Man of God

While visiting Korea in 2005, I had the opportunity to hear President Hinckley relate a portion of the following experience:

I was in Seoul, Korea, in May of 1961 when a coup occurred. The president of the nation fled for his life as the military took over the affairs of the country. I was awakened in my hotel room at 4:30 in the morning by the sound of cannon fire in the street below. From my window I watched shells hit the wall and break the windows of the government building which stood next to the hotel. I turned on the radio. I discovered it had become the first target of those taking over the government. The newspapers followed. Freedom of the press was abridged. Freedom of speech was muzzled. Freedom of assembly was denied. These were primary targets in taking control of the nation and its people. . .

[Such events] stand as evidence to each of us of the inspired vision of our forebears two centuries ago in demanding a written Constitutional prohibition against the enactment of any law concerning an establishment of religion, the free exercise thereof, freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The world lost a great champion of freedom today, an advocate for all humanity, and a true man of God.