The Rev. Amos C. Brown of the NAACP, left, and President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints participate in a news conference at the Church Administration Building in Salt Lake City on Monday, June 14, 2021. President Nelson will receive the first ever Gandhi-King-Mandela Peace Prize from Morehouse College in Atlanta on Thursday. Photo: Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — President Russell M. Nelson, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will be the recipient of the first ever Gandhi-King-Mandela Peace Prize on Thursday. The award comes from the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
The purpose of the award is to bridge division and bring people together in an effort for peace, according to Morehouse College.
Elder Jack N. Gerard, a General Authority Seventy, joined Inside Sources with Boyd Matheson on Tuesday to talk about the importance of this award.
Matheson begins the conversation by saying “I don’t even know how to describe it as exciting, significant, important, and powerful in terms of both what President Nelson has been doing in connection for this particular award.”
He asks Elder Gerard to give some perspective on it.
“I think you described it,” he said. “I’d just add the word historic. And it’s historic in the sense that as many know at the historic Morehouse College, and one of the historic black colleges and universities in the country, one of the premier institutions. They see President Nelson as not only a true leader, but as you mentioned, its inaugural Gandi-King-Mandela Peace Prize, the peace prize that they will be awarding President Nelson.”
The ceremony will be held at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Chapel on the campus of Morehouse College. It is the site of the second remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., following his assassination.
“And so, this is a very historical institution,” Elder Gerard said. “And it holds a lot of history and understanding, if you will, as to what it takes in our society and our culture to bring people together to truly be a bridge builder.”
Elder Gerard says this is an opportunity for people to come together.
“I know he’s very humbled by this,” Elder Gerard said of President Nelson. “But what a wonderful privilege and opportunity to use this occasion to bring us all more together. To set a model for the world is what we should be doing to help one another out.”
As part of the ceremony Thursday, an oil portrait of President Nelson will be unveiled. It will go alongside the portraits of other historic individuals, including Dr. King and former President Abraham Lincoln.
Listen to the full segment.
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