Dan Peterson’s talk, Appreciating Brother Brigham, explores the life and leadership of Brigham Young, addressing common misconceptions about his role in LDS history, including accusations of racism, polygamy, and violence. Peterson offers a nuanced defense of Brigham Young’s spiritual and practical leadership, highlighting his dedication to Joseph Smith’s vision, his compassion, and his lasting legacy in settling the American West.
This talk was given at the 2024 FAIR Conference “FAIR and Valiant Voices”, on the campus of the American Heritage School in Salt Lake City, Utah, on August 8, 2024.
Daniel C. Peterson is the president of The Interpreter Foundation, a retired professor of Islamic studies and Arabic at BYU, and an executive producer of the films Witnesses and Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon.
Transcript
A movie trailer played before the talk began.
Daniel Peterson:
Appreciating Brigham Young’s Leadership
You can see why Brigham Young has been on my mind a little bit lately. And so, I want to talk about him and appreciating Brother Brigham. As I grew up, I learned that Brigham Young was a practical man. He led the church westward, like Hebrew J. Grant, who’s a practical man. But I didn’t hear much about him as a prophet, as a spiritual man.
I had an experience on the Gospel Doctrine Writing Committee. I served on it for about ten years, and I could tell you some really funny stories about correlation involving that. I think I have sometimes. But one of those, okay, on one of those occasions, I was able to write the lessons for the Gospel Doctrine manual years ago on Brigham Young and on Heber J. Grant, and I decided in both cases I wanted to portray them as what I had not learned about them growing up.
These were presidents of the church. They were spiritual leaders. They cared about religious issues. I wrote an article entirely—or a lesson I should say—about Brigham Young that was focused very much on Brigham Young and temples and the dedication of the Saint George Temple, his commitment to completing the Nauvoo Temple. When it finally appeared, it had been absolutely gutted. I recognized two lines.
I’m going to be quoting a few people in my remarks today, very brief as they are, from people who you might not expect me to quote about Brigham Young. One is D. Michael Quinn. This is what he said:
One of the recurring themes in non-Mormon biographies of President Brigham Young is the idea that he was not a very spiritual man. Such interpretations, however, not only misrepresent his character, they also totally disregard the evidence, both published and unpublished, that refutes such a stereotype.”
Brigham Young’s Leadership and Public Image
Now, one of the images that we have of him is that he was an old and dour tyrant, and lately he’s been sort of thrown under the bus.
This is a scene of his wives mourning him from an eastern cartoon.
Contextualizing Racism Accusations in Brigham Young’s Leadership
There are those who claim he was a racist. And genuinely, he did say some things that are (in Elder Oak’s words) disappointing. I wish he hadn’t said them. There are those who’ve called for renaming Brigham Young University, for example.
But I say, look, okay, by our standards today he was a racist—as was Abraham Lincoln, as was… I just finished a biography of Harry Truman (reading it, not writing it). And Harry Truman integrated the military and pushed civil rights legislation that was way ahead of his time. And yet, he could say things that would make you blush today, having grown up in Missouri in the 1800s.
Brigham Young and the Mountain Meadows Massacre
And of course, he’s routinely blamed for the Mountain Meadows massacre, despite the fact that one Peter Brooks said he wasn’t responsible. Ron Walker, actually Glenn Leonard, who said he wasn’t responsible.
There are still people out there who want to blame Brigham Young for the Mountain Meadows massacre. And I’ve always thought, look, Brigham was—whatever you think about it—no one has ever accused him of being stupid. And the Mountain Meadows massacre was stupid, among many other things.
It was stupid at a time when the Saints were in danger of being seriously persecuted by the federal government. That was the dumbest thing that they could have done. Brigham would not have done it for that reason alone. But there’s no evidence that he was involved in it—actually, evidence that he opposed and tried to stop it to the extent that he had heard of it.
