Brother Brigham

New on the website of the Interpreter Foundation — which, by the way, will celebrate its seventh birthday a week from Saturday:

“The Visions of Paul”: A Video Supplement for Come, Follow Me Lesson 30: “A Minister and a Witness”

Also new on the Interpreter website:

Interpreter Radio Show — July 28, 2019

For the 28 July 2019 episode of the Interpreter Radio Show, Steve Densley and Matt Bowen discussed the approaching FAIRMormon conference, recent Interpreter publications, and the upcoming Come, Follow Me lesson #32 on the Epistle to the Romans.  Their conversation is now accessible to you at no charge and freed from commercial interruptions.

“Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me New Testament Lesson 32: “Overcome Evil with Good”

The Interpreter Radio (audio) Roundtable for Come, Follow Me New Testament Lesson 32, “Overcome Evil with Good,” covering Romans 7-16, has been extracted for your ease and convenience as a freestanding file from the 28 July 2019 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show. The two discussants for this roundtable were, of course, Steve Densley and Matt Bowen.

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This caught my attention:

“Is He Nuts: Why a Gay Man Would Become a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ”

So did this, sadly:

“Grant Thompson Wiki: Viral YouTuber “King Of Random” Dead in Paragliding Tragedy”

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It’s fashionable in some (usually politically and theologically leftish) Mormon, fringe-Mormon, and ex-Mormon circles to despise Brigham Young.  He’s routinely denounced as a misogynist and a racist, as if — even if those epithets were accurate — that would count as a more or less exhaustive description of the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

And, even among some still-believing Latter-day Saints, there’s occasional deep discomfort with him.

So I would like to recommend two books that, in my judgment, will serve to counter the hostile caricatures of him that I encounter with some frequency these days:

• Hugh Nibley, Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints (also available for free online, here)
• Eugene England, Brother Brigham

I think it’s helpful to note, in this case, that both Hugh Nibley and Eugene England were men of the political Left.  (I knew them both.)

And, while we’re at it, Hugh Nibley’s Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass: The Art of Telling Tales about Joseph Smith and Brigham Young is also quite relevant.  Moreover, it’s often uproariously funny.

Posted from McCall, Idaho