.
Born September 9, 1924, Nelson was already 93 when he was sustained and set apart as President in 2018.
An internationally renowned cardiac surgeon and pioneer in open-heart surgery who helped design the first heart-lung machine, Nelson graduated first in his class from University of Utah Medical School at age 22 and received doctoral degrees from Universities of Utah and Minnesota.
But it is not his medical achievements that he will be judged by, he told Atlantic Monthly in an interview published in the magazine’s January/February 2021 issue.
“Judgment day is coming for me pretty soon,” he said. “I doubt if I’ll be judged by the number of operations I did, or the number of scientific publications I had. I doubt if I’ll even be judged by the growth of the Church during my presidency. I don’t think it’ll be a quantitative experience. I think he’ll want to know: What about your faith? What about virtue? What about your knowledge? Were you temperate? Were you kind to people? Did you have charity, humility?”
By all accounts, the answers to these questions are “yes.”
“He has more love for people, I think, than almost anybody I’ve ever been around in my life,” said President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency. “He not only loves us; he sees the best in us. … He sees good in people to a degree that’s really quite remarkable.”
On the other hand, the expansion he has accomplished for the Church is exceptional. In his 34 years in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, to which he was sustained when he was already nearly 60, he visited 133 countries, participating in dedications of 31 of those countries and opened doors for the Church in Eastern Europe and China.
In an article on his 95th birthday in the Salt Lake City Tribune, religion editor Peggy Fletcher Stack wrote about how Nelson alerted members the year before to expect the unexpected of his Presidency. “You’re just seeing the beginning…There is much more to come,” he said. “Wait till next year. And then the next year. Eat your vitamin pills. Get your rest. It’s going to be exciting.”
_______________
From its beginnings, the Church of Scientology has recognized that freedom of religion is a fundamental human right. In a world where conflicts are often traceable to intolerance of others’ religious beliefs and practices, the Church has, for more than 50 years, made the preservation of religious liberty an overriding concern.
The Church publishes this blog to help create a better understanding of the freedom of religion and belief and provide news on religious freedom and issues affecting this freedom around the world.
The Founder of the Scientology religion is L. Ron Hubbard and Mr. David Miscavige is the religion’s ecclesiastical leader.
For more information visit the Scientology website or Scientology Network.