Defending Brigham Young’s Leadership from Misconceptions
He’s regarded regularly as a misogynist and as a murderer. Zane Grey, another dime novelist, portrayed him as the commander of the Danites, who would go out and massacre people on a routine basis. He was responsible for every violent death between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean. It’s absolute nonsense.
He has lately been portrayed as an assassin. Some of you may be aware of this. Some of you may not know that there was (allegedly) an apostolic coup that got rid of Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith, and that not only were they removed, it was Brigham Young who ordered their deaths by means of his loyal assistants, John Taylor and Willard Richards.
I can only imagine that the Carthage Grays must have been astonished when they got to the jail cell and said, Shazam, he’s already dead. How disappointing! And then, you know, in their defense, when some of them were tried for the murder, they never brought up the fact that he was already dead. “Gosh, we don’t know what happened.”
To me, this is obscene—that sort of accusation—beneath contempt. And, you know, there have been recent movies made about this. I hope they haven’t gotten a very wide showing.
Recognizing Brigham Young’s Leadership Beyond His Later Years
But I think one thing that we need to recognize about Brigham is that he was not always 77. Part of our image of Brigham Young is that he’s old, he’s unsmiling (he had tooth problems). And photography in the 19th century was a painful business anyway. But he didn’t always look like that. He wasn’t always old and relatively infirm. He was a relatively young man when he assumed the leadership of the church.
Brigham Young’s Practical Leadership
So, on that idea of the practical man – yes, he was practical. He was extremely gifted at the kinds of things that he did. I remember reading in a book by Irving Stone, Men to Match My Mountains. He said, “You know, people have faulted Brigham Young because he grew rich.” He said, “Well, he was so talented that he could not not have grown rich. He was just really good at all that sort of thing.”
And he grew far less rich than he could have been if he’d been seeking his own profit.
Everything he touched seemed to work out well. He was very, very good at that kind of thing. Irving Stone, the author of The Agony and the Ecstasy and a lot of famous books like that, really admired Brigham Young.
Brigham Young as an “American Enoch”
I’m going to quote now from LaJean Carruth, from something she wrote to me. She’s here (at the conference today):
I’ve come to see,” she wrote in an email, “To me, the term American Moses is an unfortunate misnomer. Moses led a single large group of rebellious people to political freedom. He never entered the Promised Land, never established a city, could not establish the gospel among them. And the word Zion was not in his vocabulary. Brigham Young often compared his people to the people of Enoch and told his people how much better they were than the ancient children of Israel. (It’s clear you don’t want to lead that crowd.) He was an American Enoch. He put all his heart, mind, will, and effort into establishing Zion.”
Carruth presented on this at the Mormon History Association in 2023. That’s the view of Brigham Young that I want us to have.
Personal Sketches of Brigham Young’s Leadership
And so, I’m going to give you, if I may, some sketches from Brigham Young’s life. And I won’t develop them.
I think of Brigham in Port Byron, New York: his apprenticeship there and his courtship—long before he encountered the church. I’ve read a little bit about that. It’s a very, very interesting portrayal of him. He was an expert craftsman. He was well-respected.
And that’s where he married his first wife, who unfortunately, did not last long. We’ll show that in the movie. (This is not actually a commercial for the film, but we deal with some of these issues.) And then you see Brigham tending to Mirriam as she’s in her fatal illness. And it’s a picture of Brigham that you don’t get—is this Brigham the misogynist, Brigham the uncaring man? He is a doting husband and doting parent, a single parent eventually.
Eugene England on Brigham Young’s Leadership
This is Eugene England, another person you might not expect me to quote in praise of Brigham Young. I was sort of surprised myself as I began lining these things up, and I thought, okay, Mike Quinn, Gene England—these are people who are on the ‘liberal end of the spectrum,’ you would say, in a lot of ways. Here’s Gene England talking about him:
Together with the fairly large number of surviving holograph letters written after 1840, Brigham’s surviving diaries reveal a man of tenderness, spiritual warmth and insight, as well as the more commonly known Brigham of great energy and devotion.”
