sunstoned Posted August 31, 2022 Posted August 31, 2022 The church has just announced that Kyle McKay, a seventy, has been called to be the church historian. True to form, he is a lawyer. https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2022/8/12/23294170/church-historian-and-recorder-elder-kyle-s-mckay-church-history-strengthen-faith-questions#:~:text=9%2C 2022.-,Elder McKay began serving as the new Church historian and,1%2C 2022.&text=For Elder McKay “the most,and the Book of Commandments. 1
Calm Posted August 31, 2022 Posted August 31, 2022 (edited) Quote “I’m called the Church historian, but in truth, the real historians are the people I work with. I preside over a department that is full of absolutely brilliant people,” he said. As long as he knows to listen to the experts when it comes to the history stuff, I don’t see it being an issue for a non historian to be in an administrative position over a history department. He appears to see himself as a supervisor rather than the chief historian. He has been a vice president in large, successful companies, so it appears he has decent supervisory skills. I would hope another skill he has is to see how the history work can be relevant for the here and now. Being aware of contemporary issues, being analytical could be helpful here and those are not skills restricted to historians. Would be interesting to hear the Church’s reasoning for choosing all these lawyers for this calling. Edited August 31, 2022 by Calm 1
ksfisher Posted August 31, 2022 Posted August 31, 2022 17 hours ago, sunstoned said: The church has just announced that Kyle McKay, a seventy, has been called to be the church historian. True to form, he is a lawyer. https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2022/8/12/23294170/church-historian-and-recorder-elder-kyle-s-mckay-church-history-strengthen-faith-questions#:~:text=9%2C 2022.-,Elder McKay began serving as the new Church historian and,1%2C 2022.&text=For Elder McKay “the most,and the Book of Commandments. How many have been lawyers vs non-lawyers?
Calm Posted September 1, 2022 Posted September 1, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, ksfisher said: How many have been lawyers vs non-lawyers? Here is a list. Not interested in background checking them right now…almost meal time). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Historian_and_Recorder Edited September 1, 2022 by Calm
Tacenda Posted September 5, 2022 Posted September 5, 2022 I don't get why a church historian, isn't a historian.
Stargazer Posted September 12, 2022 Posted September 12, 2022 On 9/6/2022 at 12:13 AM, Tacenda said: I don't get why a church historian, isn't a historian. I just got called to be our stake history specialist, and I'm not a historian, either. 😉
Scott Lloyd Posted September 13, 2022 Posted September 13, 2022 On 8/31/2022 at 4:06 PM, ksfisher said: How many have been lawyers vs non-lawyers? On 8/31/2022 at 6:47 PM, Calm said: Here is a list. Not interested in background checking them right now…almost meal time). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Historian_and_Recorder On 8/31/2022 at 3:00 AM, Calm said: As long as he knows to listen to the experts when it comes to the history stuff, I don’t see it being an issue for a non historian to be in an administrative position over a history department. He appears to see himself as a supervisor rather than the chief historian. He has been a vice president in large, successful companies, so it appears he has decent supervisory skills. I would hope another skill he has is to see how the history work can be relevant for the here and now. Being aware of contemporary issues, being analytical could be helpful here and those are not skills restricted to historians. Would be interesting to hear the Church’s reasoning for choosing all these lawyers for this calling. On 9/5/2022 at 5:13 PM, Tacenda said: I don't get why a church historian, isn't a historian. I don’t think it self evident that an academic degree in history is essential to being competent as a historian. Several of the prominent members of the Mormon History Association do not have one. The foremost expert on the Utah War, William McKinnon, is neither a Latter-day Saint nor an academic historian. He’s a former executive with General Motors. It’s a false though persistent assumption that one needs a degree in history to engage in it professionally or to publish in it. In that respect, history is less like law and medicine and more like journalism. 1
Stargazer Posted September 13, 2022 Posted September 13, 2022 2 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said: I don’t think it self evident that an academic degree in history is essential to being competent as a historian. Several of the prominent members of the Mormon History Association do not have one. The foremost expert on the Utah War, William McKinnon, is neither a Latter-day Saint nor an academic historian. He’s a former executive with General Motors. It’s a false though persistent assumption that one needs a degree in history to engage in it professionally or to publish in it. In that respect, history is less like law and medicine and more like journalism. I agree. I'm a retired computer programmer and because I've been researching the history of a local castle and the family that built it nearly a thousand years ago, and plan to pubIish a short book about it, I have become one of the foremost unacknowledged authorities on the subject. Maybe. The link above is to a YouTube playlist on my channel about the castle, etc. 1
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