Brigham Young, critic of racism

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Moksha
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Re: Brigham Young, critic of racism

Post by Moksha »

Hey, they are latter-day saints, not the saints from the past. So cut them some slack with their imperfections.
Just because they do not make saints as they used to is no cause to get huffy. Life is nasty, brutish, and short in Orem so give them a break.
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Re: Brigham Young, critic of racism

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Moksha wrote:
Mon Jan 17, 2022 9:47 am
Hey, they are latter-day saints, not the saints from the past. So cut them some slack with their imperfections.
Just because they do not make saints as they used to is no cause to get huffy. Life is nasty, brutish, and short in Orem so give them a break.
Would you be so lenient for the Yucatan meteorite, or would you still insist it was just entering a lower orbit as a man?
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Re: Brigham Young, critic of racism

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drumdude wrote:
Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:29 am
What does it mean to stand by a dead prophet? One of the 14 fundamentals of following the prophet is to discard the old ones, because they were wrong.
I think it means when a prophet proclaims:
Let me consent to day to mingle my seed with the seed of Cain. It would Bring the same curse upon me …

And if any man mingles his seed with the seed of Cain the only way he could get rid of it or have salvation would be to Come forward & have his head Cut off & spill his Blood upon the ground. It would also take the life of his Children.
you stand by your man. Think about what it means to stand by someone who says that you should have your head cut off if you procreated with a black person. If you didn’t know about that quote and stayed LDS you could be forgiven your ignorance. If you know about that quote, and you ‘stand by your prophet’ you’re a piece of garbage. There’s really no way to parse this out. Here’s a more thorough look at Mormon prophets’ words on the “curse of cain” and slavery via UTLM:

http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/curseof ... ndix_a.htm

Mormonism is racism. Pure and simple. It is what it is. And DCP is a racist for ‘standing by’ Brigham Young. It’d be no different if I, or anyone else for that matter, ‘stood by’ a modern-day racist and excused it as ‘he’s a man of his time’.

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Hugh Nibley claimed he bumped into Adolf Hitler, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Gertrude Stein, and the Grand Duke Vladimir Romanoff. Dishonesty is baked into Mormonism.
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Re: Brigham Young, critic of racism

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John D. Lee found out what happens when you "stand by BY".
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Re: Brigham Young, critic of racism

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Doc +++++ a hundred. Perfect post.
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Re: Brigham Young, critic of racism

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But he was a good man, a remarkable man, indeed a great man, a sincere disciple of the Lord and a prophet who sought to do God’s will.

I choose to stand with him.
When one measures the quality of someone by whether or not they believed the religion the one is devoted to, whether or not they claimed high station within that religion, it won't matter at all what the person says, or what the person did for that matter, in determining the quality of the person. He's only remarkable to Peterson at this late age because in his day many people revered him as speaking on behalf of God. They marveled and felt the spirit, as they say, when he told everyone how awful those of other races were. They praised him for taking all manner of women as wives. They cowered in devotion when he mistreated others, taking advantage of his presumed authority over others. On this Peterson calls remarkable what I'd call detestable. And yet in every moment he speaks on morals, he assumes the high ground all because of his intention to revere his unknowable God.

In too many ways his assumptions, his personal hopes, and perhaps vanities, are clouding his judgment. I'm sure he'd dismiss my comment because he knows God is there and is with BY. All I can say is he's holding out hope for something that is so obviously wrong.
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Re: Brigham Young, critic of racism

Post by Fence Sitter »

It’s been fashionable in recent years to demonize Warren Jeffs as a polygamist, even a vicious one — and, in some cases, essentially to forget that there was anything else to the man.

In matters of polygamy, Warren Jeffs has said some things that jar us , and that we cannot endorse. There’s no denying this. He is, as we all are — even the prophets among us — a man of his time and culture and background.

But he is a good man, a remarkable man, indeed a great man, a sincere disciple of the Lord and a prophet who has sought to do God’s will.