Brigham Young’s Spiritual Leadership and Speaking in Tongues
There is the matter too of his spirituality and speaking in tongues (here’s a scene from the movie). On the day when he first met the Prophet Joseph in November of 1832, he surprised those who were there by speaking in tongues, and this happened several times in his life.
Faithfulness to Joseph Smith and Revelation
I talked last year about his mission in England and to Missouri, where he goes to Missouri to lay the cornerstone for the Far West Temple in obedience to a revelation from Joseph Smith. His dedication to following Joseph Smith was amazing.
And that’s the thing that I want to get across, among other things—his faithfulness to Joseph. Here’s a quotation from a book by S. Dilworth Young, a descendant, Here is Brigham (1964):
It’s quite evident that after 1832, Brigham Young was moved by one motive: determination to obey the will of God as spoken through the prophet, and to support that prophet with all that he possessed of time, talent, and means.”
Now there’s one famous story of a time when the Prophet Joseph Smith severely rebuked Brigham Young – “the Lion of the Lord,” you may remember, he was sometimes called. This is a man who did not meekly submit to other people.
After the prophet’s chastisement, everyone in the room waited for Brigham’s response—he could have defended himself or been offended. But his reply was sincerely and simply:
“Joseph, what do you want me to do?”
That was one man that he would bend the knee to.
Brigham Young’s Leadership in City Planning
Again, quoting Irving Stone Men to Match My Mountains:
Following Joseph Smith’s original design, Young, the city planner in Salt Lake, decreed that the streets were to be laid out enormously wide, each house set back so many feet, the fronts to be beautified with fruit trees and gardens, and four public squares of ten acres laid out in various parts of the city for public grounds.”
Salt Lake City is a monument to Brigham’s devotion to the vision of Joseph Smith.
Brigham Young’s Spiritual Leadership: A Dream of Joseph Smith
And now I give you an excerpt from a dream that Brigham related to the quorum of the 12 on the 17th of February 1847, as recorded in his own handwriting and his own inimitable spelling. He sees Joseph Smith in a dream:
I took him by the right hand and kissed him many times. He looked perfectly natural. I asked him why it was that we could not be together as we used to live. He had been from us a long time, and we wanted his society, and I do not like to be separated from him. He rose up from his chair and looked at me with an earnest and pleasant countenance, spoke in his usual way. ‘It is all right.’ I then said to him, ‘I do not like to be away from you.’ ‘It is right,’ he replied. ‘We cannot be together yet: we shall be by and by. But you will have to do without me a while, and then we shall be together again.’”
The love for Joseph that you see throughout Brigham’s life!
And on the 29th of August 1877, when Brigham Young lay on his deathbed, at least one report says that his last words were, “Joseph, Joseph, Joseph.”
I can’t help but think that Joseph came for him, and the reunion that he’d waited for over 30 years was finally taking place.
Brigham Young’s Leadership in Language and Prose
Another sketch: Arthur Henry King, the beloved teacher from my days as a student at BYU, described Brigham Young as the greatest prose stylist in the history of the church. He said, “I’m bracketing Joseph Smith because I don’t really know how much of it’s Joseph and how much of it is the Lord.” But he said Brigham Young had a rugged, strong prose style, honest, that really appealed to him.
And here’s Gene England again, an English professor:
Brigham Young eventually became the most voluminous, wide-ranging and, in my judgment, the most conceptually powerful orator the Mormon Church has produced. And he is certainly one of the most original, entertaining, and personally expressive of all those who have used the English language.”
That’s pretty high praise coming from someone like that.
Brigham Young’s Leadership in Temple Building
Brigham Young on the temple. I’ve already mentioned his commitment to going into Missouri—at a time when going to Missouri was dangerous for a Latter-day Saint—to lay the cornerstone, even though the temple couldn’t be built at that time. His commitment to building and finishing the temple in Nauvoo is amazing to me. And the ordinances conducted all night, so the saints could be prepared with an endowment of power for their trip westward.
