President Gordon B. Hinckley dies at age 97

This is bittersweet, as his strong voice and leadership will be missed, but there is no tragedy when someone dies unto the Lord, and we can safely assume that it is well with him. Would that we could all have the reception upon our passing that Pres. Hinckley today enjoyed.

He was the gentlest of men. Members and non-members alike will miss his humour and teachings. Once again he is with his wife, Camille. May he rest in peace.

I apologize. His wife’s name was Marjorie.

Mormon, not a Mormon, American, not an American, man, woman - it just doesn’t matter - President Hinckley deserves a space of time without the cowardice of “Mormon hating” comments. Thank God for this great man’s memory and God bless the family he leaves behind.

Who knows… Maybe they are both his wives!

This man is a legend! He will make a fantastic god!

Probably even better than Elohim!

He was the most wonderful, gentle Prophet in my lifetime. He will absolutely be greatly missed. It is a sad time for us, but what a wonderful reunion he is having right now!

I know, right? He’s totally a god now!

Possibly more attention to the LDS Church will not be good for the institution’s reputation.

We get countless letters from Americans who are surprised at the real history of the LDS church, its practices, and its reputation of twisting the truth to meet its needs.

Find articles, online videos, and recommended books at:

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One day people will open their eyes and realize that polygamy hasn’t been around for over 100 years. He has made an impact on my life and I am grateful that. I am better as a result of listening to him.

He’ll be missed. At least he is with his beautiful wife now. I’ll never forget him. God be with you till we meet again!

And the anti-Mormon rants begin. Surprise surprise.

“We get countless letters from Americans who are surprised at the real history of the LDS church, its practices, and its reputation of twisting the truth to meet its needs.”

Never heard this kind of stuff before. I am so surprised.

Polygamy is a minor issue compared to the compete fabrication of the religion by Joseph Smith, a known and convicted con-man in both NY & PA. What about the discovery of the Book of Abraham’s original papyrus and the absolute proof that once again Joseph Smith made it all up as his translation had not a single word or concept correct - We can read hieroglyphics now thanks to the Rosetta Stone (Joseph Smith didn’t see that one coming, usually a bad sign when one calls himself a prophet). What about the fact that the BoM parallels an earlier published book “View of the Hebrews,” which was published by an author and pastor that was coincidently from the same town as Oliver Cowedry (Joseph Smith’s scribe for the BoM). What about the fact that there is absolutely no evidence for the Book of Mormon? None! The LDS missionaries always tell me there IS EVIDENCE, then I offer to fund the excursion to visit these sites. Problem… no sites. Or how Smith changed key parts of the D&C? Or the fact that the LDS culture produces the most DEPRESSED people in our nation (as reported by TIME magazine just last month). Or that LDS members must surpress their sexual orientation for their is no room for homosexuals in the LDS community. Or that women are referred to more as “possessions” than partners - that one is right from the mouth of Gordon. B. Hinckley.

We certainly are critical of the LDS Church when it lies about its history or its doctrines (as evident in this presidential election), but please do not think we are uninformed or unfamiliar with the LDS Church, some of us just got out. We don’t need to focus on polygamy and how the prophets sexually abused underage girls, that’s old news. We have so much more to cover.

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He was a great man and made many friends on behalf of the church, both LDS and Non LDS. He was respected by many. While we are sad to lose a great man and prophet, we celebrate his life and his legacy. We are happy for him to be again with his wife he missed so much. As always the church will go on and we will love President Monson just as much.

How do you know God will choose President Monson? Maybe God will choose that 700 club guy?? Maybe He’ll choose the Pope?

Monson is next in line, but I thought there was no line. I thought God chose the President. I guess I was wrong.

But if I am wrong, then why was Sidney Rigdon denied leadership after Smith died?

The angels of heaven rejoice, while the saints around the world mourn the loss of our belovied prophet and friend.

Please. Anti-Mormons, don’t be sour, we’re sad, and you are being jerks.

