THE LDS BRIGHAM YOUNG TEACHING MANUAL
For the first time, at least
in recent history, a teaching manual published by the Mormon Church
is being used simultaneously by the Relief Society and the men's priesthood
quorums. The manual for 1998 is, Teachings of Presidents of The Church
- Brigham Young. It is published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, 1997. The copyright is held by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints
It is standard practice
to use ellipses (... three periods) to show the place where words were
dropped from a quote and to use brackets [ ] for words that are inserted
that are not in the quote. Does this manual follow this practice in all
quotes? No, it does not. While appearing to quote from various sources,
the authors do not follow accepted standards when a portion of a quote
is eliminated. Here are three examples. Within the quotes, the words in
brackets are in the quote. The bold face type is by this author for emphasis.
EXAMPLE 1
The Teaching Manual: pages 164-165
"Now let me say to the First Presidency, to the Apostles, to
all the Bishops in Israel, and to every quorum, and especially to those
who are presiding officers, Set that example before your [wife]
and your children, before your neighbors and this people, that you can
say: "Follow me, as I follow Christ." When we do this, all is right, and
our consciences are clear (DBY, 198)." [DBY = Discourses of Brigham
Young, copyright 1954 by David O. McKay Successor in Trust for the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; note by this author]
The Reference Quoted:
Discourses of Brigham Young, page 198
"Now let me say to the First Presidency, to the Apostles, to
all the Bishops in Israel, and to every quorum, and especially to those
who are presiding officers, Set that example before your wives and
your children, before your neighbors and this people, that you can say:
‘Follow me, as I follow Christ.' When we do this, all is right, and our
consciences are clear. 15:229." [This number at
the end of the quote is the volume and page number from the Journal of
Discourses.]
In this comparison note that word "wives" was removed and replaced
with "[wife]". There are no ellipses and no notes of any kind to
show that a word was removed.
EXAMPLE 2
The Teaching Manual, page 165
"Let the husband and father learn to bend his will to the will
of his God, and then instruct his [wife] and children in this lesson
of self-government by his example as well as by precept, and his neighbors
also, showing them how to be brave and steadfast, in subduing the rebellious
and sinful disposition. Such a course as this will eventually subdue that
unhallowed influence which works upon the human heart (DBY, 198)."
The Reference Quoted:
Discourses of Brigham Young, page 198
"Let the husband and father learn to bend his will to the will
of his God, and then instruct his wives and children in this lesson
of self-government by his example as ell as by precept, and his neighbors
also, showing them how to be brave and steadfast, in subduing the rebellious
and sinful disposition. Such a course as this will eventually subdue that
unhallowed influence which works upon the human heart. 9:256."
In this comparison note that the word "wives" was removed and replaced
with "[wife]." There are no ellipses and no notes of any kind to
show that a word was removed.
EXAMPLE 3
The Teaching Manual: page 166
"Let the father be the head of the family, the master of his
own household; and let him treat them [his family] as an angel would
treat them (DBY, 197-198)."
The Reference Quoted:
Discourses of Brigham Young, pages 197-198
"...Let the father be the head of the family, the master of his
own household; and let him treat them as an angel would treat them; and
let the wives and the children say amen to what he says, and be
subject to his dictates, instead of their dictating the man, instead of
their trying to govern him. 4:55."
Note that the phrase, "and let the wives and the children
say amen to what he says, and be subject to his dictates, instead of their
dictating the man, instead of their trying to govern him. 4:55." was left
out. There are no ellipses and no notes of any kind to show that
a phrase was removed.
Note in these three examples
that the words showing that the men Brigham Young was instructing had "wives"was
excluded. In each case the word "wives" was dropped.
Perhaps the writer(s) of
the Brigham Young teaching manual chose not to follow the convention of
using ellipses (...) for the parts of a quote excluded. Quotes on pages
171 (1) [This is an endnote], 171-172 and 174 show that this is not the
case. References on these pages used ellipses to show that parts
of a quote were excluded.
Some Mormons might say that
the subject of marriage was not the intent of the manual. While I can understand
this idea, marriage and families are subjects included in the manual. It
is just the idea of polygamy that is eliminated. We get a hint of this
from page vii where two of Young's marriages are mentioned. On pages 3-4
these marriages are mentioned again, while showing that Young's first wife
died before he married his second wife. Nothing is said about the rest
of Young's wives. Were these not important? Polygamous marriages were very
important to Brigham Young. He demonstrated this when he said,
"The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who
enter into polygamy....Do you think that we shall ever be admitted as a
state into the Union without denying the principal of polygamy? If
we are not admitted until then, we shall never be admitted, these things
will be just as the Lord will." (Brigham Young, Aug. 19, 1866, Journal
of Discourses, 11:269).
Is the Brigham Young manual
the only example of the Mormon church, or its leaders, trying to hide its
teachings from certain people? No, it is not. The following articles show
this. The numbers on the articles refer to locations on my web page, the
address is at the end of this paper.
B-2 "Whatever Happened to Truth and
Openness."
B-5 "Will The Mormon Missionaries Tell
People How Unreliable The Bible Is?"
B-8 "What The Mormons Don't Say."
D-11 "Gospel Principles - Why
Were Changes Make?"
ENDNOTES
1. In the reference on page 171 we find, "The ordinance of sealing
must be performed here man to man, woman to man, and children to parents...."
(Discourses of Brigham Young, page 407). The phrase "man to
man" was left out. This teaching has since been changed.
John Farkas, Berean Christian Ministries, P.O. Box 1091, Webster, NY
14580
E-mail: bcmmin@frontiernet.net
Web pages: Mormonism: http://www.bcmmin.org
Jehovah's Witnesses: http://www.bcmmin.org/jwstd.htm
art/byoungma, 4-17-98