I mentioned the speaking in tongues—you know, not very practical of any of this. He should have been getting ready for that trek westward instead of spending time in the temple doing temple ordinances. Where were his priorities? Well, you can see where his priorities were.
Brigham Young’s Role in Completing the Saint George Temple
And the Saint George Temple, his desire to finish – that was the one temple that he was allowed to dedicate. You see it here with the short, stubby spire.
Some of you know the story about that one—that Brigham did not like the short spire. After he died, it was hit by lightning, replaced by a taller spire. And the lore in Saint George was, “Well, we know he arrived.”
And by the way, that overturned some of the talk about his being a tyrant, that there were things that he wanted in buildings (like that spire, like the staircase and the pulpit in the Saint George Tabernacle) where he didn’t get his way. There were other strong personalities in Utah.
He wanted to get that temple done. In my lesson that I wrote for the Gospel Doctrine Writing Committee, he said, “Sometimes I want the tongues of seven angels to wake this people up! If they understood how important this is, this House,” he said, “Would be busy day and night, it would never close because of the urgency and the importance of this work.”
That’s not Brigham Young “the practical man,” in a way.
Of course, there he is toward the end of his life, going over the revision of the endowment ceremony with Wilford Woodruff in the Saint George Temple.
And then one of the first things he did, we all know, when he came to the Salt Lake Valley was to declare where the Salt Lake Temple would be. That was the important thing, that was the point of the gathering, was to build temples.
Brigham Young’s Near-Death Experiences
Another thing I want to mention in connection with Brother Brigham: near-death experiences. Quoting Brent Top, who used to be the Dean of Religious Ed at BYU.
I’m convinced, as are some other scholars, that Brigham Young had near-death experiences, one of which happened right before the Saints entered the Salt Lake Valley in July of 1847. That may be one of the reasons he talked so much about the spirit world.”
Now, I didn’t realize this until fairly recently. I had seen his quotations about the spirit world. I was not clear that he was doing it from personal experience, but this is what he says. I’ll just quote a little bit. I’ve got several pages here.
I can say with regard to parting with our friends and going ourselves that I’ve been near enough to understand eternity, so that I’ve had to exercise a great deal more faith to desire to live than I ever exercised in my whole life. The brightness and glory of the next apartment is inexpressible. It is not encumbered with this clog of dirt we’re carrying around here, so that when we advance in years, we have to be stubbing along and to be careful lest we fall down. But yonder, how different! Here we are continually troubled with ills and ailments of various kinds, but in the spirit world we’re free from all this and enjoy life, glory and intelligence.”
He said, you know, we’ll look back on death and think, this is the greatest blessing I’ve ever enjoyed. Here I am now in the spirit world, and it’s so wonderful here.
And I used to wonder, was he just speculating based on his reading of Scripture? And I think now, no: he knew.
A Personal Story on Brigham Young’s Leadership
Now here’s a story that I’ve not found in print. Maybe some of you know where to find it. This was told to me by Hugh Nibley, who’s another great admirer of Brigham Young, and he had heard it, he told me, from Brigham Young’s last surviving daughter when he was young. And I love the story because it portrays a really interesting character.
Brigham Young supposedly had—and I’ve heard variants of it or seen variants of it, but the way it was told to me was—he had a saddle: beautiful, hand-tooled, he loved this saddle. And he told his children, you may ride any of the horses here, put on any of the saddles, but not that one. Don’t touch that one because that’s just too fine. I don’t want it mucked up.
So, he came home one day, and they’d been trying to get it onto a horse they hadn’t been able to, and it was scuffed up and that sort of thing. And he really let them have it. He went into the Lion House and slammed the door behind him, slammed another door behind him—he was angry. And so this little girl followed him into the house, and she heard him through the door of his office saying:
“Down on your knees, Brigham, down on your knees.”
He was trying to get control of himself. I love that sketch.
Re-evaluating Brigham Young’s Leadership and Views on Slavery
Now I’d like to mention something else. And Elder Corbitt’s comments today were absolutely, perfectly, fitted to be a lead into this thing, which I will discuss for a couple of minutes. We all know that he said things that make us uncomfortable today. And then came the revelation on priesthood in 1978 in June.
