Word: hinckley
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...office of Gordon Hinckley, the president of the Mormon church, leads through long carpeted corridors with wood-paneled walls and security doors that swing open noiselessly with no visible movement from the guards. It is like walking into a David Lynch movie. In these hushed precincts, groups of gray-haired men in identical black suits pass by, beaming smiles like undertakers. Everyone is scrupulously polite, but as a visitor, one feels that one has been dropped into the middle of a plot, without knowing the beginning...
...None of us have been approached by any Mormons bent on spreading the word. Granted, it's only been 24 hours since my arrival, but if current trends hold, it seems there will be precious few conversions here over the next two weeks. Gordon Hinckley, the current head of the Church of Latter Day Saints, happily seems to have a healthy sense of humor about the stereotypes surrounding his religion, but he also seems quite keen to prove one thing: Even evangelism can take a holiday - especially when the Winter Games are in town...
...Organizing Committee, and Dave Johnson, a former senior vice president, were indicted on federal charges, including bribery and fraud. The charges were dismissed last year, but the Justice Department last month appealed the dismissal. All along, the Mormon church has tried to keep the scandal at arm's length-Hinckley says he had instructed the church to remain strictly "neutral" in every aspect of the Olympics. The hope is that by the opening ceremonies, the scandal will be largely forgotten...
...sulphur-colored plains, the pioneers hacked a difficult livelihood, struggling with biblical droughts, a plague of grasshoppers and overpowering summer heat. In other Western states such hardships bred a cantankerous individualism. In Utah the LDS church fostered a tightly knit communitarian approach. This lingers today in the "clannishness" that Hinckley criticized in his Pioneer Day speech, and has led to the polarization of society that persists even as much else in the state is changing...
...plot comes back to the Mormon church. It is impossible to know what kind of debates are going on inside the church, and whether Hinckley's drive for greater openness will be maintained by the next president...