{"id":181,"date":"2017-09-30T17:48:28","date_gmt":"2017-09-30T21:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/themormonpolitico\/?p=181"},"modified":"2017-09-30T17:48:28","modified_gmt":"2017-09-30T21:48:28","slug":"elder-cooks-anti-trump-smackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/themormonpolitico\/2017\/09\/elder-cooks-anti-trump-smackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Elder Cook’s Anti-Trump Smackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Elder Quentin L. Cook. Obtained through Creative Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Elder Quentin L. Cook issued a not-too-subtle critique of Trump\u2019s pride and \u201cauthenticity.\u201d<\/h2>\n Wow.<\/p>\n Just wow.<\/p>\n Like, seriously, wow.<\/p>\n In the Saturday afternoon session of LDS General Conference, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave a talk about humility. That, by itself, wouldn\u2019t be anything extraordinary. Almost every General Conference features admonitions to avoid pride and to seek humility. But what was extraordinary was how Cook all-but-named U.S. President Donald Trump as an object of his admonitions.<\/p>\n Cook said, \u201cSo-called \u2018authenticity\u2019. . . sometimes leads to a lack of true humility.\u201d He also said that we shouldn\u2019t \u201c[use] authenticity as an excuse for un-Christlike behavior.\u201d The kicker? \u201cSome misuse \u2018authentic\u2019 as a celebration of the natural man and qualities that are the opposite of humility.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, who does this remind us of? Give up? Why, Trump of course! Throughout his campaign and into his presidency, one of the things that people praised about the Donald was his \u201cauthenticity.\u201d In fact, an exit poll<\/a> conducted during the South Carolina primary found that \u201c78 percent of voters who said \u2018tells it like it is\u2019 was the top quality they\u2019re looking for in a candidate said that they supported Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n Never mind that what Trump was \u201cauthentic\u201d about was his Islamophobia, racism, and disrespect for Constitutional norms and civility.<\/p>\n Anyway, with \u201cauthenticity\u201d being an adjective that has most recently, and most widely, been applied to Trump, it\u2019s hard to see Cook\u2019s castigating of it as anything other than a condemnation of Trump\u2019s behavior and those who would see Trump\u2019s braggadocio as a sign of strength.<\/p>\n Also, did I mention that Cook talked about how he was impressed by how Alma the Younger stepped down as head-of-state? Interesting . . .<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Elder Quentin L. Cook issued a not-too-subtle critique of Trump\u2019s pride and \u201cauthenticity.\u201d Wow. Just wow. Like, seriously, wow. In the Saturday afternoon session of LDS General Conference, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave a talk about humility. That, by itself, wouldn\u2019t be anything extraordinary. Almost every General Conference […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2542,"featured_media":182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,4,3],"tags":[156,155,154,69],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-conference","category-lds","category-mormon","tag-authentic","tag-pride","tag-quentin-l-cook","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nElder Cook's Anti-Trump Smackdown<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Elder Quentin L. Cook issued a not-too-subtle critique of Trump's pride and "authenticity."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Elder Cook's Anti-Trump Smackdown\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Elder Quentin L. Cook issued a not-too-subtle critique of Trump's pride and "authenticity."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/themormonpolitico\/2017\/09\/elder-cooks-anti-trump-smackdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Mormon Politico\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-30T21:48:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/782\/2017\/09\/Quentin_L._Cook_02.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"3438\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2224\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gary A.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gary A.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/themormonpolitico\/2017\/09\/elder-cooks-anti-trump-smackdown\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/themormonpolitico\/2017\/09\/elder-cooks-anti-trump-smackdown\/\",\"name\":\"Elder Cook's Anti-Trump Smackdown\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/themormonpolitico\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-30T21:48:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-30T21:48:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/themormonpolitico\/#\/schema\/person\/bb6436a934fb593a60f0f0ab2f160139\"},\"description\":\"Elder Quentin L. 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