The LDS Scene

• Harmon Killebrew, a Latter-day Saint and one of the top baseball players in the United States, was the subject recently of an article in Family Weekly, a nationally syndicated publication. The article placed strong emphasis on Brother Killebrew’s good relationship with his wife and five children and highlighted the family home evening program. Now in his twentieth year as a professional baseball player, Brother Killebrew was named baseball’s most valuable player in 1969 and the American League player of the year in both 1969 and 1970. He has won the American League’s home run championship five times and is one of only two men in baseball history to hit more than 40 home runs per season for eight or more seasons. “Yet, to hear Harmon Killebrew tell it,” the article said, “being an idol at the stadium doesn’t count for much if a man is a failure at home.” Brother Killebrew was quoted as saying, “There’s nothing more challenging and rewarding than helping a youngster mold his life into that of a mature adult. After all, someday I’ll retire from baseball, but I’ll always be the father of my children. And if I fail with my family, nothing else matters.” In talking about family home evening, he said, “On those evenings we can discuss each other’s personal aspirations. We can solve family difficulties as a group, not as a know-it-all father handing down decisions. We hold family councils, and there we work out the rules of our household. A child is much more apt to obey a rule if he helped to set it.” Because his profession often keeps him away from home during the baseball season, Brother Killebrew noted, “I’ve learned the difference between quantity time and quality time with my wife and kids. Merely sitting in the same room watching TV isn’t quality time. At our home we do things together.”

• The city of Nauvoo, Illinois, famed in Latter-day Saint history, is the location for a new motion picture version of a famous story from literature, Huckleberry Finn. In the movie Nauvoo, which the Saints were forced to leave in 1846, represents Hannibal, Missouri, which author Mark Twain used as the locale of his great classic. The time period of the story, around the 1840s, is well served in the motion picture by the city’s newly restored houses, public buildings, and craft shops. One house, that of Heber C. Kimball, is being used as the home of the film’s young hero and Widow Douglas. The company producing the film recently released The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, starring Johnny Whitaker, a young Mormon actor, in the title role.

• Dr. Blaine R. Porter, dean of the College of Family Living at Brigham Young University, was a recent guest on a U.S. television program, The Advocates. The program features authorities on subjects of current interest. Brother Porter appeared to argue against the question “Birth control: a decision for your teenager?” Discussing the soaring rate of unwanted pregnancies and the growing trend toward teenagers’ seeking abortions, he said, “If we are really serious about solving these problems, we need to focus attention upon encouraging teenagers to be less sexually active.” Rather than provide free and easy access to birth control treatment for teenagers without parental consent, Dr. Porter said, “we should exert efforts to strengthen the family and to help parents so they can provide guidance for their children that will result in a solution to the problem rather than Band-Aid treatment for symptoms.”

• With the introduction of Brigham Young University’s new semester system, which provides for classes virtually year-round, the annual Campus Education Week has been postponed this year from its traditional June date to August 21–24. More than 300 noncredit classes will be given during the week, including religion, family relations, toy making, genealogy, family fitness, art, child development, dancing, and health and nutrition. Class schedules are available from Education Week, Box 7521, University Station, Provo, Utah 84602.

• As part of an effort to employ qualified persons to work with people of their own culture, LDS Social Services has hired a native Tongan and a native Samoan. Ofisi Pututau of Tonga will work the LDS Social Services—Hawaii agency, while Enosa Wilson of Samoa will work with Samoans in and around Los Angeles.

• Lieutenant Michael Richards, an administrative officer at Craig Air Force Base in Selma, Alabama, is conducting weekly genealogy classes for the citizens of Selma. The seven-week course gives instruction about the basics of genealogical research and organization. Lieutenant Richards, originally from Ogden, Utah, has also been instrumental in organizing the new Central Alabama Genealogical Society. Both the classes and the society have helped to make the Church’s name better known in the Selma area.