My daughter age 7 cried (as did I) when we heard of the passing of our prophet and leader President Gordon B. Hinkley. We loved this man and will long revere him. Large assembly halls fell quiet when he entered. President Gordon B. Hinkley will be sorely missed, he was a great man who loved ALL people!

Response to Megan.

There would be less criticism if Gordon B. Hinckley had simply told the truth to the media instead of feeding them frequent lies and distortions. Subject matter like blacks in the church, denial of bigotry, denial of racism, denial that the LDS church or its prophets ever made disparaging comments about other religions (please… it’s in the scriptures), claims that polygamy was small scale and “carefully safe guarded” and necessary because there weren’t enough women (not supported by census records)… these are all distortions or out right lies. Then again he was from a public relations background, though I expect more honestly from a church leader. Even the Pope admits the Roman Catholic Church made mistakes throughout history and has even apologized to the offended groups. Though I know the LDS Church cannot do this as it would admit it was wrong and that its prophets were not instructed by God as to these doctrines.

Please be judicious when you throw around terms like “anti-Mormon.” Is a writer that criticizes Islam for its spread by the sword policy considered “anti-Muslim”? Is a writer that criticizes the Roman Catholic Church for mis-handling the priest-sex abuse cases called “anti-Catholic”? Were Jews that fought against the policies of Adolf Hilter “anti-German”? Follow the logic. If we fabricated information or mislead readers than that is unacceptable, but we do NOT DO SO and we stand by all our doctrinal claims and church criticism. We do not need to lie or deceive, for that is exactly the environment we detest. We are not bigoted, our criticism is warranted. I know we’re all taught to never criticize LDS church leaders even when they are wrong; that is fundamentally flawed.

Unfortunately what most LDS member fail to see is there is a world of scholarship about the LDS church that sheds much light on its history, but members immediately assume it is skewed, “anti-Mormon” literature, etc. If the only information members can trust is from LDS.org, do you wonder what the church is hiding? I would never trust any organization that said “Please learn more about us, but make sure you ONLY hear it from one source… OURS. Everyone else that says anything to the contrary is obviously wrong and anti-Mormon.”

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I am in the army serving in Germany and saw in the headlines the announcement of the death of this man. Other than knowing some very nice people in my life who are Mormon and the current campaign of Mitt Romney, I am not all that familiar with the life and leadership of President Hinkley.

What I do know is that the low class exhibited by hateful intruders in this blog site is reprehensible and in the most shameful, poorest taste. Regardless of your personal issues with the Mormon faith, it is sick to ridicule a man who obviously means so much to so many.

My condolences for the loss of this leader.

We are not criticizing the morality of LDS members, we are criticizing a church leadership that has since its inception deceived its righteous members. We hope for change and transparency when they select the next LDS prophet. This is echoed by many progressive LDS members who wish to raise the church up to a position in which is can be respected by all people, not just the faithful members. This is an opportunity to reconcile and not run away from our past.

Again, this is clearly articulated in the articles on [link kindly deleted by A Soft Answer]. The articles were originally meant to force Mitt Romney to embrace the LDS doctrines in front of the media, but the issues are not limited to that candidate.

We encourage people not to take our word as law, but to research our statements thoroughly and come to your own conclusion. We provide recommended books (both LDS and non-LDS), online videos, and we welcome any corrections. Google is a wonderful tool, but always check sources, we say this because there are site that will fabricate stories about the LDS Church to turn public opinion. This is neither useful or effective. Accurate scholarship and research is the only way to learn the truth.

Sir,

If LDS members (in your own words) are “righteous” then how is it that they have been deceived?

I do believe in independent, critical inquiry. I would not, however, in my own dialectical search for information, trust the opinion of anyone so cruel and bitter that they would ridicule the death of a revered leader…. From what little I know about Mr. Hinkley, it appears that he was an honorable, honest man. For some to knowingly cause pain through caustic comments is reprehensible.

If individuals so inclined are associated with your efforts, then shame on them and shame on you for allowing such vitriolic hatred.

