There is still time for you to catch up on your viewing of the three currently-available episodes of Becoming Brigham before the fourth installment goes up. They can be watched here. In the meantime, I share with you a sneak preview of Episode 4: “Why Brigham Young?” Newsweek: “Clark Gilbert Apostle Pick Sparks LDS Church Backlash” Among other things, since Clark Gilbert’s call to the apostleship I’ve seen him described as President Dallin Oaks’s “enforcer,” emblematic of the very... Read more
If you can endure nearly two hours and twenty minutes of, well, me, you might be able to discern some limited value in my recent interview with Stephen Jones on his Let’s Get Real podcast. And, while we’re at it, you might also find this worth hearing; it’s only a little less than seven minutes long: “Review for new Youtube Documentary: Becoming Brigham, from the Interpreter Foundation.” In the meantime, all three of the currently available episodes of Becoming... Read more
The podcast Let’s Get Real with Stephen Jones and Scripture Central has just posted an interview with me and, at nearly two hours and twenty minutes in length, it’s massive: “Why Brigham Young Makes Us Uncomfortable.” The prophet Brigham Young did not become controversial because he was simple. He became controversial because we stopped allowing complex people from the past to be understood as human beings. In this conversation, Dr. Dan Peterson, noted Latter-day Saint scholar and historian, helps... Read more
Among the criticisms that I’ve seen of our Becoming Brigham series is one that blames Brigham Young for the invention of nineteenth-century Latter-day Saint plural marriage. It tends to be made by people who want to preserve their confidence in Joseph Smith but who cannot abide polygamy. Thus, Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve become the fall-guys. Accordingly, Brigham is too wicked a man to defend — or, perhaps better, too wicked a man not to condemn... Read more
Becoming Brigham, Episode 3—Shorthand & Bloodstains, Part Two is up, and I hope that you’ll watch and enjoy it and pass the word along. And a videotape of the small Becoming Brigham fireside that we held on 31 January 2026 is also now up online. The previous episodes of Becoming Brigham — there are two prior installments, thus far — are available for viewing on the website of the Intepreter Foundation, here. And, while I’m at it, yet another... Read more
I’m pleased to report that Episode 3 of our Becoming Brigham series — Shorthand and Bloodstains, Part 2 — has now appeared online. I hope that you’ll enjoy it. New installments of Becoming Brigham will be posted every Monday over roughly the next year and a half. And, incidentally, a new video has now gone up on the Interpreter Foundation’s YouTube channel: “Becoming Brigham Fireside” A special fireside about the Becoming Brigham project was held on Saturday, January 31,... Read more
This went up yesterday — sorry, but yes, I’m a bit delinquent — on the perpetually unchanging website of the virtually defunct Interpreter Foundation: “Conversations with Interpreter: Episode 2 — “Parallels Between the Book of Moses and Book of Mormon,” Part 1: “Distribution, JST Links”: In this episode of Conversations with Interpreter, our hosts, Avram and Thora Shannon speak with Jeff Lindsay, a member of the Board of Directors of the Interpreter Foundation. Lindsay’s article was published in two... Read more
At a certain place on the Internet that will remain deservedly nameless, it’s often claimed that my involvement with Latter-day Saint apologetics—and, specifically, with the Interpreter Foundation—funds an opulent lifestyle for me of global travel, lounging poolside at upscale hotels and resorts, and endless high-end dining. All of which, the accusation goes, is billed directly to the Interpreter Foundation’s tab — and, thus, paid for by the Foundation’s gullible donors, who are being scammed. One curiously hostile individual is... Read more
Published today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: ““Inspired by a Better Cause”: The Function of Alma 43:44–45 in Mormon’s Account of the Monarchic Wars against the Nephites,” which was written by Matthew L. Bowen: Abstract: In Alma 43:44–45, as part of the narration of the war between Amalekite- (Amlicite-) and Zoramite-led Lamanites and the Nephites, Mormon juxtaposes the cause of the Amlicite/Amalekite-motivated “fighting for monarchy” with the Nephites’ “better cause” of fighting for wives,... Read more
I would like to encourage you, if you haven’t already done so, to watch Episode 1 and Episode 2 of our new Becoming Brigham series. I also hope that you’ll subscribe to the series, and that you’ll commend it to others in your ward, in your family, and among your friends. You can help. This new item was posted today on the long-dead website of the Interpreter Foundation: The Interpreter Insights podcast — February 5 — “How Near-Death Experiences... Read more
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