{"id":31159,"date":"2016-02-22T16:28:11","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T23:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=31159"},"modified":"2016-02-22T17:46:48","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T00:46:48","slug":"honoring-elder-robert-gay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/02\/honoring-elder-robert-gay.html","title":{"rendered":"Honoring Elder Robert Gay (please don&#8217;t worry; he&#8217;s quite healthy)"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_31160\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31160\" style=\"width: 276px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/02\/robert-c-gay_july2014_276x337.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-31160\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-31160\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/02\/robert-c-gay_july2014_276x337.jpg\" alt=\"Robert Gay, General Authority\" width=\"276\" height=\"337\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-31160\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Elder Robert C. Gay<br>(LDS.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>My wife and I were\u00a0privileged, nearly three weeks ago now, to attend a dinner in honor of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Robert_C._Gay\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Elder Robert Gay<\/a> of the Seventy, whom I\u2019ve known since before his call as a General Authority and even before his assignment as a mission president in Ghana. \u00a0It was sponsored by the Utah Youth Village, which is a very estimable and worthwhile organization in its own right.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the press release that was sent out on that dinner beforehand:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kusi.com\/story\/31053923\/mitt-romney-honors-elder-robert-gay-for-utah-youth-village-and-smarterparenting\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.kusi.com\/story\/31053923\/mitt-romney-honors-elder-robert-gay-for-utah-youth-village-and-smarterparenting<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It was a who\u2019s who of prominent Utahns, including high-ranking leaders of the <a href='https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/library\/mormonism' target='_blank'>Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>. \u00a0We sat at a table with three state senators. \u00a0President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the First Presidency was there, as were\u00a0President Russell M. Nelson and Elders M. Russell Ballard and Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve, several other members of the Seventy, and G\u00e9rald Causs\u00e9 and one of his counselors from the Presiding Bishopric.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The speakers were noteworthy, as well. \u00a0They included Governor Gary Herbert of Utah, former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachussetts, and Martin Luther King III. \u00a0Gary Crocker, a prominent Utah businessman whom I\u2019ve also been privileged to know for years, conducted the program.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>An excellent short film was shown, containing testimonials from some of the many people (in the United States and Africa) whose lives and work have been benefitted by the remarkable and (trust me on this) generally very quiet benevolence of Elder Gay and his wife Lynette.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Most stunning to me was the lengthy, lengthy listing, read by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sltrib.com\/home\/3519389-155\/utahs-unelected-governor-the-political-clout\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Scott Anderson<\/a> (the president and CEO of Zion\u2019s Bank, whom I was once able to take on a tour of Israel, with his wife), of the unbelievably many charitable organizations and activities with which Elder Gay has been involved. \u00a0And, when I say \u201cinvolved,\u201d I don\u2019t mean simply by means of extraordinarily\u00a0generous financial donations. \u00a0I mean \u201chands on,\u201d both in terms of organizational involvement and, surprisingly often, in terms of wielding hammer and tools himself.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It was an inspiring evening, but also a profoundly humbling one. \u00a0As we drove home afterward, I wondered whether I\u2019ve\u00a0ever done anything at <em>all<\/em> with my life and resources.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I had already been deeply, deeply impressed by Elder and Sister Gay. \u00a0I came away awestruck. \u00a0And I\u2019m not exaggerating.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The General Authorities take a lot of flack from harsh critics of the Church. \u00a0They\u2019re supposedly callous, uncaring, out of touch, empty suits, mere corporate functionaries. \u00a0Elder Robert Gay is a spectacular, living refutation of such calumnies.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been a surprise and a privilege to have come to know him and his wife.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I wish that all members of the Church had been able to be there that night.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 My wife and I were\u00a0privileged, nearly three weeks ago now, to attend a dinner in honor of Elder Robert Gay of the Seventy, whom I\u2019ve known since before his call as a General Authority and even before his assignment as a mission president in Ghana. \u00a0It was sponsored by the Utah Youth Village, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Honoring Elder Robert Gay (please don&#039;t worry; 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