An Interesting Read

What is it exactly that interested me so much about this book? I'm not really sure, perhaps it was sparked by my reading of the biography of President McKay (David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism by Gregory A. Prince and Wm. Robert Wright) which had a significant amount of material about his dealings with government officials, or perhaps it is that there is a budding political scientist somewhere inside me that is straining to get out, and this was a pretty low impact way to combine it with my passion for Church History.

Whatever the reason, I read it, and thoroughly enjoyed it (though I do have to note that there is a major typo in the afterword where the author, Michael K. Winder, relates his experience visiting former President Jimmy Carter's Sunday School class where they were studying the book of Revelation--he called it "Revelations." A minor thing, you might say, but don't you dare call it Revelations in front of Richard Draper, arguably the Church's expert on Apocalyptic literature, of which the Revelation of St. John is of major importance--he would not be well pleased, to say the least.) Now, I have just one or two comments to make about the book.

First, I was intrigued by the publisher: Covenant Communications. My first impression upon hearing about the book was to question why Deseret Book was not the publisher. After reading it I'm pretty certain I know why Deseret Book did not publish it (this is assuming, of course, that the author approached DB first and was turned down). There are way too many details about the political preferences of Church leaders for this to be published by DB. The ultra-conservative views of some leaders contrasted to the more liberal views of others are spoken of--not to the extent that they could have been by any means--but enough that, in today's political climate which is polarized in incredible ways, there may be just a wee bit too much that could be considered controversial.

[I need to include this little aside here. While working on this posting I am also feeding the boys some lunch--leftover Little Caesar's Pizza. Joshua has learned to dip everything he eats in ranch and so requested ranch with his pizza, but we are fresh out of ranch, so not willing to be deterred he immediately then requested ketchup. I asked if he was sure he wanted ketchup for his pizza and he insisted, and so he is eating his pizza with ketchup and currently begging me to come and wipe up some that he spilled...]

These posts always become projects completed in many sittings, largely due to the fact that Joshua and Morgan keep me rather busy. So if there seems to be a break in the stream of consciousness, well, that's why.

Back to the book. My other comment has to do with the impressiveness of the project Winder took up. To write a one volume survey touching on each of the 42 U.S. Presidents and their associations with the Church is a major task. But he did well, and in the process made me thirst after more knowledge about the U.S. Presidents. I highly recommend the book. It goes quick and is fun.