On Friday, March 18, 2016 I was up at This is the Place Heritage Park in the mountains above Salt Lake City, Utah attending the huge 14,000 person rally to hear Bernie Sanders speak. It was awesome, and a clear contrast to many Utah voters’ positions. Sanders, of course, is running for president, not as a traditional Democrat, but as a Social Democrat.
While there, I saw Bernie at the podium, juxtaposed against a great statue there featuring the head of Brigham Young, Mormon pioneer prophet. Gradually, I began to feel some impressive similarities between the two grand old men, both fighting for justice, both confronting the power of the establishment, both laboring against the wealthy, each in his own way.
I had been intrigued by BYU’s Daily Universe poll showing some 30 percent of students would vote for Sanders if the election were held in late February when the survey occurred. It was a shock to many Mormons, but not to me. The numbers fit the national trend of young Millennials supporting Sanders.
On March 22, Bernie trounced mainstream Democratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton in the Utah primary caucus elections, 79 to 20 percent. In Idaho, which also has a huge number of LDS voters, the outcome was similar. Bernie trounced Hillary at about the same degree. In both states, the caucus turnouts were massive for the Democrats, forcing party leaders to keep running to local copy stores to print more ballots.
While up at the rally, I began to mentally develop a series of parallel issues that both men believed in their souls were valid political, social and spiritual perspectives. The Mormon scriptures that Brigham believed and his own prophetic teachings are clear. Yet perhaps many American Mormons themselves have not fully appreciated or understood these core values of their faith. But on March 18, during a warm spring afternoon, the common teachings between Bernie & Brigham were striking.
Below is my summary of similar values and beliefs that are quite different from today’s Republican Party rhetoric across the country:
Wealth:
Both leaders rail against the concentration of huge wealth in the hands of a few rich American families (saying as Brigham does that “One of the great evils with which our own nation” suffers is the “growth of wealth in the hands of a comparatively few individuals”). Bernie sees a similar danger, and he warns against the oligarchies of extremely rich dynasties like the Walton family, the Koch brothers, and others: “We now have a political situation where billionaires are literally able to buy elections and candidates. Let’s not kid ourselves: That is the reality right now.”
Education:
Schooling is seen as a high priority, not ignorance. Both leaders want citizens to be knowledgeable (Mormons teach that “the glory of God is intelligence”). Brigham established over 400 community schools in the settling of the West. Bernie wants more funding for better quality teachers and schools. He is pushing strongly for new legislation that will help university students have better terms for handling their school debt, and he also seeks to make a college education free for all Americans.
War:
Bernie was one of the few U.S. leaders who voted against the disastrous Iraq War launched by George W. Bush and his buddy, Dick Cheney in 2003. He has always seen war as a last resort, in contrast to others who rattle their sabers first. In the 1800s, Brigham led his people west because of the war on the Mormons. He knew the dangers of conflict and what it was like to be attacked. So he sought peace, not only with other governments, but also reconciliation with Native Americans and other groups.
Inequality:
Brigham and Bernie both articulate concerns about the gap between haves and have-nots Mormon scripture declares: “It is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin.” Bernie says, “Today, we live in the richest country in the history of the world, but that reality means little because much of that wealth is controlled by a tiny handful of individuals. The issue of wealth and income inequality is the great moral issue of our time, it is the great economic issue of our time and it is the great political issue of our time.”
Immigration:
Bernie, the son of an immigrant father, values the rights of immigrants to America and will establish a comprehensive immigration reform plan to safeguard the rights of the 11 million undocumented workers in the United States today, and also the rights of Muslims in the U.S. and those from throughout the globe. Similarly, back in his day, Brigham called for people from around the world to immigrate to the U.S. and enjoy the blessings of living in American the West. Some 90,000 were accepted into the young American nation during those years.
Concentrated Corporate Power: A Danger to American Democracy:
Bernie condemns the evils of big banks and powerful corporations on Wall Street that brought America to its knees in the recent Great Recession. Likewise, Brigham was concerned about the “priceless legacy” of democracy and warned that we “are endangered by the monstrous power” of big business that threatens good government and legislative ethics. Instead, both men would seek to not allow firms to grow into “too big to fail” sized growth, instead preferring small, entrepreneurial business practices that would generate jobs for the masses.
