The President Packer Postulate Revisited

First of all, if you’ve somehow missed the first four parts, I invite you to start at the beginning. Enjoy!

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At some point this morning, a friend wrote me to see if I had noticed the major differences between President Packer’s spoken Conference address. Curious, I decided to listen to the audio of the discourse while reading the official transcript. I didn’t have any trouble with the obvious verbal slips that anyone can make (misread words, etc.), but I thought it rather interesting that one of the paragraphs I cited in Part III—the one that had so many people up in arms—had, in fact, been slightly changed.

Spoken version:
“Some suppose that they were preset, and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and the unnatural. Not so. Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone? Remember, He is our Father.”

Printed version:
“Some suppose that they were preset, and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn temptations toward the impure and the unnatural. Not so. Remember, He is our Father.”

Aside from this one paragraph, I can find no other changes in the transcript. When I pointed this out to my friend, he admitted that he had somehow made a mistake—which, of course, is fine; it happens to the best of us. It did, however, get me to thinking that somebody was going to make a big deal out of this. And guess what: I was right. Again. It’s all over the web. Even news stations are reporting on it. And the worst part is: nobody seems to have noticed that this happens all… the… time.

Many of you may not remember the 167th Semiannual General Conference of the Church, but I do. In his opening remarks, President Gordon B. Hinckley made the following statement—perhaps not word for word, but incredibly close:

“You need not worry that I do not understand some matters of doctrine. I understand the doctrines of the Church perfectly.”

I remember this very specifically, because I was sitting in the chapel, listening to the President of the Church, absolutely floored to think that he had a perfect knowledge of the doctrines. It was comforting, exhilarating, amazing. However, when I received the November Ensign and eagerly opened to finally see these words in print, the same passage read as follows:

“You need not worry that I do not understand some matters of doctrine. I think I understand them thoroughly” (Ensign 27:11:4).

I was, needless to say, a bit disappointed. However, I remembered Brigham Young’s words on this very subject:

“I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call Scripture. Let me have the privilege of correcting a sermon, and it is as good Scripture as they deserve” (Journal of Discourses 13:95). (Ironically, President Young never had the privilege of reviewing this sermon before its publication in the Journal of Discourses. Oh well.) ;-)

So in short, it didn’t bother me that President Hinckley revised his talk before “sen[ding] it out to the children of men.” He obviously misspoke, and he took the opportunity to correct that misstatement before it became what many (myself included) would consider scripture.

That having been said, it also doesn’t bother me that President Packer—a man who is no less a prophet of God than Brigham Young or Gordon B. Hinckley—took the opportunity to “correct… a sermon” before “send[ing] it out to the children of men.” Despite his prophetic calling, President Packer is no less human, no less fallible, than the rest of us.

Personally, I don’t think the changes to the above paragraph are even significant—it still says essentially the same thing!—but even if there’s some subtle difference that I’m just somehow missing, President Packer is only human. He makes mistakes, and unlike many people, he’s actually humble enough to fix those mistakes. In this case, I suspect that when he saw that passage being misinterpreted and/or misconstrued by hundreds, perhaps thousands of people, he reworded it slightly so that it would be clearer. People asked for a clarification, and he gave one. Is this really that big a deal?

I suppose the bottom line is that if you, dear reader, have never once, in your entire life, said nor done anything less than optimally, you have my permission to cast the first stone. Otherwise, it’s time to let it go.