Brigham Young, on education

“How gladly we would understand every principle pertaining to science and art,
and become thoroughly acquainted with every intricate operation of nature,
and with all the chemical changes that are constantly going on around us!

How delightful this would be,
and what a boundless field of truth and power is open for us to explore!

We are only just approaching the shores of the vast ocean of information
that pertains to this physical world,
to say nothing of that which pertains to the heavens,
to angels and celestial beings, to the place of their habitation
to the manner of their life,
and their progress to still higher degrees of perfection.”

- Brigham Young

Some pie for the cherry pickers

In a certain discourse relentlessly cherry-picked by critics who attempt to force the late Brigham Young into the same cultural mold that we currently inhabit, rather than allowing him to be a man of his time, flawed and mortal, as all prophets have been, we do find a beautiful quote that those same cherry-pickers consistently ignore.

"All those who have done according to the best of their knowledge, whether they are Christians, Pagans, Jews, Mohammedans, or any other class of men that have ever lived upon the earth, that have done honestly and justly with their fellow-beings, walked uprightly before each other, loved mercy, tried to put down iniquity, and done as far right as they know how, according to the laws they lived under, no matter what the laws were, will share in a resurrection that will be glorious far beyond the conception of mortals."

Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, p. 288.

Happy Birthday, Brother Brigham!

Brigham Young, the second prophet of the Restoration, was born today in 1801, in Vermont, the ninth of eleven children.

He was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 15, 1832, a cold, snowy day. A few days before that, he recalled:

"According to the words of the Savior, I felt a humble, child-like spirit, witnessing unto me that my sins were forgiven."

Every prophet is called by God with gifts of the Spirit that are needed for his era. Thus with Brigham Young, too, whose leadership and courage were vital to the settlement of the Mountain West -- not just Utah, but settlements, too, in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and beyond.

Plural marriage, change in the church and Joseph Smith

Dear world:

Yes, the Prophet Joseph Smith was sealed to more than one wife. No, this does not shake my faith. I believe I have known it since I was a teenager, in spite of the fact that many critics of the church are shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn that Joseph actually engaged in the very practice that was revealed to him as recorded in the Doctrine & Covenants. Apparently, in the minds of some, polygamy sprang fully formed, like Athena from Zeus, from the wild mind of Brother Brigham.

Shocked they also are that the Church doesn't rent billboards trumpeting this knowledge to the world. After all, a knowledge of the names of the wives of the Prophet will be required of every member hoping to achieve celestial glory. (I'm being a little sarcastic there.)

Yeah. Boggles the mind.

I know all about the Helen Kimball thing, too, the 14 year old to whom the Prophet was sealed in some capacity. It is quite a stretch, a very slanderous stretch, to call a man a pedophile -- our critics' new favorite word for the Prophet -- for being sealed and that not to a child but to a teenager. In many states of the US, it is still perfectly legal to marry a teenager. Furthermore, there is no clear evidence anywhere that the Prophet ever had any intimate relations with Helen Kimball. Sealing is a doctrine, like many doctrines, that took time to be fully and properly understood and fully unveiled.

The bigger picture: Aside from one line in the New Testament about certain qualifications of being a bishop, the Lord issues not one word of condemnation in the entire Bible about plural marriage and, in fact, even called the polygynous Abraham His friend.

Latter-day Saints do not practice this principle today, because the Lord can command and the Lord can revoke and He has currently revoked. Thus He had no problem with judicious use of wine in Biblical days but has told us to refrain in this modern era -- so please do not trot out that tired line about Timothy and his stomach or Jesus drinking wine so why don't we? Thus He forbade pork in Biblical days but does not forbid it now.