But there’s some things that we’re learning about him, and I think there is value in looking at the historical record. We now see the slavery law in Utah in a slightly different light.
Slavery in Brigham’s Utah
There’s been some excellent work done recently where it shows that Brigham was actually maybe trying to mitigate slavery; that is, that slavery would be permitted within the territory, but it wouldn’t be passed on. The children of slaves would not be passed on. There would be requirements to educate slaves. There were requirements to provide a certain amount of care and so on for them. If not, they could complain before a court. And there was at least one case that I recall where a slave—a servant, the word was now going to be—could successfully complain to the state for treatment bestowed upon that person.
Brigham Young’s Compassionate Leadership Didn’t See Race
There are other things to mention. The relationship between Brigham and Green Flake, a famous black member of the church in Utah in Salt Lake Valley. Genuine affection and loyalty—definitely—on the part of Brother Flake toward Brother Brigham. When Brigham Young died, Green Flake was the one who wanted to dig the grave for his honored leader.
I think of a case that I know of where there was a black man in the valley who was probably mentally ill, and he’d been mistreated to a degree. And Brigham Young stepped forward and said, look, this is also a child of God, and he should be treated with respect. This is not what we see in the unnuanced view of Brigham Young as a racist.
Brigham Young’s Posthumous Influence: An Experience in Ghana
And I want to tell another story. There was a man by the name of Joseph William Johnson, Billy Johnson, in Ghana. He was one of the early leaders of the church there, died about ten years ago.
A filmmaker from Utah came over to do a film on the origins of the church in Ghana. And she interviewed him, and he said, “I want to take you and show you a place,” the place was in an industrial kind of building where he said, “This is where, when the missionaries had been withdrawn and I was having to lead the church and I didn’t know what to do, that I knelt and prayed.”
And he said, “Brigham Young appeared to me. And he said, among other things, ‘Buck up, Billy, help is coming.’” It sounds a bit like Brigham Young, I think. And Billy Johnson was so moved by that, that he named his son, Brigham Young Johnson. And he would still point out that place where Brigham appeared to him.
So, I think when we take Brigham’s alleged racism into account—as Brother Corbitt said—could he have changed? Has he grown since he departed this life in the 19th century? And if he has?
It’s interesting that of all the people who could have come to Billy Johnson, Brigham Young did.
Books Highlighting Brigham Young’s Leadership
Now, these are a couple of the books that I’m fond of for getting a window on Brigham Young. Hugh Nibley, another very liberal (politically speaking) member of the church, loved Brigham Young and the teachings of Brigham Young. I recommend those.
A Personal Tribute to Brigham Young’s Leadership
And then, of course, some of you may remember the old one-man show, that James Arrington, son of Leonard Arrington the historian, used to do, called Here’s Brother Brigham. There is a videotape version of it. This is James Arrington, son of the biographer, doing a one-man show for three decades.
I’ve come to admire and respect Brigham Young in a wonderful and personal way. He was simply one of the greatest Americans we’ve ever had. And I go so far as to say, one of the great men of the world. It’s hard to argue with his insight, capable management, powerful personality, and astonishing wisdom and knowledge, considering that he had only 11 days of formal schooling.”
Mark Twain’s View on Brigham Young’s Leadership
I will close with just a couple of things, just sort of out of the blue, I guess.
One is an account from Mark Twain’s Roughing It, where Mark Twain talks about going to visit Brother Brigham—Governor Young—in Utah when his brother (Mark Twain’s brother) was going out to be secretary to the governor of Nevada Territory.
Mark Twain’s Encounter with Brigham Young
Mark Twain – Samuel Clemens – was young at the time, and he had decided that he wanted to sort of needle Brigham. Pester him. See if he could get him to bristle, respond.
