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[Church/State] Gordon B. Hinckley appears to have been a decent, God-fearing man. And that has nothing to do with the fact that the American flag in Utah should not be flying at half-staff in his honor.
It may seem otherwise, considering the way Old Glory is used as a barometer for any sort of local tragedy, but there are actually Federal guidelines for this sort of thing. The governor of a state may, in fact, order American flags to fly at half-staff, but only under very specific circumstances. And the death of a religious leader -- I feel the need to re-emphasize this, even in Utah: a RELIGIOUS leader -- does not qualify.
Title 4 of the U.S. code spells it all out, and section 7m authorizes a governor to make such an order "upon the death of a present or former official of the government of the state, or the death of a member of the Armed Forces from that state who dies while serving on active duty" (hat tip to USAHistory.org). The head of the LDS Church may be a de facto political figure in Utah, but we can all mourn without bringing the flag into it. (Scott Renshaw)
[News] Last night, The Colbert Report exposed the grand conspiracy behind the "untimely death" of LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley. Remember, he did it, not us ...
(Bill Frost)
[Obit Wars] Over at The Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake Crawler Glen Warchol blogs nice today about LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, who died last night at the age of 97. Warchol urges people to go easy on the Mormon-bashing some might be inclined to share, if for no other reason than to exemplify good manners.
What Warchol may not have expected was the back and forth between posters, who let loose with rants about what they suspect is the Trib's censorship of online comments related to Hinckley. Anonymous posters to the Crawler seem fairly certain the Trib online editors are killing criticisms of the late prophet, and they are none too happy about it.
(This isn't the first time posters to the Trib's blogs and comment boards have suspected editors fiddle with their free speech. Go here to be refreshed on a similar issue last week.)
I'm not endorsing a string of Hinckley and/or church criticism, by any means. This is a solemn moment, Hinckley was a giant among world religious leaders and a fine quipster to boot. But the questions raised about the "no warts" version of the Hinckley obituaries running in Utah newspapers and tributes running on all TV stations do give one pause. The best obituaries in newspaper lore are those that give a full picture of a person's life--good, bad, ugly. Since we are all human on this planet, it's always nice to see a realistic, if adequately respectful, obituary of the celebrities among us.
So, do this: Read the Utah versions and updates of the Hinckley tributes and then try these:
The New York Times Hinckley obit today offers a bit more reason.
And here is a rather interesting NYT piece, written in 1994 (one year before Hinckley took the reigns from church President Ezra Taft Benson). Here, Hinckley talks about why members who speak out against church policy, as several BYU scholars did 11 years ago and were abruptly fired, do so at their own peril. It's an intriguing look at the man's mettle before he became the worldwide leader of a church that cares very deeply about its public image. (Holly Mullen)
[Local Culture] The phone rang last night just after dinner finished around 8 p.m. I was at a friend's house in Midvale. They're devout Mormon. The father, who'd just made his own pasta, is a longstanding member of his ward's Bishopric.
After he answered the phone, he said, "You're kidding." He hung up.
"President Hinckley's dead."
His wife's jaw dropped.
I was looking at Jessica, their 17-year-old daughter, who had her back to me.
She's about to attend BYU as an English major. I'd tutored her a few years ago in writing and was waiting for her to read some of her poems aloud. As a lapsed-Protestant, new to this country, Jessica was my introduction to Mormon folk. I've long admired her passion for a religion I confess I don't understand. What I have come to understand though is, as Harold Bloom said, the LDS faith is uniquely American.
As I watched her back and over her shoulder saw her mother's expression as she stared at her daughter's face, I could feel all of Jessica's pain radiating from her. Her sense of loss was palpable. Her back didn't move, nor her head. She was so rigid it made me ache to watch her. Finally, I turned away.
Where were you when you heard the news? How did you react? Or did it even register? (Stephen Dark)
[Church/State] Gordon B. Hinckley appears to have been a decent, God-fearing man. And that has nothing to do with the fact that the American flag in Utah should not be flying at half-staff in his honor.
