Saturday, April 07, 2012

Elder Jeffery R. Holland at Harvard Law School

A small classroom at Harvard Law School is the setting of a talk by Elder Jeffery R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It would be possible to talk about his quarks of speech, unpolished citations,  and a few times where his Q and A answers could have been better explained. That would be, of course, straining at gnats when the whole is a worthy gem.  Even the LDS Newsroom article on the presentation doesn't represent the raw message he delivered. Not that soundbites ever can.




After watching the video, open up the Q and A at the above link to the LDS report on his remarks. The questions are very hard to hear, but not difficult to understand if there was only the answers. To be honest, this part is mostly interesting in the context of a non-Mormon audience. For instance, his response about the afterlife touches on what has been in the news with only minor hints at the start to the complicated subject. What is clear, but hardly surprising, is that he knows the Scriptures and uses them as illustration for better explanations.