Part of President Hunter's statement to the news media June 6, 1994:
....To the members of
the Church in every country of the world
and to people everywhere I extend my love.
There are two invitations
I would like to leave with the members
of the Church as we strive to keep the commandments of God and receive
the full measure of His blessings. First of all, I would invite
all
members of the Church to live with ever-more attention to the life
and
example of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially the love and hope and
compassion He displayed.
I pray that we might
treat each other with more kindness, more
courtesy, more humility and patience and forgiveness. We do have
high
expectations of one another, and all can improve. Our world cries
out for
more disciplined living of the commandments of God. But the way
we are to
encourage that, as the Lord told the Prophet Joseph in the wintry
depths
of Liberty Jail, is "by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness
and
meekness, and by love unfeigned;...without hypocrisy, and without
guile."
(D&C 121:41-42.)
To those who have transgressed
or been offended, we say come
back. To those who are hurt and struggling and afraid, we say let
us
stand with you and dry your tears. To those who are confused and
assailed
by error on every side, we say come to the God of all truth and
the
Church of continuing revelation. Come back. Stand with us. Carry
on. Be
believing. All is well, and all will be well. Feast at the table
laid
before you in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and
strive
to follow the Good Shepherd who has provided it. Have hope, exert
faith,
receive--and--give charity, the pure love of Christ.
Secondly, and in that
same spirit, I also invite the members of
the Church to establish the temple of the Lord as the great symbol
of
their membership and the supernal setting for their most sacred
covenants. It would be the deepest desire of my heart to have every
member of the Church temple worthy. I would hope that every adult
member
would be worthy of--and carry--a current temple recommend, even
if
proximity to a temple does not allow immediate or frequent use of
it.
Let us be a temple-attending
and a temple-loving people. Let us
hasten to the temple as frequently as time and means and personal
circumstances allow. Let us go not only for our kindred dead, but
let us
also go for the personal blessing of temple worship, for the sanctity
and
safety which is provided within those hallowed and consecrated walls.
The
temple is a place of beauty, it is a place of revelation, it is
a place
of peace. It is the house of the Lord. It is holy unto the Lord.
It
should be holy unto us.
Christ-like behavior when faced with a situation that threatened
his
life:
On 7 February 1993, he
was on the Brigham Young University campus
to speak at a nineteen-stake fireside and [video satellite] broadcast.
As
President Hunter rose to address the nearly twenty thousand young
adults
assembled in the Marriott Center, an assailant threatened him, shouting,
"Stop right there!" The man claimed to have a bomb and a detonator
and
ordered everyone to leave the stand except President Hunter. Many
people
did leave, yet President Hunter resolutely stayed at the pulpit,
with two
security guards. Although threatened by what looked like a gun,
President
Hunter firmly declined to read the written statement the man handded
to
him. When students spontaneously began to sing "We Thank Thee, O
God, for
a Prophet," the assailant was momentarily distracted. [Some people]
rushed him and took him into custody....Security guards lowered
President
Hunter to the floor for safety.
There was, of course,
a considerable commotion in the audience,
but soon a reasonable calm returned. After a few moments to collect
himself, President Hunter made a second approach to the microphone
and
read the opening line of his prepared text: "Life has a fair number
of
challenges in it." He stopped, looked over the audience, and added,
"As
demonstrated." Then he went on with his message as though nothing
had
happened." (Ensign, Aug 1994, p. 11-12.)