The LDS pioneers, often mischaracterized as westward expansionists, were actually refugees fleeing persecution. Facing extreme hardship in Winter Quarters, they endured starvation, disease, and squalid living conditions. Despite these trials, their faith and dedication grew stronger, ultimately establishing the Kingdom of God. Their story is one of resilience and unwavering belief that should inspire all of us to aspire to match their examples in dedication, sacrifice, and faith.
Category: Brigham Young
Review: The Tuttle Twins Learn About The Law
The Tuttle Twins books are some of the best children’s books on the market today. Each is based on one of the greatest books about human nature, human rights, the abundant life, society, politics, or economics – both classic works and contemporary ones – and manage to make their greatest insights understandable to children.
This article is a review of the first Tuttle Twins book, “The Tuttle Twins Learn About The Law,” based off of Frédéric Bastiat’s classical political treatise, “The Law.” It covers the origin of human rights, the proper role of government, the dangers of political power, and the way to build a peaceful society of equals.
All that, in a children’s book!
In a world full of extremists trying to indoctrinate you and your children into their political cults, these books are a breath of fresh air.
The Three Greatest Threats To The Church And Society: Academia
In 1993, Apostle Boyd K. Packer delivered an address to church leaders delineating three of the greatest threats to the church and society that not only then existed, but whose influence would only increase and worsen as the years went on.
This article is about the third of those three threats and the worst one of all: the so-called scholars whose ideologies threaten society itself. In this article we review the history of the politically leftist “Progressive” take over of education, their efforts from the very start to use education as a tool to indoctrinate students into their economic, social, and political theories, and how the plan has always been to try and take control of society. We also expose the idolatry at the heart of their claims to be experts guiding society to a better future for the lie it is and provide examples of the real world failures of their lies. Finally, we look at what hope we have for overthrowing their lies and freeing ourselves and our children from the prison of leftist ideology and thereby abort the headlong run into societal collapse it is bringing to pass.
Brigham Young: Anti-Government Activist and First Wave Feminist
Reading through some of President Young’s sermons I have been astounded at the clarity with which he understood and addressed the threat of the State. He understood the threat of its so-called charity and he especially understood the role of public schools as indoctrination centers whose purpose was to implant loyalty and obedience into the minds of children form a tender age. He also clearly understood the threat this indoctrination posed to the Church and the Restored Gospel. Those who would support public schools he labelled as miserable apostates. Openly.
Interwoven with this are his comments about the role of women in Latter-day Saint society. He consistently calls upon them to be self-independent, to be educated, and to take their place in the workforce of Utah. The only jobs that he saw as not being for women were strenuous physical jobs, otherwise he declared a woman could perform any work any man could. Which was remarkably radical for his day.
Brigham Young Explains The Evils of Socialism and Public Schools
In this LDS CLassic, President Young explains that the United Order is based on private property and does not seek to create material or social equality. Instead it promoted economic inequality by rewarding greater profits to those who could earn them. He also explains one of the foundational problems of Socialism and describes how it would only lead to greater poverty than that which it was designed to prevent. He also describes what it will be like when the Saints return to Jackson County to found the City of Zion.
He also addresses the dangers of “free schools” – what we would think of today as tax funded public schools ran by the government. I won’t spoil it here, but he comes out at the end sounding like his name should be Brigham “Taxation is Theft” Young or Brigham “the Government is a Gang of Thieves” Young. He explains how charity is the exact opposite of state taxation and that it works in opposition to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it brings people together. Though he doesn’t dwell on it here, this also further explains how Socialism in education is also dangerous, counterproductive, and in violation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as well as how the Saints should eschew public schools and educate their own children.
Did Early Mormons Practice Socialism?
Here I use the writings of one of the most intelligent men to be a General Authority – President J. Reuben Clark – and his insightful examination of the Law of Consecration as explained in the scriptures, his evaluation of the historical practices of the early church, and the importance of private property, and the modern Church Welfare Program all to answer a singular important question:
Did early Latter-day Saints practice Socialism in Missouri and Utah?
That Time When Brigham Young Absolutely Demolished Young Earth Creationism
In writing my last two articles refuting some erroneous ideas and false doctrines about the creation and age of the Earth, I cam across a rather fantastic address by President Brigham Young from 1871. In it he teaches that there is no antagonism between science and religion. This is especially true for “Mormonism” as our faith embraces all truth from wherever it comes as part of it. Science and religion are both ways that God makes known the truths that He wants His children to know. His specific comments on the Creation and Age of the Earth do a great deal to dismiss the idea that the Earth is only 7,000 years old and that it was created in six literal days. This address will be enlightening to everyone who reads it.
Scriptural Proof The Earth Is More Than 7,000 Years Old
There are two different but connected errors that seriously plague modern Christianity. The first is the common error throughout segments of Christianity, including among Latter-day Saints, that the Earth was created in a single week. I addressed this error and corrected it last week. The second common error is that the world approximately 6,000 to 7,000 years old. That is what this article is about. The idea that the world is only 6,000 years old, an error that has damaged the faith of tens of thousands, even millions, of people, is based on a couple of fundamental misunderstandings of the scriptures. Both have also been refuted by modern revelation starting with the Prophet Joseph Smith. In order to correct this error and demonstrate what the scriptures truly teach on this subject I will combine a proper understanding of scriptural context with modern revelation to establish what it is about the Age of the Earth that the scriptures do teach so that we Latter-day Saints will not continue to fall into the error that other Christians have.
Did Joseph Smith and Brigham Young Teach That People Live on The Moon and The Sun?
In their never ending efforts to discredit the Latter-day Restoration of the Gospel anti-Mormons search for any information they can find to make the prophets sound crazy, because if you can discredit them then you can discredit the work they did. Among the accusations that are hurled at early Church leaders is that Joseph Smith taught that the Moon is inhabited by people and that Brigham Young believed that beings lived on the Sun. In this article I will present the sources for these accusations in full (as opposed to the incomplete and partial quoting that anti-Mormons usually use) and place these quotations in their historical context, showing what people from the most respected scientific minds to the most common laborer believed about possible life on the Moon and Sun. Once I have done so I will demonstrate that nothing that Joseph Smith or Brigham Young said or believed was incongruent with the scientific knowledge of their day and that their statements do not disprove or discredit the Restoration of the Gospel or the veracity of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
How To Obey The Word of Wisdom: Alcoholic Drinks
The Word of Wisdom is a modern commandment that the Lord revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith designed to bless the physical, emotional, and spiritual lives of the Saints in the modern days. It is a topic which many members know about but the history of which very few seem to understand. As a result many members come to erroneous conclusions about its purpose, place, and enforcement in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This in turn leads them to false conclusions about how it should be interpreted and enforced today. One of the most common errors is the belief that beer and perhaps other weak alcoholic drinks were acceptable as “mild drinks” and were only forbidden in the early 20th century by LDS leaders who were supportive of American Prohibition. To find out the truth of this I will be evaluating the history of the Word of Wisdom in the 19th century as well as placing it in the larger context of common ideas of medicine and health common in the era. This will give us a great basis then to address and confirm or dispel some of the most common misconceptions surrounding the Word of Wisdom.