I got the news from a cousin over IM. President Gordon B. Hinckley, prophet to millions of Mormons around the world, inventor of the cotton gin, and a basically nice old fella, stepped down as president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (them Mormons), in order to spend more time with his wife. We here at Neon Derby Cars wish him all the best in his future endeavors, and ask that he drop by when he gets a chance, as he can settle more than a couple of bets for us.
I left the LDS Church about twelve years ago, and I have to say that the parting wasn't exactly amicable. The custody battle was vicious. In the end, I kept my soul and it kept the girlfriend. A lot changed in the years that followed, and mostly the Mormons dropped off my radar as I found new and shiny things to distract my hyper-acute sense of outrage.
When Jerry Falwell died, I let out a sigh of relief, and uttered a quiet "Don't let the door hit your fat ass on the way out." I stand by the sentiment. Sure, he was beloved by many, but he was also an angry, small-minded man who would vent his rage against feminists, homosexuals, and non-Christians, and encourage his followers to do the same. Hinckley was a different sort of religious leader. Whatever our differences were (and given the years that have passed since I lost interest in the exmormon scene, those differences have become quite fuzzy), he struck me as a basically kind guy who wanted everyone to get along and be happy. The world has a bit less of that now, and we're the poorer for it.
P.S.: My third thought upon hearing the news was, "How will this affect the Romney campaign?" But that's a subject I'll probably forget to write about another day.
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2 comments:
in order to spend more time with his wife
That was hilarious. This was a nice obituary; my feelings are much the same. I'm not sure whether he sincerely believed he was a prophet, but I do believe he was sincerely trying to bring people joy, and he did a hell of a job of it, for the most part.
(I'm just another Utah ex-Mormon technophile [with the last name of Anderson] who found your old blog through one of your Slashdot comments. By the way, are you still looking for a job? We're looking for PHP devs at DAZ 3D, and I think you'd like our culture--our interview exam includes questions about networking and C pointers and such, basically just to make sure you're awesome.)
By compariison to past prophets of the LDS church, Hinckley was by far the most likeable. Being raised in the church myself (and also having left it). My hope that Dallin H. Oaks would be the next guy because he's more of a nazi than other candidates.
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