{"id":112658,"date":"2025-09-02T13:06:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T19:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=112658"},"modified":"2025-09-02T15:07:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T21:07:50","slug":"on-the-ineptitude-of-using-green-flake-to-criticize-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/09\/on-the-ineptitude-of-using-green-flake-to-criticize-me.html","title":{"rendered":"On the ineptitude of using Green Flake to criticize me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Not<\/a>
An Interpreter Foundation volunteer works to set up the Foundation\u2019s new wifi system, in a bid to boost our signal speed. Below him are the adjoining cities of Orem and Provo, separated only by the mighty Provo River. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This went up yesterday on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u201cThe Interpreter Foundation Podcast \u2014 August 21, 2025: Wresting the Scriptures.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

For the 21 August 2025 episode of the Interpreter Foundation Podcast, Bruce Webster, Kris Frederickson, and Martin Tanner discussed the wresting of the scriptures by critics.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Brother<\/a>
An artistic enhancement and colorization of a public domain 19th-century photograph of Green Flake. Probably taken in Salt Lake City, Utah, probably in the 1890s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I continue to draw ignorant (and, thus, poorly aimed) fire from certain quarters regarding the position that I took in a recent FAIR presentation<\/a> and a recent Meridian Magazine<\/em> article<\/a> on the subject of Brigham Young and slavery. \u00a0Just this morning, for instance, a critic writes that he \u201cimagines\u201d that, if someone like me had told the black Latter-day Saint pioneer Green Flake (1828-1903) that Brigham Young was opposed to slavery, Brother Flake would have been, umm, a bit skeptical of the claim.<\/p>\n

This, though, is a wonderful example of where actually knowing something about the topic might have helped the critic. \u00a0(\u201cIt isn\u2019t what we don\u2019t know that gives us trouble,\u201d said Will Rogers. \u201cIt\u2019s what we know that ain\u2019t so.\u201d). For \u201cimagination\u201d is the operative word in the critic\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n

Green Flake was born enslaved on the Jordan Flake Plantation in North Carolina. \u00a0His enslavers eventually joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> and he did, as well. \u00a0He was baptized on 7 April 1844, and he and his enslavers moved to Nauvoo in 1845.<\/p>\n

Like Brigham Young, Green Flake was a member of the vanguard pioneer company that established the settlement at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, and that then went on to arrive in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake in July 1847. \u00a0(He had been dispatched by his enslavers to go ahead and prepare a house for them.) \u00a0Soon after their arrival, Brigham reputedly turned to Brother Flake and told him that he was just as free as every other member of the company.<\/p>\n

Many Latter-day Saints were re-baptized when they reached the Salt Lake Valley, in order to show their commitment to their faith in this new place. \u00a0Green Flake was among them: He was re-baptized on 8 August 1847 by Tarleton Lewis and was confirmed later that same day by Elder Wilford Woodruff of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.<\/p>\n

What happened thereafter is not altogether clear, but what is apparent from the historical record is the fact that the widowed Agnes Flake, who had gone down to the new Latter-day Saint settlement at San Bernardino in California, wrote to Brigham Young, asking him to send Green Flake to her so that she could sell him there, and that Brigham refused to do so. \u00a0Brigham rented Green Flake\u2019s labor for a year and then, having set him up with a farm in Union, Utah, officially freed him somewhere between 1852 and 1854. \u00a0One account says that, after their marriage, Green and Martha Flake continued to supply produce to her former enslavers as the price of her freedom \u2014 until Brigham Young, hearing of their continued payments, \u00a0told them to stop: \u00a0\u201cYou owe them nothing<\/em>,\u201d he reportedly told Green and Martha. \u00a0The 1860 census lists Green, Martha, and their two children as free residents of Union, Salt Lake County. \u00a0(The nineteenth-century Union settlement is divided today between modern Midvale, Cottonwood Heights, and Sandy.) \u00a0According to some sources, when Brigham Young died in 1877, Green Flake insisted \u2014 out of affection and respect \u2014 on being the one to dig President Young\u2019s grave.<\/p>\n

As one of the original 1847 pioneer company, Green Flake was a revered member of the Latter-day Saint community in Utah and Idaho for over half a century and often spoke at Pioneer Day celebrations. \u00a0Among his descendants was Lucille Bankhead<\/a>, a civil rights activist in Utah and the first Relief Society president of the Genesis Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, while I\u2019m once again on the topic of Brigham Young: \u00a0My wife and I had a Zoom meeting today with Mark Goodman, James Jordan, and Russell Richins<\/a> about the production schedule for our forthcoming series of short Becoming Brigham<\/em> video-documentaries. \u00a0We have filmed about thirty of them, thus far, but post-production is (of course and pretty much by definition) lagging behind. \u00a0Only about eight are currently complete. \u00a0Our initial goal was to do fifty-two of them and to release them on a weekly basis. \u00a0We\u2019re acquiring such good material, though \u2014 notably in excellent interviews with fine scholars \u2014 that the eventual number of episodes may increase substantially. \u00a0Anyway, we\u2019ve determined to aim at launching our weekly releases at the beginning of 2026.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m excited about this project. \u00a0More and more so, in fact, as it proceeds. \u00a0I\u2019m learning a great deal from it, and I\u2019m confident that its audience will, as well. \u00a0We\u2019re still in need of funding to complete it, though. \u00a0Small and large contributions are both very welcome. \u00a0If you would like to help, please go to the donation page<\/a> on the Interpreter Foundation website and indicate the purpose of your contribution. \u00a0(This is all, of course, tax exempt.)<\/p>\n

\"Modern<\/a>
A group of young Latter-day Saint women who are probably on their way to the workhouse. \u00a0(They\u2019re plainly too old to be going to school as women in Utah.) \u00a0I don\u2019t think that Utah females are permitted to drive. \u00a0Right? \u00a0These women do, though, appear to be wearing shoes, which may indicate a recent relaxation of Church standards. \u00a0(LDS Media Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I very much appreciated this article by Meagan Kohler<\/a> in the Deseret News<\/em> and I commend it to you: \u00a0\u201cAnswering my critics about issues facing women of faith: Certain questions and criticisms about my writing have come up more frequently than others. Here are some responses.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I always try to read what Meagan Kohler writes.<\/p>\n

\"Waterfront<\/a>
A Latter-day Saint chapel in Miami, Florida (LDS Media Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122, here\u2019s yet another illustration of how theism and theists continue to blight innocent people around the world: \u00a0\u201cHow EnglishConnect Is Opening Doors and Changing Lives:\u00a0The Church provides the global program in more than 50 languages.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I know that at least a few of the readers of this blog out there are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I suppose that, if they decide to join in such an evil cause as EnglishConnect, there is nothing \u2014 at least as the laws are constituted right now \u2014 that we can do to stop them.<\/p>\n

Posted from Depoe Bay, Oregon<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 This went up yesterday on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u201cThe Interpreter Foundation Podcast \u2014 August 21, 2025: Wresting the Scriptures.\u201d For the 21 August 2025 episode of the Interpreter Foundation Podcast, Bruce Webster, Kris Frederickson, and Martin Tanner discussed the wresting of the scriptures by critics. I continue to draw ignorant (and, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":104684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[292,30538,2905,788,11471,3703],"class_list":["post-112658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brigham-young","tag-green-flake","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon","tag-race","tag-slavery"],"yoast_head":"\nOn the ineptitude of using Green Flake to criticize me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  This went up yesterday on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: "The Interpreter Foundation Podcast \u2014 August 21, 2025: Wresting the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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