Gordon B. Hinckley R.I.P

On Sunday, January 26th, 2008, Gordon B. Hinckley, president of the LDS church passed away. He was 97 years old

And honestly, I'm a bit bummed out by this.

While there is no love lost between me and the Mormon religion, I still tip my hat to Mr. Hinckley. I found him to be decent, and a complete gentleman. I'm going to miss the guy.

A lot of you may be asking why an angry nihilist like myself would even be slightly regretful over the loss of a religious leader? Particularly a leader who heads the one religion in Utah that overshadows everything. Anyone who lives in this state knows that you can't scratch your nose without the church eventually finding out about it. And that if you choose to believe in anything other than Mormonism, more pressure is put on your life because of it. The Mormons can be a very forceful, albeit polite, entity when it comes to spreading the religiosity to us hell-bound nonconformists. As such, there's been a kind of uneasy truce between myself and the church. So, what in hell drives me to memorialize Hinckley?

Easy, the man had the right attitude.

Gordon was willing to acknowledge that there are people who don't buy into the LDS way of doing things, and had no problems with it. If someone wanted to reinterpret existence and morality in a different way, it was all cool. As long as you didn't go around killing folks, stealing things, or dumping your ego around on others, chances are good he would've even been your buddy.

And, he was willing to pass that message on to his flock. In many of his speeches (which I won't quote, simply because I don't know them verbatim,) he would tell the members of the church that it was cool if people didn't buy into the church, it didn't make them any less of a person. He said something along the lines of, "If you know someone who isn't Mormon, be their friend. And don't do it because you want to preach to them, just do it because everyone needs a chum. And maybe they know something that we don't, that could make us stronger Mormons."

And I can sit well with that ideology. There's nothing about the LDS church in it's legacy, or it's practice that will ever compel me sign up. However, I've met and known tons of the church's faithful who have been nothing but cool. Decent, well-meaning people who's only disagreement point with me is what they do with their Sundays. They've never challenged me on where I stand, and I've never torn their belief system apart. And it's worked out just fine.

I'm scared now that the person who replaces Mr. Hinckley won't have that sensibility. I'm worried he'll take the pro-active approach on the church. I worry that this attitude of integration and brotherhood will take a back-seat to the big push of recruiting new followers. It means that the dark side of Mormonism, that elitist notion of "we're right, you're not," may rear it's ugly head again. And that right there is what has constantly bothered me about the LDS, or any other aggressive religious idealism for that matter. If I am not one of your converts, I am an enemy to you. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. And I just don't have the time for more enemies, especially those who judge me merely on where I'm sitting in the afterlife.

So, Mormons and apostates alike, let us celebrate Mr. Hinckley, and his willingness to say that one religion may not be for everyone. In tribute to the man, I welcome all of you to be my friend.

Just leave all the church stuff at home.