{"id":88408,"date":"2020-09-29T21:23:28","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T03:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=88408"},"modified":"2020-09-29T21:57:56","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T03:57:56","slug":"brigham-young-and-the-damned-rascals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/brigham-young-and-the-damned-rascals.html","title":{"rendered":"Brigham Young and those “damned rascals”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BY<\/a>
This statue of Brigham Young stands in front of the Provo (Utah) City Library, formerly Brigham Young Academy (the precursor of Brigham Young University).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

No.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Darn it, I just can\u2019t get tonight\u2019s ugly, toxic fiasco out of my head.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The just-concluded presidential debate, in my judgment, substantially strengthened the case for (a) restoring the separation of powers between the three branches of the federal government (e.g., by shrinking the power of the executive branch), (b) greater federalism \u2014 that is, returning power from Washington DC to the states and to local communities \u2014 and (c) limiting the power of government overall.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the government and the constitution of the United States, but I do not love the damned rascals who administer the government.\u201d\u00a0(Governor Brigham Young, Journal History\u00a0<\/em>[8 Sep 1851] 3-4)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

While I\u2019m thinking of Brigham Young, I\u2019m reminded of an interesting episode recounted in his important book Religion of a Different Color<\/em>\u00a0by Paul Reeve:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

An early mixed-race (Black and American Indian)\u00a0member of the Church named William McCary \u2014 as it turned out, a rather tenuous and somewhat erratic and even unbalanced fellow, who ultimately didn\u2019t endure faithfully to the end \u2014 had encountered racial prejudice among some Church members.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response to this, President Young counseled the Saints to \u201cuse the man with respect.\u201d \u00a0(The verb to use<\/em>\u00a0is employed\u00a0here in a somewhat archaic sense common in Shakespeare. \u00a0See below. \u00a0In today\u2019s English, we would employ the verb to treat<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But some problems persisted. \u00a0And he continued to complain.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Was he in some way sub- or even non-human?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIts nothing to do with the blood,\u201d replied President Young, \u201cfor of one blood has God made all flesh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Professor Reeve comments on this exchange:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an echo of the same New Testament verse (Acts 17:26) that [Joseph] Smith quoted in his presidential platform three years earlier. \u00a0Both drew upon the Bible to assert a broad commonality among humankind and were simultaneously acknowledging a wider racial debate then animating the scientific and Christian communities. \u00a0In paraphrasing Acts 17:26, Young and Smith were referencing an important verse then commonly cited among nineteenth-century Christians. \u00a0Believers used the verse to defend against a polygenesis theory then stirring scientific arguments about the origins of the various races. \u00a0Scientists who promoted the polygenesis theory believed that there were multiple independent creations rather than just a single biblical creation. \u00a0Each creation gave rise to a new race, which meant that whites and blacks were in fact from different species. \u00a0Even though the two species could biologically reproduce, one argument was that an innate repugnance against interracial mixing was intended to preserve \u2018species distinction.\u2019 \u00a0Those who violated the innate repugnance were really violating nature, which was a sure sign of their moral degradation. \u00a0Physical degeneracy followed and within a few generations the offspring of such unions would be sterile.\u201d\u00a0 (See W. Paul Reeve, Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness<\/em>\u00a0[New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015], 128-131.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(For historical examples of \u201cscientific racism\u201d in the pages of Scientific American<\/em>, no less, see my recent article \u201cReckoning with the Mortally Inevitable.\u201d<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fashionable, of late, to demonize Brigham Young as a racist, even a vicious one \u2014 and, in some cases, essentially to forget that there was anything else<\/em> to the man.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I resist this.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t perfect, of course.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nor is Russell M. Nelson. \u00a0Nor am I. \u00a0Nor are his critics.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUse every man after his desert,\u201d wrote Shakespeare (in Hamlet<\/em> II.ii), \u201cand\u00a0<\/span>who should<\/span>\u00a0\u2018<\/span>scape whipping<\/span>?\u201d \u00a0Or, to paraphrase: \u00a0Treat everybody purely according to his or her merits, and who wouldn\u2019t<\/em> be worthy of censure or even punishment?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In racial matters, Brigham Young said some things that jar us today \u2014 to put it mildly \u2014 and that we cannot endorse. \u00a0There\u2019s no denying this. \u00a0He was, as we all are \u2014 even the prophets among us \u2014 a man of his time and culture and background.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he was a good man, indeed\u00a0a great man, a sincere disciple of the Lord and a prophet who sought to do God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I choose to stand with him. \u00a0\u201cThe soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes.\u201d \u00a0And, on the specific racial issue described above, President Brigham Young was \u2014 notwithstanding the dismissive stereotype of him that\u2019s currently in vogue \u2014 on the side of the angels.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 \u00a0 No.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Darn it, I just can\u2019t get tonight\u2019s ugly, toxic fiasco out of my head. \u00a0 The just-concluded presidential debate, in my judgment, substantially strengthened the case for (a) restoring the separation of powers between the three branches of the federal government (e.g., by shrinking the power of the executive branch), (b) […]<\/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-88408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBrigham Young and those "damned rascals"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    No.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Darn it, I just can't get tonight's ugly, toxic fiasco out of my head.   The just-concluded presidential debate, in my\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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