Monson is showing signs of mental fraying. He tends to wander and repeats himself. He requires coaching from his inner circle to get back on topic.
Monson is not allowed to deviate from prepared texts when giving public sermons. He does OK when reading a prepared text but when he wings it he drifts. His staff is concerned about this.
Even Monsoon can't keep up with how fast the erasure of Mo history moves along and how fast the doctrine changes. D & C should be a weekly magazine.........!!
That's what you get when you use the oldest guy is the leader model. It might have worked in the 19th Century when old was 60, but these days Prophets aren't taking their position until they are in their 80s.
He has been repeating or recycling his "with the birth of the babe in Bethlehem ther emerged a great endowment, a wealth more lasting than the coins of ceasar ..." diatribe for years. He would use it in conference and the christmas devotionals. My wife would get pissed when he would start saying it in conference, and I would look at her lip syncing along with his talk. That does not mean he was mentally down hill then, but he has been recycling for a long time now.
I'm afraid he'll come up with some ridiculous revelation. Like jump off the empire state building. Just imagine how many TBMs would do that if he said to.
A TBM friend of mine recently attended a wedding dinner of one of Monson's relatives. They had to hold it at the JSB IF they wanted monson to attend (they did). He showed up late and was invited to say a few words to the wedding couple. According to my friend. It was both weird and ackward...and keep in mind this was from a TBM. Evidently, instead of speaking for a view moments he went off on a 30-40 talk...not once did he refer to or mention the wedding couple, eternal marriage, weddings or any appropriate subject matter...instead it was a talk all about himself...his life...his experiences in the church etc
My friend said it was EXTREMELY uncomfortable, ackward and just plain bizarre.
if the rumors are true he is going downhill really really fast. They should let him live out the rest of his life without being a puppet for church appearances. Can you think of anything crueler than exploiting a senile elderly person for personal gain?
Won't they just sedate him heavily and continue pushing him around in a wheelchair while someone reads his "prepared remarks?"
They certainly can't have Powder Keg Packer take his place. In fact, if Monson died, they might just say he's "in pain" and recycle his old speeches before the PR guys will allow Packer up to bat.
If they're... what's the word? I know I've seen it here before but I can't remember... going to honorably disrcharge him from acting prophet, do they have to follow the "seniority" succession? Does it create enough extenuating circumstances that they could call one of the counsellors to be acting prophet instead?
Hinckley became unofficial "acting prophet" early on, when Kimball began to decline. Hinckley was a counselor, and he just took over. When Benson and Hunter came along, Hinck just continued to assert his influence. He maintained control for a very long time.
What the hell would they do if a president/prophet went totally fried bananas senile and started having "revelations"? They wouldn't get out to the members of course, but the guy would say that god directed him to say this or that and what are the handlers to think; that's his job after all, so why not have revelations that a statue of a cumom should be added to the temple spire or Julianne Hough needs to marry him or face a flaming sword..?
So one of the last talks he read from the prompter was to the "Young Women"?
Every time I see a "young woman" in a t-shirt that says BELIEVE, OBEY, ENDURE, I feel like crying. If I get close enough I tell them where is the have fun on your t-shirt.
My daughter walked from Murray to the temple in downtown SLC with her YW group. They all wore pink shirts that said, "Every righteous step brings me closer to the temple.". I wanted to burn it.