Q: There are some significant differences in your beliefs. For instance, don't Mormons believe that God was once a man?
A: I wouldn't say that. There was a little couplet coined, ``As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become.'' Now that's more of a couplet than anything else. That gets into some pretty deep theology that we don't know very much about.
SUNDAY INTERVIEW -- By Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer The San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday April 13, 1997

JOEL - The following scripture comes to mind when I think of the situation that President Hinckley found himself in, in such an interview:

"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."(Matt. 7:6)

There is also no way that President Hinckley could have adequately explained this concept in the short time he had in the interview. There are too many other more basic doctrines that he would have had to talk about before he could explain it in a way that everyone listening could understand. Also, the leaders of the Church make it a policy to not try to explain to the general public, concepts known in the Church that are not official Church doctrine. President Hinckley could not say that we believe God was once a man like us, because it has never been identified as official Church doctrine. We believe it may in fact be true doctrine but since Joseph Smith did not fully elaborate on the teaching, we don't fully understand it yet.
We believe that God gives us understanding and knowledge a little at a time depending on when we are ready for it. Perhaps sometime in the future we will find out more about it. In the mean time it is not a concept that we need to understand right now for our eternal salvation.