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Okay, some crowdsourcing help here. I specifically remember an interview Tom Brokaw did of Pres. Hinckley around the 2002 Olympics, and the one thing I remember, and I swear this actually happened, is Tom Brokaw asked “Do you believe you can become a god?” And Pres. Hinckley smiled and very frankly and straightforwardly said, “Yes!” I remember it so clearly, because I remember being so shocked that Tom Brokaw would ask the question, and I remember being even more shocked that that’s what was Pres. Hinckley’s answer. I had partially expected some sort of affirmative answer hidden under layers of public relational nuance or something like that.
Although nowadays, it seems like you hear more often about the Time Magazine article where Pres. Hinckley is asked this question and blows it off, but I know what I heard. Of course, you would think that these days, something like that has got to be on the internet. But all I can find are references to the interview, not a video or transcript of it.
Does anyone have a video to this interview? Or a transcript? Or something, anything, that refers to this part of the interview where that exchange happened?
President Hinckley never blew off the idea of becoming like God. Rather, he said we no longer teach (or emphasize) that God used to be mortal. (not that “as God is man my become” but “as man is, God once was”) If you want a breakdown of that interview, here is a post I wrote back in 2009 – with an acknowledgment that the title is wrong and is corrected in the first paragraph:
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President Hinckley’s Interview with Mike Wallace: He Never Lied” ( http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2009/12/pres-hinckleys-interview-with-mike.html I guess “blow off” isn’t the right term. But I’ve heard many people take the fact that he said, “I don’t know that we teach that” as a claim that it isn’t part of church doctrine, rather than that it is a part of church doctrine that tends to get ignored. Still, the tone of how he addressed it with Time in 1997 still sounds a lot different than the tone of how he addressed it in 2002, when he actually owned that doctrine like he was proud of it, and that’s why I was hoping to be able to find a video of the 2002 interview, or at least a transcript of it. All I’ve been able to find have been reduxes of it that leave out that question entirely.
I just read your blog post, and that’s basically what it sounded like to me when I first heard this 1997 statement (although without all the Utah cultural background, particularly with individuals of his generation). Still, at the risk of repeating myself, that’s quite a different tone than what he took with Brokaw. I wonder if in the intervening 5 years, he had a chance to look over his previous answer and thought to himself, “You know, I could see how this is perceived, and maybe there’s a better way to answer that question,” and since he knew he would be interviewed again at some point during his administration, he had resolved to give a more solid answer the next time. Which is why he was so bold with his answer in 2002. Argh – talking about this is just making me want to see it more! Where is that video!?
:crazy: There was a recent article posted on lds.org on this subject. It may not be the Hinckley video you are looking for but it at least enumerates the church’s current positions. http://www.lds.org/topics/becoming-like-godhttp://www.lds.org/topics/becoming-like-god” class=”bbcode_url”> TragedianActor wrote:Argh – talking about this is just making me want to see it more! Where is that video!?
:crazy: There were some highlights of the 2002 interview of GBH by Tom Brokaw on a church dvd called “Friends to all Nations.” I doubt the church sells it anymore. If you live in Utah, your public library may have a copy. I don’t even know if it would have the part you are looking for since it only contains highlights of the interview. There are also some quotations from the interview in this Church News article:
http://www.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/articles/41387/A-better-understanding-to-come-of-worlds-visit.html ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://www.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/articles/41387/A-better-understanding-to-come-of-worlds-visit.html I haven’t seen that DVD, but I’ll look for it. I saw the article you posted. Again, it totally ignored the “Can you become a god?” question. My post ignored that question since it wasn’t part of the TIME interview.It’s really important to understand that simple fact. My central point is that he did NOT deny or avoid the question of whether we can become like God in ANY interview he has given – ever. He was less direct about the idea of God once having been mortal. He was never anything but direct and affirmative about exaltation as a core part of our theology.
Just so you know, this is a bit of a soapbox issue for me, since I’ve heard so many people say he denied exaltation or said we don’t know about it or teach it. That simply is inaccurate, and it bugs me when members perpetuate an incorrect charge like that. We have enough legitimate issues to deal with
🙂 I like the Brokaw interview precisely because he was so direct – but he also would have been just as direct in the TIME interview about the same question IF he had been asked that question. It was the inclusion of the other question that confused some people.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that he denied the doctrine of exaltation. I’ve heard it claimed that he denied it, but that has never been my belief. In fact, I get just as frustrated with that assertion as you do. 
But yes, I do like the Tom Brokaw interview a lot better precisely because he was a lot more direct.
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