DiscussMormonism.com

Poll to follow

Brigham Young. People are less informed about some of Joseph's hangups (compared to Young esp. re: polygamy) and even if they did know about Joseph being ashamed about him would throw the most fundamental bedrock of the religion into question as people question Joseph's entire life.

I voted Brigham. I don't know the real answer to this, but I voted the way I think it should be. Joseph was just a frivolous con man. Brigham was a very bad man.

I would have said "evil", but I don't believe in evil.

I think Brigham Young because he didn't have the charisma to pull it off.

Would I be more or less embarrassed to have graduated from Joseph Smith University? That's a tough one.

Lucretia MacEvil wrote:I think Brigham Young because he didn't have the charisma to pull it off.

Would I be more or less embarrassed to have graduated from Joseph Smith University? That's a tough one.

JSU? Why not? At least he didn't carry the baggage that Brigham had. Far too many deaths at the hands of Brigham to make his name worthy of a University.

I'm confused. The church is not ashamed of either one because they created the current perception of them among the members. The church has recreated these men as super-heroes, among the greatest men ever to walk the earth. Of course, the church haa altered the official history to make them seem more god-like, and they might be ashamed of the unsavory elements of each man if they weren't able to so easily convince the members that the altered history is true, and the unsavory aspects are anti-mormon lies.

DarkHelmet wrote:Of course, the church haa altered the official history to make them seem more god-like, ...

If not more god-like, then at least blonder.

We will continually get hammered from this revisionist approach unless we change and say, here is our accurate history - warts and all.

DarkHelmet wrote:I'm confused. The church is not ashamed of either one because they created the current perception of them among the members. The church has recreated these men as super-heroes, among the greatest men ever to walk the earth. Of course, the church haa altered the official history to make them seem more god-like, and they might be ashamed of the unsavory elements of each man if they weren't able to so easily convince the members that the altered history is true, and the unsavory aspects are anti-mormon lies.

You can tell how ashamed the church of them to the extent that the church covers up embarassing facts about them.

I voted Brigham Young. Sure, Joseph Smith was a philanderer and a con man and a megalomaniac, but Brigham Young was a straight up mafia boss.

Maybe the question should be, "Which of these two guys has caused more people to leave the church once they found out the truth about them?"

For that, I'd guess BY.

BY. If only because all of horny joe's missgivings have to be hidden for him to seem a reputable religious founder. Brigham Young has been one of the biggest "folly of man" arguments i see people use and are completely ignorant of nearly all of the major issues affecting joe.