Brigham ignored him the whole time they were visiting. And at the end, he patted young Sam Clemens on the head and said to his brother, “Beautiful child you have here. Is it a boy or a girl?” And Mark Twain said, “I had to admit the Mormon prophet had bested me.”
Daniel H. Wells on Brigham Young’s Leadership
Now, here is something that came to me from Dick Lambert, who is a descendant of Brigham Young and a history aficionado and the prosecutor who got me involved in the Brian David Mitchell/Elisabeth Smart case. I still have to get even with him for that one.
He told me about something that Daniel H. Wells said. Daniel H. Wells was the not-LDS justice of the peace in Nauvoo who eventually joined the church, went west with the Saints, and became a counselor to Brigham Young.
At one point, he’s speaking to a group (I think) up in Cache Valley, and he said—and this will surprise you, it’s not what we expect—
Aren’t we fortunate that we have in our leader, Brigham Young, a man of such gentleness and kindness and softness of speech? He doesn’t have the rough edges that Joseph used to have.”
Now, is that turning things upside down a little bit? Does that sort of violate your image of Brother Brigham?
Defending Brigham Young’s Leadership
Well, there was that side to him. And so, I want to stand up on behalf of Brother Brigham and say, “Not so fast. Let’s not condemn him.”
I’m seeing members of the church who are condemning Brigham. I’ve heard people say, ‘I don’t think he was the Lord’s choice.’ You know, ‘The Lord wanted somebody else.’ So, I’m thinking, who? Sidney Rigdon? James Strang? Who’s your candidate?
I mean, seriously, think about this. To me, Brigham Young was the man the Lord chose, and I affirm him as a prophet, seer, and revelator, not merely as the great colonizer.
The Real Brigham Young
And so that’s one of the reasons we’ve wanted to do this, was to get a conversation going again about the real Brigham Young, not the Brigham Young of caricature.
Thank you.
Q&A: Exploring Brigham Young’s Leadership
Scott: Okay. First question is I want to know more about why Brigham Young is criticized so harshly when he’s such an influential and iconic figure in the restored gospel.
Dan: That’s a really good question. Something of a mystery, I think. I think that one thing is I’ve seen this in some areas that some people who who find fault with the church but want to retain that belief in the church and remain loyal to Joseph Smith, find it convenient to blame everything they don’t like about the church on Brigham Young. And so he’s a convenient scapegoat for that sort of thing. So if you don’t like seeming LDS racism or seeming LDS misogyny or patriarchy, it’s all Brigham’s fault. And I think that’s one of the major factors – I may rile some feelings here – but I know some people who are very, very upset with the church’s seemingly assuming openness to taking vaccines and so on and so forth. I thought at first I’d say to these people, look, do you realize if you reject Brigham Young, you’re basically rejecting the authority of every president since Brigham Young, including Russell M Nelson? And with some of those, at least I got the impression that that wasn’t a bug in the thing. That was a feature. Yeah, yeah, they like that. President Nelson is also a fallen prophet or a false apostle or something. But Joseph Smith told the truth. So.
Scott: So what is the best book that discusses Brigham Young?
Dan: Well, it depends, I suppose, on what you want. I mean, there are biographies of Brigham, there’s Leonard Arrington’s large biography. There are others in the works, I understand. Tom Alexander, Thomas Alexander, wrote one that I quite liked. I’ve been surprised quite often, going back to my idea of Brigham Young, the practical man, how often in treatments of Brigham Young, his, his role as colonizer, economic leader of the Great Basin, so on and so forth has been emphasized, but his leadership of the church has not. And so I remember reading an article – of all people – by Jan Shipps many years ago where I thought, she’s a methodist, and it’s the first article about Brigham Young I’ve read in a long time that took him seriously as a religious figure. Why don’t Latter-Day Saints do that more often than they do?
