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Guide Home > Prophets > Latter-day Prophets > Young, Brigham

Additional Topics

The following are additional topic areas related to Young, Brigham. If there is a bracket number after the topic, that number indicates how many actual articles there are related to that subject. If the link for the topic is not live, it simply means the topic is a 'planned area' for future growth.

FAIR Resources

These links are either to Web pages hosted on the FAIR Website, or to FAIR Papers. FAIR Papers are short articles about specific topics or questions, written by members of FAIR. These articles can be downloaded and read in PDF format and are intended to be distributed by e-mail or print for the general use of our patrons. (To read FAIR Papers you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader. It can be downloaded free from the Adobe Web site.) Click on a title below to visit a FAIR Web page or to read the latest version of a FAIR Paper.

Michael Parker, "Did Brigham Young Say that He Would Kill an Adulterous Wife with a Javelin?," (Mesa, Arizona: FAIR, November 2004) Anti-Mormon critics frequently comb through 19th century writings and sermons looking for comments that can be used to disparage Latter-day Saint leaders. Their goal is to persuade members, investigators, and those outside the Church that those leaders were undeserving of any claim to divine inspiration and that consequently the Church itself must be false. Such snippets can only achieve the intended shock value when pulled from their literary and cultural environments. One frequently-used comment was made by Brigham Young in 1865. In an address delivered in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, President Young spoke of being able to put a javelin through an adulterous wife's heart. Standing alone, such as statement is shocking to readers today. What eager critics fail to do is to explain then context in which this was given, particularly the Biblical allusion to Numbers 25:6-15. In his paper, Parker discusses this and other statements involving "blood atonement" and shows how modern anti-Mormons misrepresent the statements of early Church leaders.

Michael Parker, "The Church's Portrayal of Brigham Young.," (August 2003) In an effort to prove that the Church whitewashes its history, critics jumped on the 1998 release of the instruction manual for priesthood and Relief Society classes. What is all the fuss about, and do the critics have a point here?

Encyclopedia of Mormonism

The resources listed below are articles available in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism. These links are to information not located on the FAIR Web site.

Leonard J. Arrington and Hugh W. Nibley, "Young, Brigham," Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Edited by Daniel H. Ludlow (New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1992), 1601-1611

Ensign Articles

These articles cited below provide information on the topic of this page. The Ensign is one of the official publications of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When you click on one of the article links below, you are whisked to the article found in the archives of the Church's Web site.

Ronald K. Esplin, "Fire in His Bones," Ensign, March 1993, 44. The key to Brigham Young's successful leadership was his unshakable faith in God.

D. Michael Quinn, "Brigham Young: Man of the Spirit," Ensign, August 1977, 34.

Ronald W. Walker, "We Must Keep One Another," Ensign, June 2001, 44. More than 80 letters to Native American leaders provide great insight into the heart of President Brigham Young.

Other Resources

The resources listed below are related items available on the Web that should be of interest. These links are to information not located on the FAIR Web site.

Lynne Watkins Jorgenson, "The Mantle of the Prophet Joseph Passes to Brigham Young: A Collective Spiritual Witness," BYU Studies (1996-997), 125-204 When Brigham assumed the mantle of Prophet, several Saints claimed that Brigham Young took on the physical characteristics of Joseph Smith as a sign that Brigham was chosen by God to lead the Church. Some have questioned the veracity of historical record in regard to to this event. Jorgenson looks at several first and second hand accounts that confirm the traditional story.

W. Jeffrey Marsh, "Brigham Young and the Book of Mormon," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies (Provo: FARMS, 2001), 6-15

W. John Walsh, Are Brigham Young's Sermons Scripture?.