Did Hatch AlludeTo LDS Prophecy?
Salt Lake Tribune 11Nov99 N2
By John Heilprin: Salt Lake Tribune

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- While Orrin Hatch claims that his campaign for U.S. President isn't motivated by an obscure LDS prophecy, he used the exact phrase from the prophecy in an interview on KSL Radio this week.

In the show, an interview with KSL's Doug Wright, Hatch said, referring to the Democratic Party:

"They tolerate everything that's bad, and they're intolerant of everything that's good. Religious freedom is going to go down the drain, too. I've never seen it worse than this, where the Constitution literally is hanging by a thread."

The last phrase, referring to the 'Constitution hanging by a thread,' comes from the so-called "White Horse Prophecy," in which Joseph Smith said that a time would come when the U.S. Constitution was hanging by a thread and the Elders of the LDS Church would come in and save it.

Asked to clarify later, Hatch refused. But his spokesperson, Heather Barney said that the Senator was simply using a common a common phrase, and hadn't spent "one iota of time" thinking about the prophecy. "Just because he chose these words that anybody would say when talking about the Constitution -- it would be inaccurate to interpret what he said in that way," said Barney.

But interviewer Wright said that he was surprised at the quote. "It just caught me by surprise. It was worded carefully," Wright said Wednesday. "I'm not sure he saw himself as the one who would fulfill the prophecy, but I thought it walked a fine line. It's such a well-recognized phrase."