920: Roger Hendrix - Stories from a CES Director, Mission President, and Trustee for Deseret Trust Company Pt. 2

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.5 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2018

⏱️ 86 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this edition of Mormon Stories we visit with Roger Hendrix - possibly the highest ranking and most well-connected LDS church leader interviewed on Mormon Stories Podcast to date. In these 5 episodes we cover his experience growing up in the LDS Church in Southern California in the 1950s and 60s, his ascent through church leadership including time as a CES Director, Bishop, Stake Presidency Member, Mission President, and serving for 18 years as a Trustee on the board of the Deseret Trust Company(called to the position by President Gordon B. Hinckley). Throughout this series Roger provides fascinating commentary on top church leadership, the changes he's seen in Mormon culture and policy during his lifetime, and rare insight into the financial workings of the LDS Church. Included throughout the interview are interactions Roger had with church leaders such as Paul H. Dunn, Ezra Taft Benson, Boyd K. Packer, Jeffrey R. Holland, Henry B. Eyring, Dallin H. Oaks, Gordon B. Hinckley, and more.

We will be interviewing Roger Hendrix for a few more hours in the coming week. If you have any final questions for Roger, please post them below.

________________________

Part 1: Roger discusses his early life as a Mormon including his bout with polio as a child, how he compensated for his illness as a teenager, straying from the church for a time, returning to the church after being inspired by an LDS Institute class, and his decision to serve an LDS mission.
Part 2: Roger joins the Church Education System (CES), ultimately becoming director of the LDS Institute at the University of Southern California. He also shares his interactions with numerous general authorities including Paul H. Dunn, Boyd K. Packer, Ezra Taft Benson, Henry Eyring, and Jeffrey R. Holland, among others.
Part 3: Roger ascends through high-level LDS church leadership callings including Bishop and Stake Presidency Member, culminating in a call to serve as mission president in Chile. Roger discusses in detail what it was like to serve as a mission president in Chile in the 1990s.
Parts 4-5: Roger begins this segment discussing the vetting process he went through after returning from his mission presidency as he was offered a position as an area authority (which he ultimately turned down). We then discuss Roger's call to serve on the Deseret Trust Company Board of Trustees by LDS church president Gordon B. Hinckley. We discuss in detail the purpose and inner workings of the Deseret Trust Company, and its interactions with Ensign Peak Advisors Inc., the Deseret Management Corporation, and the LDS church. In these two parts Roger provides important insight into the financial workings of the LDS Church

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Well I won't set on mother too. She said the things like mothers do. But mothers can be wrong sometimes.
0:13.6	Mormon Stories is a production of the Open Stories Foundation and relies solely upon the support
0:18.5	of people like you, its listeners. To help keep the podcast alive or to become a member of the
0:23.6	community, please become a monthly subscriber by visiting MormonStories.org and clicking on the
0:29.1	donate button on the right side of the page under support. All contributions to Mormon Stories are
0:34.7	completely tax deductible in the United States and go towards producing the podcast and building
0:39.9	communities and programs of support for Mormons like you. Thanks for your support.
0:59.1	We're everyone and welcome back to part two of my interview with Dr. Roger Hendrix.
1:20.4	For those of you who joined us for part one, you'll know that Roger grew up in the 50s and early
1:27.1	60s as a Southern California surfer, Mormon guy, served a mission for the church, had a firm
1:34.8	testimony because of an experience in institute and served as his only Ador on his mission.
1:42.4	But also maybe had it a non-traditional teenage upbringing and young adult in the church before.
1:49.0	He was simultaneously became a really devout Mormon, but also a more casual relaxed Mormon.
1:56.7	And for him, it was less about the doctrine per se and more about the progression and the way that
2:03.1	he felt like the church made him better. And it's been a fascinating interview so far.
2:08.6	And it's only to get more fascinating, I think. So now that you've come home from your mission,
2:15.8	you've married Sherry in the temple. Was it the LA temple you were married?
2:19.6	Los Angeles temple.
2:20.8	Okay. Let's talk about how you go from being married in the temple to working for CES.
2:30.5	What was it? You know, were you from college planning on church education?
2:36.4	And what was the reputation of people who worked in CES? What was the reputation of CES at the time?
2:43.0	And what got you into it?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr. John Dehlin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Dr. John Dehlin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.