{"id":33749,"date":"2016-05-25T12:13:40","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T18:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=33749"},"modified":"2016-05-25T12:13:40","modified_gmt":"2016-05-25T18:13:40","slug":"the-apostate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/05\/the-apostate.html","title":{"rendered":"“The Apostate”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"S.<\/a>
Susa Young Gates, ca. 1900, when she was serving as the fourth president of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers (Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m grateful to my longtime friend and former Maxwell Institute colleague for bringing this piece from the April 1905 issue of The Improvement Era<\/em> to my attention. \u00a0It was written by Susa Young Gates (1856-1933), a daughter of Brigham Young who rose to prominence in her own right as a writer, editor, genealogist, and advocate of women\u2019s rights and women\u2019s suffrage. \u00a0Among many other things, she founded the Department of Music at what was then the Brigham Young Academy in Provo, Utah; served on the board of regents for both Utah State Agricultural College (the future Utah State University) and Brigham Young University; founded the Young Women\u2019s Journal<\/em> and the Relief Society Magazine;\u00a0<\/em>wrote two novels, a biography of her father, a history of Mormon women,\u00a0and other books; and, with her husband, served two missions to the \u201cSandwich Islands\u201d (the Kingdom of Hawaii).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

THE APOSTATE.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the apostate, now. He\u2019s a queer creature. Very<\/span><\/p>\n

queer! He has some remarkable notions. And no matter who he<\/span><\/p>\n

is, or when he apostatized, he is all alike in some things. For instance,<\/span><\/p>\n

he always feels very much abused. No matter what has<\/span><\/p>\n

been done, or what left undone; your apostate, if he is the genuine<\/span><\/p>\n

article, feels that any number of people have been in league<\/span><\/p>\n

against him. Of course, there are those who simply drift out of<\/span><\/p>\n

the Church through indifference or general neglect. And indifferent<\/span><\/p>\n

and neglectful they generally remain. Again, there are those<\/span><\/p>\n

who leave other churches. But someway, such people never<\/span><\/p>\n

manifest the real apostate spirit. For they fail to manifest the<\/span><\/p>\n

infallible signs. Diagnose these cases, and the true symptoms<\/span><\/p>\n

will be found absent. One apostatizes only from truth, not error.<\/span><\/p>\n

But to return to our simon-pure apostate; for he generally turns<\/span><\/p>\n

on us. He not only feels he is abused, but in the abandonment of<\/span><\/p>\n

his self-piety he pictures whole cohorts of persons who hare been<\/span><\/p>\n

conspiring for his overthrow. Symptom number one.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next stage of his malady is exhibited when he begins to<\/span><\/p>\n

think he is twenty years ahead of the Church. The Church, according<\/span><\/p>\n

to him, is a good, old, doddering idiot, who has been a<\/span><\/p>\n

pretty fair specimen at one time, but now has lagged miles, leagues,<\/span><\/p>\n

eons behind your anxious apostate. If this\u2014and but that\u2014and<\/span><\/p>\n

perhaps in the days to come, if the Church can only be persuaded<\/span><\/p>\n

to get a hurry on itself\u2014well, you know, it might be possible, in<\/span><\/p>\n

some dim and distant future for the poor old Church to catch the<\/span><\/p>\n

apostate and its own breath at the same time, and proudly linking<\/span><\/p>\n

arms with the soulful and condescending whilom apostate, together<\/span><\/p>\n

they might travel the comfortable broad way that leads to, you<\/span><\/p>\n

know where! Oh yes, and how graciously will your kingly apostate<\/span><\/p>\n

then forgive his long-time delinquent brethren, and how munificent<\/span><\/p>\n

will be his gifts, and self-applied donations; and how magniloquently<\/span><\/p>\n

will he pour out his healing eloquence to soothe all the<\/span><\/p>\n

wicked leaders who will then have repented and come bending and<\/span><\/p>\n

crawling to him. The picture of all this makes him weep in the<\/span><\/p>\n

night. And he weeps! Symptom number two!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then this self-righteous individual, we are discussing, has another<\/span><\/p>\n

profound conviction: this usually is in the last stages of the<\/span><\/p>\n

complaint, and occurs about the time the oflicers have had to<\/span><\/p>\n

quarantine him; he resents being told of his affliction. It hurts<\/span><\/p>\n

his sensitive feelings to be told that he is an apostate. He is<\/span><\/p>\n

nothing of the kind! Don\u2019t you dare \u2014. The story of the Indian<\/span><\/p>\n

here comes to mind, \u201cMe no lost,\u201d grunts the wandering Lo,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cme no lost, wickiup lost!\u201d And that\u2019s the case with our impatient<\/span><\/p>\n

patient; he hasn\u2019t apostatized, not he! It\u2019s the Church that\u2019s<\/span><\/p>\n

apostatized! He has fought and bled all his life for the same<\/span><\/p>\n

things for which he is fighting and bleeding now, so to speak! He,<\/span><\/p>\n

the great, the good, the only, he apostatized? Perish the thought,<\/span><\/p>\n

and with it the four hundred and fifty thousand people who think<\/span><\/p>\n

the thought! And most of all, perish the local, stake or general<\/span><\/p>\n

authorities who are in the direct line of our apostate\u2019s vision.<\/span><\/p>\n

Down with the priesthood! Up with unbridled license! And thus<\/span><\/p>\n

ends symptom number three.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the patient then gets the rabies, and goes out clothed with<\/span><\/p>\n

indignation and with flames bursting from his mouth, he is in the<\/span><\/p>\n

last stages of decomposition, and everybody should get out of the<\/span><\/p>\n

way. Keep out of the chamber of death and despair, unless duty<\/span><\/p>\n

calls you within. Then hang up all the disinfectants you can procure;<\/span><\/p>\n

be exceedingly careful of contagion, for the disease is<\/span><\/p>\n

said to be very catching for relatives and friends; cover up the<\/span><\/p>\n

mal- odorous remains of what was once a friend and brother, and<\/span><\/p>\n

depart as quickly as may be. Let us consign the rest to oblivion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dost like the picture? Then avoid the disease!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Susa Young Gates.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019m grateful to my longtime friend and former Maxwell Institute colleague for bringing this piece from the April 1905 issue of The Improvement Era to my attention. \u00a0It was written by Susa Young Gates (1856-1933), a daughter of Brigham Young who rose to prominence in her own right as a writer, editor, genealogist, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"The Apostate"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    I'm grateful to my longtime friend and former Maxwell Institute colleague for bringing this piece from the April 1905 issue of The\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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