The Interpreter Foundation held its annual birthday party last night, for the invited volunteers, authors, and donors who were able to attend. My best estimate is that about 105 people were in attendance. This is our very modest yearly thank-you, to the extent that we can thank those who make Interpreter work.
We began with a dinner centered on beef brisket and pulled pork that had been generously donated and expertly smoked by Bruce Webster, one of our long-time radio and podcast hosts. Bruce’s delicious contribution — I supply details of our cuisine here for the entertainment and indignation of the good folks at the Peterson Obsession Board — was backed up by fruit kebabs, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, and, I’m told, salad and a really good dessert of peach cobbler and ice cream. (At home afterwards, I was able to enjoy a plate of food that my wife had saved for me, but — alas! — the salad and the peach cobbler and ice cream were gone and she was unable to save anything for me from those.)
After a few announcements and other matters in the cultural hall of the Latter-day Saint meetinghouse where the birthday party occurred, we withdrew into the building’s chapel. Steve Densley, the Interpreter Foundation’s Executive Vice President, conducted this portion of the program.
In the chapel, John Donovan Wilson and his wife, Twyla Wilson — respectively, Brigham Young and Mary Ann Angell Young from Six Days in August — sang a duet for the audience, accompanied by Joan Lunt on the violin and Amy Bastian on piano. That was followed, among other things, by a summary report from Allen Wyatt, our Vice President of Operations, on what the Interpreter Foundation has accomplished since the 2024 birthday dinner. Even though nothing in Allen’s list was new to me, it was still pretty impressive when seen altogether. After Allen, Jeff Bradshaw, Interpreter’s Vice President of Special Projects, used both still photographs and video to give the audience an update regarding the dual-language Not by Bread Alone effort that he’s leading. It’s a bid to preserve at least some of the stories of Latter-day Saint pioneers in Africa. Last of all, Mark Goodman introduced a ten-minute sampler from the forthcoming Becoming Brigham series of short video documentaries, and I offered a few closing remarks.
And, speaking of the Interpreter Foundation, this new item went up yesterday on the Foundation’s blog: “Theological Impact of Identifying 2 Nephi as a Legal Text,” written by Martin Oman Evans. (I was curious. You can learn more about Dr. Evans here.)
I’m beginning to be concerned about the rise of polygamy denialism among some members of the Church. I fear that it may be trending toward an apostate schism — or, at a minimum, toward taking a sizable number of those who believe in it right out of the Kingdom of God. Polygamy denialism, as its name partially indicates, is the view not only that the Prophet Joseph Smith never practiced plural marriage but that Brigham Young and other nineteenth-century prophets, apostles, and alleged plural wives invented the practice and falsely ascribed it to Joseph Smith. (Some even go so far as to accuse John Taylor and Willard Richards of having murdered the Prophet and his brother, the Patriarch Hyrum Smith, on Brigham Young’s orders, in order to better impose their immorality upon the Church.)
I understand perfectly well that the idea of plural marriage is a severe challenge to some faithful Saints in the twenty-first century; plural marriage was a severe challenge to many faithful Saints in the nineteenth century. But a stable testimony cannot safely be built upon falsehood, and the claim that Brigham Young invented plural marriage and blamed Joseph for it is a falsehood. It has taken people out of the Church, and it could well take many more:
Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him. (Isaiah 36:6)
And so, too, is polygamy denialism.
I’m pleased to see that Christopher Blythe, a scholar of religious and American history at Brigham Young University, has started a new YouTube channel. On it, he is responding to questions surrounding the issue of polygamy and the differences that members of the Church can have respecting the history and legitimacy of the practice. His channel is Skeeptic. www.youtube.com/@polygamyskeptic
And here is an interview on the subject with Brian C. Hales, an authority on both early Latter-day Saint plural marriage and the origin and history of contemporary “Mormon fundamentalist” groups: “No More Denial: Joseph Smith Practiced Polygamy.” See also Brian’s extremely helpful website, Joseph Smith’s Polygamy.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. (Matthew 24:24)
(Photoshopped public domain image from Wikimedia Commons)
Finally, as I often do, I close with a pair of links that I’ve recovered from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™:
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