President Gordon B. Hinckley of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints died over the weekend. Pam Spaulding dug up an appearance by Hinckley on Larry King Live on which King asked him about same-sex marriage.
KING: “I know that the church is opposed to gay marriage. Do you have an alternative; do you like the idea of civil unions?”
HINCKLEY: “Well, we’re not anti-gay, we’re pro-family. Let me put it that way…and we love these people [gays] and try to work with them and help them. We know that they have a problem. We want to help them solve that problem.”
KING: “The problem they caused, or that they were born that way?”
HINCKLEY: “I don’t know, I’m not an expert on these things. I don’t pretend to be an expert on these things. The fact is that they have a problem.”
KING: “Do you favor some sort of state union?”
HINCKLEY: “Well, we want to be very careful about that, because that…whatever, may lead to gay marriage, and that we’re not in favor of.”
Hinckley was 97 years old.
Mormon GOP candidate Mitt Romney commented on Hinckley today at a Florida campaign stop and said he would attend the funeral:
“‘We will miss him as a family, respect him as a man of great character and courage, but particularly his humility and ability to touch the lives of each individual is something for which he will long be noted,’ Romney told reporters outside a Texaco station. He added that Hinckley’s ‘effort to reach out across the world and to faraway lands and to build temples for our church is something which will also give him a legacy that will last many, many years, indeed. And we will miss his leadership.’
