110499207183620028
The Spin Again and Again–You know, I stayed really quiet on the whole “Gordon B. Hinckley on Larry King Live” event, held the day after Christmas, December 26, 2004, on CNN. Part if it was because Gordo came off so mainstream, and genteel, and well, OLD, that I don’t really want to attack that, even if I don’t agree with his religious viewpoint. But it’s BUGGING me. Big time. So I have to talk about it with you.
While I have a few issue with his speech, including his gay marriage comments, today we will just address the business of his being a prophet. Mostly because it’s really bugging me. A lot. A WHOLE damn lot.
On Larry King Live, LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley said:
KING: You are the prophet, right?
HINCKLEY: Right.
KING: Does that mean that, according to the church canon, the Lord speaks through you?
HINCKLEY: I think he makes his will manifest, yes.
KING: So if you change things, that’s done by an edict given to you.
HINCKLEY: Yes, sir.
KING: How do you receive it?
HINCKLEY: Well, various ways. It isn’t necessarily a voice heard. Impressions come. The building of this very building I think is an evidence of that.
There came an impression, a feeling, that we need to enlarge our facilities where we could hold our conferences. And it was a very bold measure. We had to tear down a big building here and put this building up at great cost.
But goodness sakes, what a wonderful thing it’s proven to be. It is an answer to many, many needs. And I think it’s the result of inspiration.KING: And that came from something higher than you.
HINCKLEY: I think so.
IMPRESSIONS??? What the fuck? You have GOT to be kidding me. He THINKS so? Can you be a little more wishy-washy? The prophet talks to God. I heard it every day of my life. EVERY DAY. In my youth, every time I went up to the podium on Fast and Testimony Sunday (before I got kinda cynical) I swore Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I KNEW the Church was true. I knew it was the only true Church. I knew it because God talked to the Mormons. For hell’s sake, He SHOWED up and had this whole personal pow-wow with Joseph Smith Jr., and this wasn’t some brief Virgin-Mary-in-the-Grilled Cheese kind of visitation. And after that, he talked to Joseph a lot. He talked all the time. He even talked to Joseph’s wife Emma, through Joe of course, and told her to cowboy up and just ACCEPT polygamy. After all, it was HIS wish, not Joe’s.
And God kept talking. Of course, nobody else understood what we did. But as Mormons, we knew God was still talking to us, despite what the Bible said about God not really doing a lot of talking anymore. We believed in modern-day revelation, and mainstream Christians did not. It was part of what made us special. He was talking to his prophets and they were passing it on.
I grew up with this. Every day. Every Sunday. Every morning during family prayer and scripture study. Every Monday night during Family Home Evening. Everytime I wanted to play or go swimming on Sunday, or wear a halter top, I was REMINDED that God was talking to us, and he did NOT want us doing those things.
I missed out on a lot of my youth because God was talking.
So, by God, God better still be talking.
Well, apparently, he ain’t talking to Gordon. He’s giving “impressions.”
I already knew the first 18 years of my life were wasted, but this is SALT on the wounds. God, Gordon, please, just PRETEND God is talking to you. Please?
Stop rubbing it in. Bad clothes, endless Church meetings, and lots of repression later, you leave me having to ask, what the fuck? An impression is something that my ass makes when I sit on my faux leather couch (Don’t ask. Bad husband with questionable taste).
I am NOT impressed. Sheesh.
March 14th, 2005 at 6:21 am
No no, you got it all wrong.
God did not talk to GBH. He left impressions - see? Impressions that the woman of the church should not be wearing more than one pair of earrings at a time. That tatoos are grafitti on the temple of god, i.e. your body and that the men should only do service in the church wearing white shirts and a conservative tie. Impressions - get it?
It was the Lard´s impressions which prompted the church in the 19th century to produce a lot of piles of debris and the Lard´s impressions caused the church to negate those piles ever existing, and refraining from cleaning the piles up, instead.
Must be tough to be a Mormon President these days.
I remember a talk and sigh Hinckley once gave a general conference of the church. He talked about the picture of “Brother Brigham” in his office and how he voiced his sighs to him about the current problems the church is having or facing.
He apparently received an immediate answer from Brigham: “I truly had my own share of problems in my time, you just go ahaid and care for your own problems in your time.” or something like that.
I am sure what he thought about but did not tell was the implact the internet and global exchange of information have on the church and its members.
Don´t get me wrong. And I am sure you disagree:
I have the greatest of respect for the church and for what it does. Even though I do not agree with its claim to be the “only true and living church” I still believe in its authenticity and spiritual value to people as it has a similar value to people of other churches and cultures.
I personally found out that the church or its doctrine and leaders do not answer the questions I am asking and the discourse I am having. But at a point in my life (about 12 years) it had.