I choose to stand with him.
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Re: Brigham Young, critic of racism

Post by Equality »

drumdude wrote:
Sun Jan 16, 2022 7:22 pm
DP wrote:It’s been fashionable in recent years to demonize Brigham Young as a racist, even a vicious one — and, in some cases, essentially to forget that there was anything else to the man.

In racial matters, Brigham Young said some things that jar us today, and that we cannot endorse. There’s no denying this. He was, as we all are — even the prophets among us — a man of his time and culture and background.

But he was a good man, a remarkable man, indeed a great man, a sincere disciple of the Lord and a prophet who sought to do God’s will.

I choose to stand with him.
You know who else was a product of their time, and a BY contemporary who also lived in New England in the early 19th century?

Prudence Crandall, that's who:
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profile ... l-5417.php
Prudence Crandall was an American teacher who established one of the first schools for African- American girls. She was one of the first abolitionists to protest against the inhuman slavery of the African American community by the white people of America. Born into a Quaker family, she was educated in a boarding school and later ran her own girls’ school where she taught peacefully until she admitted an African-American girl. Her decision to support an integrated school for everyone raised flames of objection and opposition from the white people. She responded with the decision of operating a school only for African-American girls which led to a legal battle between her and the state of Connecticut.. She was eventually acquitted but was forced to shut down her school because of the violent acts of citizens harassing her and the students. She fought for a noble cause throughout her life with an indomitable spirit and audacity which was supported by many abolitionists around the world. Her struggle against all odds was a proof of the strength of her character and willpower. She fought hard to create a society that would be free of discrimination based on race and class, and became an inspiration for future generations around the globe.
That's one. I could cite many, many more. Saying "he was a product of his time" to excuse his horrid views and deplorable conduct is no different than someone excusing the Capitol Riot Defecators for being products of their time, as if they alone are emblematic of what our society thinks and how we behave, like there aren't people who see very clearly the difference between right and wrong. The fact is that in BY's time, there were many who thought slavery was an abomination and who advocated against racism, bigotry, and prejudice. There were people then who were "on the right side of history." Brigham Young was not among them, and claiming he was "just a product of his time" is intellectually lazy apologetic gaslighting.
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Re: Brigham Young, critic of racism

Post by IHAQ »

DP wrote:It’s been fashionable in recent years to demonize Brigham Young as a racist, even a vicious one — and, in some cases, essentially to forget that there was anything else to the man.

In racial matters, Brigham Young said some things that jar us today, and that we cannot endorse. There’s no denying this. He was, as we all are — even the prophets among us — a man of his time and culture and background.

But he was a good man, a remarkable man, indeed a great man, a sincere disciple of the Lord and a prophet who sought to do God’s will.

I choose to stand with him.
I think Brigham Young did a bit more than just say “some things that jar us today”. But that aside, the principle that Peterson is subscribing to in this post enables members to wave away anything and everything the current Prophet and Apostles say and teach regardless of the setting. It’s all just reflective of them as men, their culture and background. Worse, it excuses historical personalities of wrongdoing and minimises the harm and suffering caused by those individuals. Using this approach enables people to choose to stand with…Trump, for example. The problem Peterson has is that he personally doesn’t understand racism. How could he, he’s an overindulged middle class white guy in America. Of course Brigham Young’s racism can be waved away as “saying some things that jar us today” to someone like him. The real question, the hard question he should be asking himself is why the Prophet of God didn’t know better than the culture and background of his day? And if he didn’t, how sure can you be that today’s Prophet isn’t susceptible to exactly the same folly on social and cultural matters?
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Re: Brigham Young, critic of racism

Post by Doctor Scratch »

There have been some great observations on this thread. One other thing that's worth remembering, I think, is that DCP has publicly said that he thought that Brigham Young was "wrong" on the matter of the Adam-God Doctrine. So he's willing to tear down the Prophet on the matter of Adam-God, but willing to take sides with him when it comes to racism?
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
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