1661: Growing Up As a Grandson of a Mormon Apostle (Joseph B Wirthlin) - Greg Gerritsen Pt 1
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.6 • 5.2K Ratings
🗓️ 19 September 2022
⏱️ 160 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Join us for Part 1 of our 2-part interview with pilot Greg Gerritsen - grandson of the late and much believed Mormon or LDS Church apostle Joseph B. Wirthlin. In this series, Greg shares with us many fascinating stories about his experiences with his grandfather including:
- The tendency of LDS church members to overly worship General Authorities, along with the unhealthy obsession some Mormons have with "access" to General Authorities.
- The undying love Elder Wirthlin had for his wife (Elisa), his family, and for football.
- The extent to which nepotism, cronyism, and patronage play a part in the selection of LDS church General Authorities.
- The downsides/sacrifices of being an LDS church Apostle/General Authority.
- The existence of divisions and "cliques" in the LDS church quorum of the 12 Apostles.
- The unhealthy pressures and expectations put on the children and grandchildren of LDS General Authorities, that often lead to a familial emphasis on "public appearance" over healthy relationships.
- The "code" that exists within families of LDS General Authorities to never do or say anything to bring dishonor to the family name or church, including speaking out about a loss of faith, which leads many descendants of LDS apostles to lie about and/or hide their loss of faith.
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Mormon Stories Thanks Our Generous Donors!
Help us continue to deliver quality content by becoming a donor today:
One-time or recurring donation through Donorbox
Pick “Mormon Stories” as your charity on Amazon Smile or through the Amazon App
Our Platforms:
Contact us:
Mormon Stories Podcast
PO Box 171085
Salt Lake City, UT 84117
Social Media:
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories podcast. I am your host for today, John Delin. |
| 0:07.0 | It is September 8th, 2022 and it has been a busy few weeks and months here on Mormon Stories podcast. |
| 0:15.0 | But I am just over the moon excited for today's episode. I know I say that frequently. |
| 0:21.0 | But today is a really special Mormon Stories interview. |
| 0:24.0 | Today we are interviewing Greg or Gregory Garrison, the grandson of the late or deceased. |
| 0:31.0 | And I'd even say beloved Mormon apostle Joseph B. Worthland. |
| 0:36.0 | And for those of you who have never been Mormon, the Mormon church has a first presidency which is a prophet and then two counselors. |
| 0:43.0 | They are apostles just like Jesus had 12 apostles. They're considered apostles and special witnesses of Christ. |
| 0:51.0 | And then within the Mormon church there's a quorum of the 12 apostles again just like Jesus assembled. |
| 0:57.0 | So these 15 men are I think the closest thing to royalty that you could imagine within a Mormon context. |
| 1:06.0 | These are men that are viewed as special witnesses of Christ. |
| 1:10.0 | They are viewed as people who have likely spoken with Christ or met Christ. |
| 1:15.0 | That's at least the cultural perception of them. They, you know, when they walk into an auditorium of a thousand people or 15,000 people or 30,000 people everybody stands. |
| 1:26.0 | They are revered as the right-hand men of Jesus and as the most righteous men in the world by, you know, anywhere between five and 16 million Mormons across the world. |
| 1:38.0 | So if you think about royalty, that's about as close as it gets. So of course it has been very rare to have family members of apostles come on Mormon stories podcast to kind of share their stories. |
| 1:55.0 | And have you said that there have been a few. So we did have the son of Spencer B. Kimball who is a Mormon prophet. |
| 2:02.0 | He did come on Ed Kimball was his name. It's a great episode. He was a faithful Mormon but a progressive liberal Mormon. He's come on Mormon stories. |
| 2:09.0 | We had the granddaughter of Emmerussel Ballard come on Laura Roper, I believe I'm a little fuzzy on the names. |
| 2:18.0 | She came on and talked about being the granddaughter of Emmerussel Ballard. |
| 2:23.0 | And then we also had two of the grandchildren of Neal A. Maxwell come on Mormon stories podcast Ashley Sanders and Kimble Sanders very early on in the time of Mormon stories. |
| 2:35.0 | They were still like BYU student age. I may be forgetting one or two others, but those are the ones that come to mind, but it's relatively rare. |
| 2:43.0 | What's more interesting to me is the fact that I've met and corresponded with many, let's just say children and or grandchildren of current and former Mormon apostles. |
... |
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