"
Virtue is too often neglected, if not
scorned or ridiculed as old-fashioned, confining and unenlightened,"
laments author Gordon Hinckley, a 90-year-old ordained leader of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Even as he enumerates all of
America's social ills (including 482 billion dollars a year spent on
gambling, rampant child neglect and abuse, school massacres, a pervasive
deterioration of values) Hinckley believes there is a remedy. Chapter by
chapter Hinckley presents 10 old-fashioned virtues that will return
America to the glory envisioned by its founding fathers. These virtues
include: Love, Honesty, Morality, Civility, Learning, Forgiveness, Thrift
and Industry, Gratitude, Optimism and Faith.
Hinckley makes a compelling case for every one of these virtues, quoting
extensively from the Bible but mostly using convincing personal anecdotes
(after all, he is an elder with 90 years' worth of stories and wisdom). In
his glowing foreword, Mike Wallace (of 60 Minutes fame) writes that Gordon
Hinckley is an "optimistic leader of the Mormon Church who fully
deserves the almost universal admiration that he gets." Clearly,
Hinkley has struck a resounding chord with the American populace,
including dyed-in-the-wool New York cynics such as Wallace. Word of this
book is rapidly spreading across America as simple folk clamour to steer
their lives and country with a more virtuous compass.
Please e-mail us at gedburnell@yahoo.com
Gordon B. Hinckley's
Standing for
Something