Opinion of Brigham Young

[useful idiot]

Lean FF, for leading his people from persecution to their own homeland and creating a society out of the desert. There's no evidence that he ordered or showed any support for the Mountain Meadows Massacre, none at all. In fact the only evidence we have shows otherwise. Yes he was a theocrat, but a generally benevolent and tolerant one. As for polygamy, I won't judge his actions, he wasn't the one that instituted the practice and a large number of his wives were merely widows he took care of. That said, unlike Smith, he was a racist. Plus without him the Niners wouldn't have gotten Steve Young...

[useful idiot]

Lean FF, for leading his people from persecution to their own homeland and creating a society out of the desert.

This. Gotta admire his sheer gall. Without being able to sign onto the remainder at all.

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Cannot say, do not care.

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Benevolent? They all are. That's part of the problem. Tolerant? What?

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True.

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What?

Steve Young is a descendant of Brigham Young(his great great grandson). He was a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers in the 90's. Led them to a Super Bowl victory and many playoff victories(a few NFC championship losses to the Cowboys). In fact if the Cowboys hadn't been so good at the same period I have no doubt he'd have gotten a couple more rings.

As for his tolerance, Utah under his leadership and in the aftermath of his leadership (when his shadow still loomed large) was not the Taliban-style theocracy most would have you believe. The FLDS is far more conservative and extreme than the early LDS polygamists were. Chinese immigrants and Native Americans were treated in an exemplary fashion compared to their treatment by other Western settlers, Utah had a decent Jewish population(I believe it had the first Jewish governor in the U.S.), and it was one of the first states to grant suffrage to women. The early LDS leadership was also pretty tolerant of behavior most other religious groups in the United States at the time frowned on (dancing for instance, and sexuality in many respects).

Like I said, however, he was unfortunately a racist who disliked blacks, but if we're judging him based on the times in which he lived then he was fairly mild.