A year ago, President Russell M Nelson, then approaching his 100th birthday, called on members of his faith to celebrate the occasion by performing acts of service.
This year, the oldest president to ever head The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — and the eldest living leader of a global faith — has a message for the world ahead of his Sept. 9 birthday.
In his lifetime, Nelson has witnessed world wars, revolutions and advancements in technology, including, as he writes in a Friday op-ed for Time magazine, “from the telegram to Instagram.”
Still, some things, he stresses, never change.
One is that “we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father” who “deserve dignity.” Knowing this, he writes, “is liberating — it brings emotional, mental, and spiritual equilibrium — and the more you embrace it, the more your anxiety and fear about the future will decrease.”
Another is the need to “love your neighbor and treat them with compassion and respect.”
(Jeffrey D. Allred | Pool) Nelson gestures during his 100th birthday celebration in Salt Lake City in 2024.
Lamenting the sour state of public discourse online and elsewhere, a concern the centenarian religious leader has repeatedly expressed in recent years, he encouraged readers to “imagine how different our world could be if more of us were peacemakers — building bridges of understanding rather than walls of prejudice — especially with those who may see the world differently than we do.”
That is, after all, what Jesus taught.
“After 101 years,” Nelson writes, “I can say that” the commandments to love God and one’s neighbor “are not abstract theological ideas — they are practical wisdom.”
And, he adds, they begin in the home, with family members extending “fidelity, forgiveness, and faithfulness.”
Speaking in a taped recording aired in April’s General Conference to Latter-day Saints worldwide, Nelson shared a similar message, calling charity toward all “the hallmark of peacemakers.”
“The present hostility in public dialogue and on social media is alarming,” he mourned. “Hateful words are deadly weapons.”
Nelson and his counselors — apostles Dallin H. Oaks, 93, and Henry B. Eyring, 92 — comprise the oldest governing First Presidency in Latter-day Saint history.
Oaks, a former lawyer, judge and longtime friend of Nelson, is next in line to lead the global church of 17.5 million.
In his Time magazine piece, Nelson said if people “embrace these eternal truths — honoring our own worth, treating others with dignity, and nurturing our families — our lives, and our world, will be steadier and more joyful."
“That,” he concluded, “is my birthday wish for all of us.”