{"id":114087,"date":"2025-12-18T14:15:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T21:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=114087"},"modified":"2025-12-18T14:15:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T21:15:33","slug":"christmas-the-matchless-gift-of-gods-divine-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/12\/christmas-the-matchless-gift-of-gods-divine-son.html","title":{"rendered":"“Christmas, the Matchless Gift of God’s Divine Son”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Weihtnachtsstern<\/a>
Adventsstern (\u201cAdvent Star\u201d) \u00a0Wikimedia Commons public domain image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Up yesterday \u2014 sorry! \u2014 on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0The Interpreter Foundation Podcast \u2014 December 15, 2025 \u2014 \u201cChristmas, the Matchless Gift of God\u2019s Divine Son\u201d<\/a>: \u00a0It\u2019s a\u00a0discussion between Martin Tanner and Terry Hutchinson.<\/p>\n

And here is my Christmas music selection for the day: \u00a0I\u2019ve chosen a\u00a0thrilling Nigerian carol, Betelehemu<\/em>, sung in the original Yoruba by \u2014 of all people! \u2014 the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square: \u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=N9gXWuqZcNw<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Awa yo, a ri Baba gb\u2019ojule\u00a0(We rejoice for we have a trustworthy father)<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\nAwa yo, a ri Baba f\u2019eyin ti\u00a0(We rejoice for we have? a dependable father)<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\n(repeat)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Ni bo labe Jesu?\u00a0(Where was Jesus born?<\/strong>)<\/em><\/span>
\nNi bo labe bisi?\u00a0(Where was he born?<\/strong>)<\/em><\/span>
\n(Repeat)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Betelehemu iluwa la,\u00a0(Bethlehem, city of wonder)<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\nNi bo labe Baba o daju\u00a0(That is where Father was born)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Inyi, inyi, furo\u00a0(Praise, praise, be to Him)<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\nAdupe fun o, jooni,\u00a0(We thank you, today)<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\nBaba olo reo\u00a0(Gracious Father)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s a spectacular crowd-pleaser. \u00a0Listen to and watch the entire thing.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
The Jane Austen Memorial in Winchester Cathedral (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last night, in honor of Miss Jane Austen\u2019s 250th birthday, my wife and I watched the 1996 television-movie version of Emma<\/em>, starring Kate Beckinsale and Mark Strong<\/a>. \u00a0We\u2019ve seen it before, but not as often as we\u2019ve watched a couple of the other versions. \u00a0So it was relatively fresh to us, and, as always with Austen-based films, we enjoyed it.<\/p>\n

The night before, anticipating<\/em> Jane\u2019s birthday, we watched Sense and Sensibility: A Modern Retelling<\/em><\/a> (2025), which stars Camrey Bagley Fox (our Emma Smith<\/a>) and two of her sisters. \u00a0It\u2019s a local Utah production that Camrey co-wrote and co-directed, involving her family and friends. \u00a0We were invited to its premiere a while back but, owing to a conflict with a long-scheduled medical procedure for my wife, we were unable to attend. \u00a0So it was nice to finally see it. \u00a0It\u2019s available online.<\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>
\u201cEyes Westward\u201d \u2014 a statue of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young that is located in Nauvoo, Illinois, near the east bank of the Mississippi River (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve lately been thinking a little bit about what I call \u201cpolygamy denialism,\u201d the claim that Joseph Smith never practiced plural marriage but, instead, opposed and fought it.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding what a pseudonymous critic recently (and with clinical accuracy) described as my lack of self-awareness, rationality, and empathy, I understand that even many believers in the prophetic mission of Joseph Smith find polygamy difficult, and I fully understand why they do so. \u00a0Especially women, for obvious reasons. \u00a0It\u2019s something that faithful Latter-day Saints must face and with which they must negotiate their own modus vivendi<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But the evidence for Joseph having taught and practiced plural marriage seems to me overwhelming and beyond reasonable dispute. \u00a0There\u2019s good reason for the fact that, so far as I\u2019m aware, not a single academic or professional historian who has given the matter any serious attention denies Joseph\u2019s central role in the beginning of Latter-day Saint plural marriage. \u00a0Moreover, the lengthy and important recent article by Paul Fields, Steven T. Densley Jr., Matthew Roper, and Larry Bassist (\u201cHistorical and Stylometric Evidence for the Authorship of Doctrine and Covenants 132,\u201d in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em> 67 [2025] : 1-70<\/a>) has just significantly raised the evidentiary bar that polygamy denialists must clear if they hope to win even the slightest credibility for their case.<\/p>\n

