Hinckley's life spanned the 20th century, a time marked by LDS global outreach and technological advances. Hie saw his church evolve from a tiny sect in the Intermountain West to a respected religious movement with more than 13 million members worldwide. He embraced each new communication device, from radio to satellite to YouTube, as a chance to spread the Mormon word.
He began his career in the 1930s as a missionary defending the faith on a soapbox in London's Hyde Park and lived to see the country's first viable Mormon candidate for president.
Through it all, Hinckley worked tirelessly to gain acceptance for his church on the world's stage. "We are not a weird people," Hinckley told Mike Wallace in a 1995 "60 Minutes" interview. With the shrewdness of a politician, Hinckley downplayed the more controversial aspects of LDS history.
He welcomed the world to Utah for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, promising everyone they could get a drink here and accepted one of America's highest honors -- the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
GORDON B. HINCKLEY, 97
Leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Died Sunday. According to the Salt Lake Tribune:
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My experience in Salt Lake City (I spent a month there in the summer of 2006) was a good one, except for the time I had a smoothie thrown at me from a passing car while I was riding a bike.
One night, I visited downtown with my friend, a native. We walked around the Salt Lake Temple, which was gorgeous. Of course, she explained, we could never go in because we weren't Mormon. It takes a lot to get in there, apparently.
The LDS church is very exclusionary, but they detest the neocon Christian right as much as anyone sane. As a non-Mormon, I felt more welcome in Utah than I sometimes did in my southern Catholic hometown. So Hinckley at least had that going for him. Not that I'd vote for Mitt Romney or anything, but still...
In other news, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church also died. A sign from God?
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