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Twelve Blunders by Gordon B. Hinckley in Larry King Interview
(by knowledgeable LDS, Mormon member)
TOP 12 blunders of Gordon B. Hinckley on Larry King
[From Recovery from Mormonism Message Board ]
Posted by Bryan on September 09, 1998 at 21:08:12:
(TBM = True Believing Mormon)
ONE
KING: How many countries you in?
HINCKLEY: One-hundred and sixty-one.
KING: How about the wealth -- why is your church so wealthy? I mean $5.9 billion.
HINCKLEY: Well, I don't know about that figure, but we get along. We have enough to take
care of what we need to do. The financial law of the church is the law of tithing. It goes back to
the Old Testament.
**Half-truth. He can remember the figure for *exactly* how many countries the 'church is in' but
he can't even pallpark a response to how wealthy the Church is? And the 'Tithing' may be an Old
Testament principle, but it isn't practiced how it was practiced then, nor does he want to
enlighten us on how the Church practices it is not a New Testament principle**
TWO
HINCKLEY: The figures I have are from -- between two percent and five percent of our people
were involved in it. It was a very limited practice; carefully safeguarded. In 1890, that practice
was discontinued. The president of the church, the man who occupied the position which I
occupy today, went before the people, said he had, oh, prayed about it, worked on it, and had
received from the Lord a revelation that it was time to stop, to discontinue it then. That's 118
years ago. It's behind us.
**Half-truth. Yes, it wasn't practiced by the large population, but who *did* practice it were
Church leaders and prophets. Did he forget the doctrinal significance of polygamy? Also, the
Church did not stop practicing polygamy 118 years ago**
THREE
HINCKLEY: I condemn it, yes, as a practice, because I think it is not doctrinal.
**Lie. Oh it certainly IS doctrinal..it's even in the D&C. It may not be practiced, but it is still
doctrine, and the fact that it will be practiced in the 'hereafter' is commonly discussed in
church.**
FOUR
KING: ... but I've never hear -- I never -- I have not heard a Sunday service that would discuss
world poverty, or President Clinton, or what they think of Bosnia. Why?
HINCKLEY: We don't think much about it, but we act. That's what happens. We've carried on a
grave humanitarian effort.
**Spin-doctoring. Why shouldn't we talk about it? Because the Church is more concerned about
whether you drink coffee or not or if you've got your home teaching stats up. I'm not sure if 162
million in humanitarian aid spent by the church since the mid-80s--while it is good--can be
considered a 'grave humanitarian effort'.**
FIVE
HINCKLEY: Politics aside. The church does not become involved in politics.
**blatant lie. Yes the Church sould speak out on what it considers a moral issue. But the Church
hasn't constrained itself to just speaking out. It has been politically active in Utah's liquor laws,
Hawaii's gay marriage law, Utah's parimutuel betting, and numerous other issues.**
SIX
HINCKLEY: No, we don't censor books or films as a practice, no. This thing that's taking place
has nothing whatever to do with the church, not a thing.
**Half-truth. It's not doctrinal, but practiced nonetheless. Does BYU's editing of "Schindler's
List" or "Amistad" not count as Church involvement? How about the Rodin exhibit? Does not
my Stake President's campaign to keep us in the stake from watching, or purchasing, "Titanic"
not count as Church involvement?**
SEVEN
KING: That's three books, right?
HINCKLEY: Yes, yes, yes.
**Not the whole truth. What are we to consider the D&C and PoGP as then?**
EIGHT
HINCKLEY: I say this to other people: you develop all the good you can. We have no animosity
toward any other church. We do not oppose other churches. We never speak negatively of other
churches.
**Half-truth and lie. Maybe no longer in the media, but it is still quite common everywhere else
within the Church**
NINE
HINCKLEY: Yes, this man I met here not too long ago at UCLA, Inkstrom (ph), I think his name
is, who has conducted a study for some 14 years, taking a peer group of Latter-day Saints, a peer
group of the other population, and reached a conclusion that because of the degree to which we
observe the word of wisdom, Mormons have a life expectancy of from eight to 11 years longer.
***Not the whole truth. Sidestepped the 'eating meat sparingly issue. Doesn't disclose (if he's
truly educated on health-law realated studies) that Seventh-day Adventists live longer, on
average, than Mormons. They practice a health law similar to the WoW, but are also
vegetarians.**
TEN
HINCKLEY: Yes, and they become an expression of that, yes. Baptism for the dead, for those
who are beyond the veil. The Lord said "except the man be born of the water and of the spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven." He didn't exempt anyone. Lots of wonderful people
have lived and died without that opportunity. Paul said, "What shall they do who are baptized for
the dead, if the dead not rise at all." Why are they then baptized for the dead? It is a scriptural
doctrine.
**not the whole truth. Hinckley is 'wresting the scriptures' to get his point across here. It is well
established (scholastically) that the Mormon conception of 1 Cor. 15:29 is errant. This 'principle
of salvation' stands or falls on 'modern revelation' there is no hostorical or scriptural precedent to
stand upon. Furthermore Ether's mention of Moroni 8 is much more damging than a
misconstrued Pauline epistle.**
ELEVEN
HINCKLEY: Ricks is another school that we have. Yes, there's no discrimination in that.
**blatant lie. If you don't attend religious class, are a non-believer or don't tow the party line, you
will be ousted. if that's not discrimination then what is? (BTW, as a private institution I think
they are perfectly within their rights to discriminate on this basis--BUT I think GBH should be
open about this.) **
TWELVE
HINCKLEY: We go in with the public officials, knowing what we're doing. We don't try any
subterfuge.
**blatant lie, or he's misinformed. For ex: I know a man who was one of the MPs who 'opened'
Russia, and he was quite faith-promoting and open about how they circumvented rules to
establish worship services there (although they did work with the govt. too).**
---
BTW..the TBMs at my Mormon-associated company were glowing in their reviews. They were
concerned about image over substance. I brought up a few of these points over lunch, and they
felt they were 'non-issues' especially where historical and doctrinal accuracy is concerned; he's
the prophet after all.
GBH did an okay job (IMHO)--he was a little dry--but I do think these 'top 12' are real problems, to varying degrees. My biggest fault is with Larry as he dwelled too much on the Clinton fiasco and was so soft..
Page Modified September 11, 1998