A corollary to polygamy denialism in the minds of some of those who espouse it is a strong tendency to blame Brigham Young and the early Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for the Church\u2019s adoption of polygamous marriage \u2014 a position that has even led a few to the extreme accusation that Brigham Young, rather than the Carthage Grays and such rabble-rousing demagogues as Thomas Sharp, was behind the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. \u00a0Moreover, they suggest that he employed as his actual hitmen the apostles Willard Richards and John Taylor, the latter of whom, of course, later became the third president of the Church. \u00a0And what was the supposed motive of the conspirators? \u00a0Motivated by lust, they wished to see polygamy established among the Latter-day Saints. Accordingly, they needed to eliminate the principled opposition of the Smith brothers to such flagrant immorality.<\/p>\n

I regard this point of view as flatly mad. \u00a0But I also see it as toxic and dangerous. \u00a0Once Brigham and his alleged apostolic co-conspirators have been judged guilty of imposing plural marriage upon the Church, of what other<\/em> heresies and innovations \u2014 that is, of what other elements of the Church and the Restoration with which the accuser feels uncomfortable \u2014 might they not be found culpable? \u00a0And, if they are viewed as grossly immoral and shamelessly dishonest (and perhaps even murderous), why should believers today pay any attention to them or, for that matter, to their chosen lineal successors? \u00a0The apostolic keys held by Presidents Russell M. Nelson and Dallin H. Oaks, by every apostle and every president of the Church since 1844, were transmitted through the Quorum of the Twelve over which Brigham Young presided. \u00a0My priesthood lineage runs through that quorum, and I suspect that the lines of authority for virtually every other holder of the priesthood in the Church do, as well.<\/p>\n

In other words, I object to polygamy denialism not only because I think it plainly historically false but because I see it as leading, rather logically, to apostasy and schism. \u00a0Indeed, I know of cases where it already has<\/em>. \u00a0Those who argue against the legitimacy of the Twelve in 1844 and 1845 are, if they are active members of the Church, felling the tree in whose branches they sit.<\/p>\n

One of the recurring sub-themes of our Becoming Brigham<\/em> series, which we anticipate launching sometime just past the middle of January 2026 \u2014 in other words, next month \u2014 is the remarkable loyalty and devotion of Brigham Young toward Joseph Smith. \u00a0We didn\u2019t impose this sub-theme on the project; it emerges naturally and, I would say, inevitably from the history that we\u2019re recounting.<\/p>\n

Brigham was known, and with reason, as \u201cthe Lion of the Lord,\u201d but he was notably submissive to one man, the Prophet Joseph Smith. \u00a0Illustrations of this are numerous, remarkable, and impressively consistent, to the end of Brigham\u2019s life. \u00a0The suggestion that Brigham Young opposed Joseph on plural marriage \u2014 let alone that he conspired to kill Joseph and Joseph\u2019s brother \u2014 seems to me not only demonstrably and risibly false but, frankly, obscene. \u00a0It could not possibly be leveled against a man who more clearly doesn\u2019t deserve the accusation.<\/p>\n

I am not saying that Brigham Young was perfect. \u00a0Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, I wouldn\u2019t accuse any<\/em> human being of perfection. \u00a0Brigham was a flawed man with human limitations and weaknesses \u2014 as am I and as is everybody else, including those who denigrate him. \u00a0But I\u2019ve grown tired of people who seemingly cannot mention him without<\/em> alluding to his having been flawed.<\/p>\n

Such mentions have begun to remind me of what are called, in the Homeric poems, \u201cornamental epithets\u201d (e.g., \u201crosy-fingered Dawn,\u201d \u201clovely-haired Briseis,\u201d \u201cOdysseus of the many counsels,\u201d \u201cthe wine-dark sea,\u201d \u201cswift-footed Achilles,\u201d \u201cgrey-eyed Athena,\u201d \u201cleafy Zakynthos,\u201d and \u201cAgamemnon, lord of men.\u201d) \u00a0In Homer and similar poets, such repetitive epithets were used not just for their imagery and their beauty \u2014 I think that \u1fe5\u03bf\u03b4\u03bf\u03b4\u03ac\u03ba\u03c4\u03c5\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f28\u03ce\u03c2<\/em> (\u201crosy-fingered dawn\u201d) is genuinely beautiful and evocative \u2014 but helped to fill out dactylic hexameter lines with ready-made, metrically useful phrases, serving as<\/span> building blocks for bards that made composition and recollection easier in performance.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0In the case of Brigham Young, by contrast, the repetitive intonation of his \u201cflawedness\u201d yields and furthers the misimpression that he was a uniquely bad man. \u00a0And that simply isn\u2019t fair, just, or true.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 Up yesterday \u2014 sorry! \u2014 on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: \u00a0The Interpreter Foundation Podcast \u2014 December 15, 2025 \u2014 \u201cChristmas, the Matchless Gift of God\u2019s Divine Son\u201d: \u00a0It\u2019s a\u00a0discussion between Martin Tanner and Terry Hutchinson. 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