Introducing our Newest Contributor: Lisa Tensmeyer Hansen
By John Dehlin on Aug 28, 2006
I am proud to announce our newest member of SunstoneBlog.com–Lisa Tensmeyer Hansen. Please check out her interesting and witty introduction below, but most importantly, please give Lisa a hearty Sunstone welcome!!!
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I may be the only woman on earth damned by Bruce R. McConkie in front of thousands, with the shaming moment circulating regularly on KBYU. Admittedly it was a rather obscure moment. He wasn’t exactly speaking to me. It was November, 1977, and the BYU Marriott Center was full. But if he wasn’t speaking directly to me, why did the camera spot right on me and linger, linger, linger exactly after Elder McConkie’s booming voice declared that those who shall not keep the law SHALL BE DAMNED, saith the Lord!! “Bing!” Poster child. Were my attempts to keep the law so hypocritically transparent? OK, Bill was sitting with me and the frame is actually of the two of us. And with my saucer-sized eyeglasses and Bill’s long sideburns, maybe we looked like we deserved to be damned. The Y alumni magazine later posted our engagement story as a tale of BY-Woo and titled it wrong. Ha! Blessed by a General Authority, it says. Nope, Damned. Thanks to that Sunday evening in November, I am painfully aware of my destiny. You know what I’m talking about. Just when I think I’m doing something good, I’m blind-sided by my true motives and – gotcha – damned to heck.
The only comforting thought is, being damned probably means I will never meet up with the master of intimidation himself in heaven (that’s Elder McConkie, who were you thinking?) Yet I’ve pictured the “never to be” encounter a dozen times. It involves a bit of finger-pointing and eyebrow raising, and maybe a thunderous boom. Not sure what I could possibly add to that conversation. Hmmm. Anyway, life has been uphill and down since 1977: I’m now edging into thirty years of marriage, earned my BS from BYU in 1990, have seven kids, have been a bishop’s wife, am now a Stake YW person, and never know what I’m going to say in Relief Society. At least I know how it will all turn out in the end – thanks Elder McConkie.
Lisa, I’m glad you will be blogging here. I saw you for the first time last year at the 2005 SLC Symposium when you presented with Tom Davies as part of the following session: SL05214, Depicting the Afterlife: New Evidence That Supports and Challenges LDS Understandings of Eternal Life. It was my first exposure to the concepts you presented, and I have to admit, my reaction at the time was, “What in the #$@% is this?!” But the ideas stuck with me, and when I got home I downloaded a few past Symposium sessions on the same subject that you participated in, and then bought and read one of Michael Newton’s books. I’m now quite intrigued by many of the ideas. At a minimum, its given me new ways to look at the ideas of spirit, eternal progression, mortal probation, afterlife, etc. Thanks! Now that I have a better understanding of Newton’s ideas, I’d love to talk with you sometime about them in more depth. Elder McConkie might have damned you to hell, but I’m glad you’ll be here at least until that day comes.
Comment # 1 by Matt Thurston | Aug 28, 2006 | Reply
I’ve been damned to - well, I guess it will have to be the Telestial Kingdom - as well by such luminaries as a former ward YW president, various people who know how to use email (but not how to spell), and Wayne C. Booth. However, after reading _The Rhetoric of Irony_, I’m starting to wonder what he REALLY meant.
We’ll have to see.
Comment # 2 by Stephen Carter | Aug 29, 2006 | Reply
Someone will have to make a movie or documentary of your life. You’ve already got a perfect trailer, buried deep in some BYU TV archive (maybe it’s already on YouTube).
Welcome aboard–looking forward to having many thoughts provoked by your posts!
Comment # 3 by John Remy | Aug 29, 2006 | Reply
Loved this intro post, Lisa! Much fun.
Don’t feel too badly about having been damned by Elder McConkie. I had Elder Packer standing in the circle when I received the Melchizedek Priesthood (he was visiting our stake conference that day) and look how I turned out even with that more blessed start to my adult church life!
We’re glad you’ve agreed to come aboard the good ship SunstoneBlog. I’m looking forward to having so many more people get to know you and Bill (through you, and I hope he’ll chime in, too!) the way Lorri and I have. You’re just too great.
BTW, folks, Lisa didn’t just “earn” her BS from BYU in 1990 but was university valedictorian.
Comment # 4 by Dan | Aug 29, 2006 | Reply
Lisa, the photo is cute!
Hey, a little insight into your damnation…there are those, behind the scene, who have a little more control over what hit the screen at the declaration of your eternal judgement, than he who uttered said declaration. Drawing from my own experience of running cameras, and producing and directing television programs in college, rest assured there is a higher power that influences this…ART. Yes, the vision of he or she who sees all… Of all the perspectives available to the director from each of the strategically placed cameras in that massive room, you fit. (I’m putting my money on Bill’s sideburns.) You see, it’s all in the creative process of perspective (or there were no other cameras ready wtih a shot)…but to quote Leonardo Da Vinci “Where the Spirit does not work with the hand, There is no Art.” I would reverence the moment by knowing that as part of creative process and humor in the sight of those in the booth, your damnation is beautiful! There is also the possiblility that the pizza had just arrived and the director’s mouth was too full to instruct the next fade or cut, so you received an ‘added measure’ of air time…ahhh…but it’s all about Art. Right? So what is going on behind the scenes right now? God has a sense of humor too…
Love ya! Wendy
Comment # 5 by wendy | Aug 30, 2006 | Reply
Welcome to SunstoneBlog, Lisa! I’m _really_ looking forward to your posts.
Comment # 6 by Jana | Sep 1, 2006 | Reply