But, you know, the Arrington biography is a good one. There are more things coming out on Brigham all the time. I liked the Brigham Young books that I mentioned by Hugh Nibley and Gene England. I wish Gene England’s were still in print. I mean, a lot of people think of Gene as a liberal and – well, not a dissident, he was active – but Gene and I had run ins, so I know how people would feel that way. But this book about Brigham Young is a loving, admiring portrait of Brigham where he’s poured through the letters and so on, and come up with a beautiful view of Brigham, I mean he really deeply admired and honored him. I like that book a lot.
Emily Snyder: What about that one by Irving Stone?
Dan: Irving Stone is about the settlement of the West. So, the Latter-day Saints, we play kind of a bit role, but it’s a very positive bit role. He he has a lot of positive things to say about Brigham in particular, and the Saints in general.
Scott: And I think the book that you mentioned illustrates to us that while we may not agree politically or may not agree even in historical research areas with fellow Latter-day Saints, it’s that that doesn’t mean that they don’t contribute to the overall knowledge.
Dan: You know, I always said about Gene England, when people criticized him and believe me, I could criticize him too. But, you know, as they used to say about Tommy Lasorda, if you cut him, he bleeds Dodger blue. Or Brigham Young said about Orson Pratt, if you cut him into pieces, every piece would cry out, Mormonism is true. And that was the case with him as well. So. And he loved Brigham.
Scott: How’s this question? How can we correct the narrative that Brigham Young killed Joseph Smith?
Dan: Laugh.
I’ve interviewed 2 or 3 historians, Tom Alexander, Jim Allen, the former assistant church historian. I brought that theory up to them. And both of them said things that I would not include in the film interview about that theory. Just the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. I mean, Brigham Young –and I tried to emphasize this — was absolutely devoted to Joseph Smith. The idea that Brigham would ever have lifted up his hand against the Lord’s anointed is just inconceivable to me, just doesn’t fit him at all. Besides of which, there’s no evidence. And again, I cite the response of the Carthage Grays and so on. Shouldn’t someone have mentioned, “well gee, he was already dead. What a surprise! We were going up to kill him and he was dead.”
That’s kind of an important fact, but nobody ever mentioned it — because it wasn’t true.
Scott: It falls right in line with some of the other arguments against the church with no evidence and such. Were there any angelic personages that visited Brigham Young that we know of?
Dan: Well, he seems to have had visitations and dreams where he saw into the next life. He saw into the next world. He had encounters with Joseph Smith past his death and so on. So, yeah, I’d say there are there seem to have been and so, you know, there’s that whole side of it which needs to be explored further, of his spiritual gifts and his spiritual, his connection with the other world.
Now, he was he was self denigrating, he would say of Heber C. Kimball, “He’s my prophet.” But everybody knew where the real authority was, and Heber C. Kimball did not confuse that. Heber was very good at prophesying future events and very accurate in many spectacular cases. But Brigham himself would call on revelation. You know, his his famous statement about the Salt Lake Temple.
He said, you know, people questioned me about why it’s going to have six towers. Joseph only built one tower, and he said, Well, I’ve seen it in vision. That’s the way it’s going to be. And he said, I never pass the spot but what I recall the vision that I had. So he had supernatural experiences. He tended to be somewhat reserved about them, I think.
Scott: So, there’s a widespread belief that Brigham Young started plural marriage, and Joseph had nothing to do with that. Could you comment on that? How widespread is that belief? Or have you seen a lot of it?
Dan: And I’ve seen it from, more people than I would like to see it from. And, the historical evidence just overwhelmingly against that idea. Brigham Young did not invent the idea. And again, that’s one of those where I think people sometimes say, well, Joseph Smith could not possibly have been involved in that so it had to be that dastardly Brigham Young.
In fact, that’s one of the motivations that led him to order the murder of Joseph and Hyrum in Carthage Jail, according to some of these theorists. And I’m sorry, the evidence is just well, it’s not only not there, it’s completely to the contrary. So. But I see a lot of people out there, and I think they’re they’re sincere members of the church. They really believe in the church, but they’re misguided, and I worry. I actually worry that when they finally find out they’re wrong, if you pinned your faith on a historically indefensible position, they’re going to be in trouble. Face the facts, cope with the facts, don’t invent. You know, it was Mark Twain who says, “everybody’s entitled to his own interpretation, but you’re not entitled to your own facts.” So.
