Why is the Interpreter Foundation Obsessed with Brigham Young?

[Doctor Scratch]

All this attention the Interpreter Foundation is bringing to Brigham is not good for the Church. This will just cause more members to do their own research on Brigham, inevitably leading them to find out what a horrible person he really was.

I'm sure this is a key concern amongst the power structure in SLC.

[Physics Guy]

Interpreter is not embracing the version of BY that you're describing. Instead, he is a well-scrubbed, whitewashed version who's all bummed out and morose about the death of his first wife, and he has a bizarre "homosocial" fixation on Joseph Smith. He's not the kick-ass manipulative frontier leader that you are describing. He's something else: a blond, Aryan-looking person who seems like he's all set to serve as Homecoming Prince at some Provo / Orem high school--all flowing hair and non-threatening charm.

And yet, when you realize this is coming from the Mopologists, it *is* very bizarre. Like you, I think that they'd gravitate more towards the violent, whip-cracking version of Brigham who was utterly autocratic and who took no prisoners--the BY who said, "Vengeance is mine, and I have taken a little." The fact that their version seems so toned-down is the reason why I think they are up to something vis-a-vis the Brethren.

Okay, this is a subtler point that I missed. Well, not even subtle, just that I didn't look closely and simply assumed that they were at least kind of making sense.

If they're keen on Brigham Young, but they're perversely trying to make him out as a 3rd-millenium omega male instead of the boyosphere alpha that he actually was ... then that is just weird.

[drumdude]

Portraying Brigham Young as a proto-MAGA strongman plays in well with the right wing Mormon base. Particularly the younger red-pilled incel crowd that Robert Boylan and Travis Anderson pander to.

For DCP though, a Brigham who is anything like Trump is absolutely unacceptable. It means a major victory for the antis, who have long pointed out Brigham’s violent and racist history.

DCP wants people to think of Brigham’s love of the theatre before they think of his violent actions and racist pronouncements.

[Everybody Wang Chung]

Exactly. It's worth remembering that, by being employed by BYU, it's sort of like an "end-around" in terms of paying tithing. Or, to put it another way: I don't think there is a shot in hell that the Afore would be devoted to the Church merely because "it's true." His attitude towards Mormonism is 100% transactional: he expects to get something in return.

Excellent observation. If the Afore wasn't being handsomely compensated for his mopologetic work, he would have no interest in Mormonism. I remember in his letter to Gerald Bradford where he forcefully demanded his editor fee. It was clear the editor fee was most important to him, despite publicly claiming he has never received a dime in compensation for his apologetic work.

[Philo Sofee]

Exactly. It's worth remembering that, by being employed by BYU, it's sort of like an "end-around" in terms of paying tithing. Or, to put it another way: I don't think there is a shot in hell that the Afore would be devoted to the Church merely because "it's true." His attitude towards Mormonism is 100% transactional: he expects to get something in return.

Excellent observation. If the Afore wasn't being handsomely compensated for his mopologetic work, he would have no interest in Mormonism. I remember in his letter to Gerald Bradford where he forcefully demanded his editor fee. It was clear the editor fee was most important to him, despite publicly claiming he has never received a dime in compensation for his apologetic work.

Well, it wasn't a dime he received, it was probably several bucks....