![]() When adversity strikes, my people tend to respond with can-do aphorisms and rolled-up sleeves with an unrelenting helpfulness that can border on caricature. There is something classically Mormon about this aversion to wallowing. When I ask him about the lockdowns that have forced churches to close, he muses that homes can be “sanctuaries of faith.” When I mention the physical ravages of the virus, he marvels at the human body’s miraculous “defense mechanisms.” Reciting a passage from the Book of Mormon-“Adam fell that men might be and men are, that they might have joy”-he offers a reminder that feels like a call to repentance: “There can be joy in the saddest of times.” Over the next hour, Nelson preaches a gospel of silver linings. Instead, he smiles and asks me about my kids. Sitting across from him now, some part of me expects a grand and ancient gesture in keeping with this calamitous moment-a raised staff, an end-times prophecy, a summoning of heavenly powers. All the death and pestilence and doomscrolling on Twitter has left me unmoored-and from somewhere deep in my spiritual subconscious, a Mormon children’s song I grew up singing has resurfaced: Follow the prophet, don’t go astray … Follow the prophet, he knows the way.Īs president of the Church, Nelson is considered by Mormons to be God’s messenger on Earth, a modern heir to Moses and Abraham. ![]() But as we bow our heads, I realize that I’m also here for something else.įor the past two months, I’ve been cooped up in quarantine, watching the world melt down in biblical fashion. My notebook is full of reporterly questions to ask about the Church’s future, the painful tensions within the faith over race and LGBTQ issues, and the unprecedented series of changes Nelson has implemented in his brief time as prophet. The official occasion for our interview is the Mormon bicentennial: Two centuries ago, a purported opening of the heavens in upstate New York launched one of the most peculiar and enduring religious movements in American history, and Nelson designated 2020 as a year of commemoration. Nelson, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “We always start our meetings with a word of prayer,” says Russell M.
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