An Amusing Story...

Posted by rjhmoore at 6:04 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Well, see for yourself:

"A very amusing story was told me of Brigham, by a lady who vouches for its truth; and although I cannot, of course, corroborate it, I am quite ready to give it credence enough to publish it. Brigham met a lady in the streets of Salt Lake City, several years since, who recognized him, and addressed him as Brother Young, greeting him quite cordially. He scrutinized her closely, with a puzzled expression.

"I know I have seen you somewhere," he said; "your face is very familiar, but I cannot recall you."

"You are right," replied she; "you have most certainly seen me before; I was married to you ten years ago. I have never seen you since," she continued, " but my memory is more retentive than yours, for I knew you the moment I saw you."

I give this to you to show how ridiculous this whole (and I have no other word for it) thing was and in some cases, still is. A.E Young gives us this "amusing" story to show us how not amusing it is. I have found A.E. Young to be a very sarcastic person, partly because of her anger and her pity that these people actually believe this stuff and believe in a man so corrupted and selfish, from her point of view. This "amusing story" is completely sarcastic. We are not meant to read it and go, "Ha, ha! So funny! He had a wife he didn't even care about enough to remember over the last ten years! I wonder how many other wives he's left in the gutter! Ha, ha!" No, the story is true as far as we know, but the fact that it is an amusing story it utterly false.

It really makes you question the validity of the Mormon Church. How could something so helpful and good today come from something that in the past was so degraded and spiteful? It's no wonder so many people walk away from and slam doors on Mormon missionaries. It's not that they don't respect what they believe in, it's just that it's too difficult to listen to somebody who wholly believes in something so preposterous-sounding and something that could be completely untrue.

The fact that Brigham Young had this encounter with this woman on the street and, from what it sounds like, didn't even turn a hair really bothers me. What do these people see in this Church and this religion that makes them so attached and faithful?

"If [Mormonism is] false, we're engaged in a great fraud. If it's true, it's the most important thing in the world. Now, that's the whole picture. It is either right or wrong, true or false, fraudulent or true. And that's exactly where we stand, with a conviction in our hearts that it is true." - Gordon B. Hinckley, 15th President of the Mormon Church

Mull over this, and I challenge you to give me at least a comment on your thoughts.