Scott: I have other questions here, but unfortunately, our time is at an end and some people would like to actually take a break.
coming soon…
- Date Presented: August 8, 2024
- Duration: 33 minutes
- Event/Conference: 2024 FAIR Conference
- Topics Covered: Brigham Young leadership, Mormon history, LDS apologetics, Mountain Meadows Massacre, polygamy and its origins, racism and slavery in Utah, Brigham Young’s spiritual experiences, temple building, Brigham Young’s compassion, Brigham Young as a colonizer, misconceptions about Brigham Young, defense of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young’s literary style, addressing criticism of Mormon leaders, American Primeval fact-checking, Latter-day Saint faith and scholarship
- Racism and slavery: Brigham Young’s stance on race is often cited as problematic. The talk highlights that while Brigham said things that are uncomfortable by modern standards, his actions may have aimed to mitigate slavery rather than perpetuate it.
- Mountain Meadows Massacre: The talk emphasizes that Brigham Young was not responsible for the massacre and actively opposed it.
- Polygamy: A recurring misconception is that Brigham Young invented polygamy. The talk clarifies that polygamy was introduced by Joseph Smith, not Brigham.
- Assassination of Joseph Smith: The idea that Brigham Young orchestrated Joseph Smith’s murder is labeled as an unfounded conspiracy theory.
- Misogyny: The talk addresses portrayals of Brigham Young as a misogynist, highlighting his compassion and dedication to his family.
- Historical accuracy in Mormon leadership: Correcting false narratives about Brigham Young’s role in early LDS leadership.
- Mormon polygamy origins: Clarifying that polygamy predated Brigham Young’s leadership and originated with Joseph Smith.
- Accusations of violence: Refuting claims that Brigham Young commanded violent groups such as the Danites or ordered the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.
- Brigham Young and race relations: Providing historical context for Brigham Young’s statements and policies regarding race.
- Spiritual leadership and visions: Highlighting Brigham Young’s spiritual experiences, including his visions related to temple building.
Identify the Apologetic Focus of the Talk
Apologetic focus:
The primary apologetic focus of this talk is defending the character and leadership of Brigham Young. It seeks to clarify misconceptions about his role as a prophet, leader, and colonizer by:
- Emphasizing his spiritual dedication and visionary leadership.
- Correcting false narratives about his involvement in violence and polygamy.
- Highlighting his compassion, leadership in temple building, and commitment to following Joseph Smith.
The talk also seeks to inspire thoughtful discussion on historical issues by acknowledging complexities while affirming Brigham Young’s prophetic role.
Fact-checking American Primeval: What’s Real and What’s Fiction?
- Mountain Meadows Massacre Researchers Rick Turley and Barbara Jones Brown | Peace & Violence
- “American Primeval: A Historical Fiction Series about 1850s Utah”
- Craig L. Foster, “Murder, Mayhem and Mormons: Was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Really a Violent Faith?”
- The Mountain Meadows Massacre|300 Primary Sources
- New Netflix series debuts Thursday about Brigham Young, Mountain Meadows. Is it accurate?
- Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley, and Glen M. Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows (Oxford University Press, 2011)
- Richard E. Turley and Barbara Jones Brown, Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath (Oxford University Press, 2023)
- Janiece Johnson, Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture (The University of North Carolina Press, 2023)
- Lessons from the Mountain Meadows Massacre
- American Indians and Latter-day Saint Pioneers
- Brigham Young
- Danites
- Indian Slavery and Indentured Servitude
- “Peace and Violence among 19th-Century Latter-day Saints,” Gospel Topics Essays, topics.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
- Richard E. Turley Jr., “The Mountain Meadows Massacre,” Ensign, Sept. 2007, 14–21.
- What is the Mountain Meadows Massacre?
- Was Brigham Young Involved in the Mountain Meadows Massacre?
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