What Did Brigham Young Do Right?

What Did Brigham Young Do Right?

Recently I got into a discussion with close family members about the virtues, if you will, of the Prophet Brigham Young. His actions added with his beliefs define who he was.

Was he a polygamist? Yes? He fathered children with sixteen different mothers. He was legally or spiritually sealed to a total of 55 women, some of whom were older.

Was he racist? Yes, he was a segregationist and a non-black supremacist, or favoritist, yes. Meaning, he accepted into the priesthood of the Church people of all colors, including native Americans, Latinos, and Asians, except and excluding those of African descent. He also interpreted the descendants of Africa to have the mark of Cain, which is now recognized as a racist interpretation of Biblical beliefs of that time and era. These beliefs were somewhat popular in the 19th century among whites, at least in the United States. The Church eventually cast those beliefs away from its doctrines and practices.

Was he a slave owner or proponent of slavery? No. Did he allow the subjugation of people of any kind? No. Was he an abolitionist pre-Civil War, or ante-bellum? Yes.

Did his church members and former friends and associates suffer privations, loss of property, loss of life, and become targeted by local and federal government directed sanctions and terror based in part to their anti-slavery views and status? Yes. Being anti-slavery cost the early church and its members quite dearly, and was one of the reasons that Young led the early Saints across the Great Plains to Utah, which was at the time Mexican territory.

Was he an American patriot? Yes, he sent men and women to join and support the U.S. Army in the Mexican-American war. That battalion removed from his wagon trains crossing the plains, in extreme hardship, without the aid of those able bodied conscripted soldiers, who forged the longest military march in United States history. Known as the Mormon Battalion, there is a museum and visitor center dedicated to it in San Diego, California.

Did the U.S. Federal government disagree with President Young's colonies and control of the Inter-mountain-West, and also try to attack and punish the Mormon (Latter-Day Saint) leadership and settlements for their practice of polygamy? Yes.

Did the U.S. Federal Government consider Brigham Young a threat to the Federal Republic and its democracy? Yes.

Was President Young responsible for the tragic Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857? No. Sources attest that he did not order that terrible act against the migrants of Arkansas.

Was President Young responsible in oppressing and subjugating his people, as a modern day Moses?

I say no.

You can have your own opinions, but I think he was a virtuous person, and more importantly, vigorously and faithfully lead a new faith movement that became better and better as the years wore on, the successors followed, and the numbers and influence grew.

My high school daughter said yesterday (Nov. 12, 2020) that she thinks that she would not enjoy meeting Brigham Young. Fair enough: an open, honest opinion. I think that she would be surprised how much she would enjoy a conversation with him, but I could be wrong. He was known to be fiery and headstrong, sure. Was he a narcissist or sociopath? I think not. I asked her if she would like to meet Moses, how would his personality be? She said there was not enough written or known about him to opine on that.

One could argue that if the major revelator of the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smith Jr., had not been cut down in his prime at 38, and three years later in 1847 President Young had not taken the helm of the movement, perhaps there would not have been the racial divide imposed as it was, largely due to him. That's possible. Maybe Young was too extreme and limited in his vision of the Lord's people. He was sending large groups of settlers across the Inter-Mountain West to Idaho, Arizona, California, besides the expansion within Utah, which was no small accomplishment. Life was hard, the U.S. government was antagonistic towards these religious zealots, gathering from all over the earth, and the Mormon people were considered part of the problems of the United States by many, including those opposed to slavery.

 

Each successor to Brother Brigham became more and more moderate and accepted by the society and rest of the world. John Taylor was not thought of as a firebrand like his predecessor; perhaps the position did not require it in his time as much. Taylor was a British born man; the United Kingdom had banned human bondage long before anyone else. Perhaps he had less draconian views of societies? Maybe less pent up angst about Washington bureaucrats? Perhaps the decades of relative peace had softened hearts on all sides. Post-bellum America was growing, expanding, prospering more and more, especially with the overcoming of racial and human rights differences that we all know about from our shared American history.

By the fourth president of the Church, Wilford Woodruff, one who had his fair share of knowing younger President Smith and older Presidents Young and Taylor, he was the one who proclaimed the rescinding of plural marriage. While thought of as a necessary and righteous endeavor by the Church members, to gather Israel and grow Zion (not as awful and brutal as the Israelites that conquered Canaan under Joshua, which was a genocide), polygamy served its purposes and was done away with. Understandably to the non-believers and the detractors of this faith, a religion only half a century old, but claiming thousands of years of authority, a restoration of the actual Church of Christ as originally formed, things seemed extreme. But as we know, the Latter-day Saints became more mainstream and acceptable to the rest of the country and the world, year after year, prophet after prophet.

 

In naming and maintaining the name of Brigham Young on its flagship universities into the 21st century, of which I am a graduate, we acknowledge that the man had some rough edges, like he was a segregationist (racist) and polygamist (sexist) in today's terms. Did he advocate slavery? No, he was more in the abolitionist camp. Did he force women to marry him against their will? No. Did he believe that he was directed by God to do lead in these ways? Yes, as most divinely "called" people do.

Did he do things, any things, right?

 

Heavily Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint Wyoming and Utah allowed women the right to vote (suffrage), long before Susan B. Anthony won those rights with the suffragettes of the following century.

 

Did this fact, among other things, make Brother Brigham a good person? Was this simple fact an indicator of his virtues?

We believe so, I believe so. He helped organize, move, and establish a church government and its people that will (in its mission statements) help humanity find itself and redeem itself. Each successor since has grown in light and knowledge since Young, and this trajectory has been a good thing. It is going on 200 years since he joined the fledgling movement in the 1830s.

I believe Brigham Young was like Peter of old: rough and passionate, but faithful and loyal to a cause he believed to be directed from heaven. God came first, according to his conscience.

That, is what I believe, is the most right thing about the namesake of BYU.

To meet him someday? Maybe he is more like Barach Obama than Donald Trump. One seems more agreeable than the other, in comparison. We shall see. Either way, President Young bears a name of reckoning, and of diligent faith to a Church that claims very bold objectives and goals: the Kingdom of God through His Son Jesus Christ, lead by modern day revelation and authority. I think he was a bit like Peter or Moses, which is not a bad thing at all.

Which brings the point back to this: if Moses is who we and he think that he is, and Jesus is the Son of God, and Peter is His successor, and Joseph Smith is not a complete liar, but rather the modern prophet that he claimed to be, then Brigham Young, in that light, is a pretty big deal.

But you don't have to believe me or take my word for it.

If you investigate it for yourself and come to the conclusions that I have, or similar enough to accept it, that Brigham Young was who he said he was, I tell you that you will be benefited and blessed for it.

In that sense, Brigham Young gave you another chance to find out if any of this Gospel Good News and Restoration according to this organization has merit enough to be of use or not.

Best of wishes and God bless. I like the guy and what he did. Despite his obvious faults. Only one was perfect, the rest of us follow that example, with help from our communities.