Hatred or accountability? We merely insist on the later. To TBM’s he is a honorable and honest man, though I would recommend that due a thorough analysis of Gordon B. Hinckley’s interviews with the media. You will clearly and repeatedly observe an intent to decieve both non-LDS members and LDS members into thinking the LDS church was blameless, all its doctrines were of God, and anywhere there was obvious error or bigotry… to just simply forget and move on. There was never accountability with LDS leadership. Example: Although the LDS Church finally allowed black men to hold the priesthood, nothing was ever done to reject the racist statements of the previous prophets OR to publicly censure and retract the doctrines that kept people of color from holding the priesthood in the first place. Dark skin was always associated with sin or lower stature in the LDS Church, imagine that according to the LDS prophets God is a racist too. The LDS church never rejected the many outright racist and bigoted statements of Brigham Young, especially those he insisted were prophetic counsel.

When Hinckley was asked about such topics on Larry King, all he stated was “I don’t know, it’s here now, let’s move on.” Again, why did Hinckley not take this opportunity to reconcile and admit racism crept into its doctrines as the prophets were mere men and this frequently influenced what they “deemed” to be from God. Is this a small matter? Absolutely not, because if the the prophets have erred, then what are we to do with all the statements in the D&C?

Why is this important? The LDS Church has 50,000 missionaries often targeting developing nations or the poor, places where they feel they have better chances at converts. Even in major European cities, the recent poor, often uneducated immigrants are targets. They make it look as if the LDS Church is blameless, yet if many of these potential converts (often now people of color) could see the racist doctrines that God supposedly ordained on Earth, no doubt they would have serious questions regarding the LDS Church’s authenticity. If Mormon missionaries have no issue converting people by in effect trying to convince them that their religion is WRONG, then what is wrong with other groups identifying issues with the LDS Church? You cannot remain an atheist, Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Hindu. Muslim, etc. if you are to listen to the missionaries - your previous religion is wrong. If believe Joseph Smith, our non-LDS religions are an abomination in God’s eyes. So if it’s a great time in a young man’s life when he gets to travel to other places and convert people by telling them that the LDS Church is the only true religion, then why is any statement that is critical of the LDS religion considered bigoted and “anti-Mormon.” No difference. Once again, the LDS leadership in their quest to control thoughts and opinions have only created what we refer to as indeed rightous people, but under the thumb of an oppressive organization.

You can delete the links and references to all outside information (as you have) and you only prove that the LDS membership is closed to facts and truth; you fear that exposure will shake your faith. And you are correct, it will. At the very least we can prevent others from falling prey to the lies of missionaries and the LDS leadership.

Go ahead and remove the link. Let your people wallow in darkness. Education, facts, history… all optional in the LDS Church. Better to give faith promoting rumors, because as the LDS leaders told us “All that is true, is not useful.”

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A great man has died. Believe him or not just look at what he had done for mankind in general. Anyone with a half sense of dignity should put away their attacks for at least a day out of respect for the loss of those who loved him. Suppose the Mormons are really wrong; at least they have a heart.

President Hinkley had been a great man of God.He has given his time ,showned his love for each of us .I have great respect for him and a great example for me and in my family.All his talks had been a guidance in our family and in my life.He will miss us.

Dear,
Editor, ExposeRomney,
First, I would hardly place my trust in someone who can not be recognized by there given name. Secondly, if the LDS church is so unjust and wrong, why don’t you spend less time on a MORMON blog and more time searching for what you belive to be true. Truly honorable people do not waist so much time trying to destroy the hope and beliefs of others, but work on becomeing better people themselves.

To so call Editor, if that is your real name..
shame on you, I’m not an LDS member or anti-Mormon, I love all people it
doesn’t matter who they are, we are all human beings…what did this servant of God did to you or your family?
I can see you are full of hate. Why don’t you go and discuss these issues
with the members of the LDS church, instead of voicing your hatred and your
ignorant comments on this blog?
We all make mistakes! we are all sinners including you! Move on sister!
Clean your own backyard first before you throw in your holier-than-thou
attitude on this blog…

My condolences to the family and LDS church for the passing of this
faithful servant of God.

Sinner