![\"Interpreter](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/10\/413px-013-IMG_0594.jpg\")
<\/a>The Interpreter Foundation held its annual birthday party last night, for the invited volunteers, authors, and donors who were able to attend. \u00a0My best estimate is that about 105 people were in attendance. \u00a0This is our very modest yearly thank-you, to the extent that we can<\/em> thank those who make Interpreter work.<\/p>\n 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. \u00a0Bruce\u2019s delicious contribution \u2014 I supply details of our cuisine here for the entertainment and indignation of the good folks at the Peterson Obsession Board \u2014 was backed up by fruit kebabs, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, and, I\u2019m told, salad and a really good dessert of peach cobbler and ice cream. \u00a0(At home afterwards, I was able to enjoy a plate of food that my wife had saved for me, but \u2014 alas! \u2014 the salad and the peach cobbler and ice cream were gone and she was unable to save anything for me from those<\/em>.)<\/p>\n 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\u2019s chapel. \u00a0Steve Densley<\/a>, the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s Executive Vice President, conducted this portion of the program.<\/p>\n In the chapel, John Donovan Wilson and his wife, Twyla Wilson \u2014 respectively, Brigham Young and Mary Ann Angell Young from Six Days in August<\/em> \u2014 sang a duet for the audience, accompanied by Joan Lunt on the violin and Amy Bastian on piano. \u00a0That was followed, among other things, by a summary report from Allen Wyatt<\/a>, our Vice President of Operations, on what the Interpreter Foundation has accomplished since the 2024<\/em> birthday dinner. \u00a0Even though nothing in Allen\u2019s list was new to me, it was still pretty impressive when seen altogether. \u00a0After Allen, Jeff Bradshaw<\/a>, Interpreter\u2019s 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<\/em> effort<\/a> that he\u2019s leading. \u00a0It\u2019s a bid to preserve at least some of the stories of Latter-day Saint pioneers in Africa. \u00a0Last of all, Mark Goodman introduced a ten-minute sampler from the forthcoming Becoming Brigham<\/em> series of short video documentaries, and I offered a few closing remarks.<\/p>\n And, speaking of the Interpreter Foundation, this new item went up yesterday on the Foundation\u2019s blog: \u00a0\u201cTheological Impact of Identifying 2 Nephi as a Legal Text,\u201d<\/a> written by Martin Oman Evans<\/a>. \u00a0(I was curious. \u00a0You can learn more about Dr. Evans here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n I\u2019m beginning to be concerned about the rise of polygamy denialism among some members of the Church. \u00a0I fear that it may be trending toward an apostate schism \u2014 or, at a minimum, toward taking a sizable number of those who believe in it right out of the Kingdom of God. \u00a0Polygamy 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. \u00a0(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\u2019s orders, in order to better impose their immorality upon the Church.)<\/p>\n 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<\/em> century. \u00a0But 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. \u00a0It has taken people out of the Church, and it could well take many more:<\/p>\n 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)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And so, too, is polygamy denialism.<\/p>\n I\u2019m pleased to see that Christopher Blythe<\/a>, 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. <\/span>www.youtube.com\/@polygamyskeptic<\/a><\/p>\n And here is an interview on the subject with Brian C. Hales<\/a>, an authority on both early Latter-day Saint plural marriage and the origin and history of contemporary \u201cMormon fundamentalist\u201d groups: \u00a0\u201cNo More Denial: Joseph Smith Practiced Polygamy.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 See also Brian\u2019s extremely helpful website, Joseph Smith\u2019s Polygamy<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n 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. \u00a0(Matthew 24:24)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Finally, as I often do, I close with a pair of links that I\u2019ve recovered from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122:<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>
(Photoshopped public domain image from Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n