Environmental Degradation:
Brigham was an advocate for appreciating God’s creations, protecting nature, appreciating “the sweet mountain air” and pure waters. “Keep your valley pure, keep your towns as pure as you possibly can, keep your hearts pure, and labor what you can consistently.” Likewise, Bernie warns of pollution, such as the dangerous contamination of Flint’s city water crisis, and he seeks to preserve wilderness and deal with pollution and the effects of global warming.
Women:
Both Brigham and Bernie can be clearly classified as feminists. Back in his day, Brigham was an unusual advocate of women’s rights in the 1800s, encouraging LDS women to be part of the national suffrage movement. He pushed Utah’s territorial legislature to give women the right to vote in 1869, which led Utah to becoming the second state in the nation to do so. Along with Wyoming, legislation was passed to enable female voting in subsequent elections. Today, Bernie is against the Republican war on women, declaring he will not retreat from the fight for women’s rights. He promises to increase their status on such issues as equal pay, paid leave after delivering a child, more daycare, and to protect women from domestic violence and sexual abuse, and so on.
Science & Technology:
Today’s GOP candidates mostly reject science, even bragging how they can alter school texts in public schools, while denying climate change and many other truths. But Brigham Young had no hostility toward science, a different view. He embraced new technology such as the telegraph and railroad while many politicians and religionists of his day viewed such inventions as tools of the devil. Similarly, Bernie believes that climate change is a serious challenge facing the world. He believes it is real, is caused by human activity, and it threatens the environment and our way of life. In contrast to less educated Americans, even conservative Mormons, he believes vaccines are an effective deterrent to dangerous diseases. Bernie is all for more technology, and believes we need to do more research that improves human life, eradicates bad diseases, not just spend our capital on space exploration when we have so many needs here on earth.
Conclusion:
These Mormon teachings from Brigham Young, when he first arrived at what is now This is the Place Heritage Park in the pioneer wagons of 1847, have been consistent themes of LDS leaders until today. As a Professor of Management at the Marriott School, Brigham Young University for nearly 40 years, I have researched, published articles and books, as well as taught my MBAs and undergrad students the radical principles promoted by he who Mormons affectionately refer to as Brother Brigham. Using these quotes in hundreds of power point presentations and LDS firesides, I have encouraged my students through four decades to more deeply study their religion and then vote according to Mormon gospel principles. I have found that these precepts abound in the Bible as well in the materials of many other faiths beyond Mormonism, including Bernie’s own religion, Judaism, as well as other Christian traditions, Islam, Buddhism, and so forth.
In the coming months leading to November’s presidential election, I hope Mormons of various political parties across the nation, not just here in Utah, will consider Bernie Sanders, the authentic leader. Remember the faith of Mormon pioneer forebears when voting.
Dr. Warner Woodworth
Warner Woodworth is Professor Emeritus at the Marriott School, Brigham Young University. Photo immediately above is from the Sanders’ rally at This is the Place State Park in the hills above Salt Lake City, Utah on March 18, 2016. This was the location when the first Mormon pioneers came down Emigration Canyon and entered the valley in 1847. The views expressed are his alone, not necessarily those of BYU.
All posts by Dr. Warner Woodworth
I have to agree that Bernie Sanders seems like a great guy. He seems to be very consistent in upholding his values over time. But saying he’s like Brigham Young does the man a huge disservice. Maybe the version of Brigham Young that you find in the meticulously-edited church textbooks seems like a great guy, but as soon as you look behind the correlation wall, and get away from revisionist history, you don’t see the same consistency that you see with Bernie. Bernie Sanders probably surpasses Brigham in every area, but the feminist comment is the one that caught my attention the strongest.
Brigham may have had one or two feminist moments, but it feels like a bit of a massive stretch to say that Brigham Young qualified as a feminist. I don’t think any group of feminists would agree on that one. He shared his opinions of women regularly, and he had a lot of awful words for them. It might fit more to say he was a misogynist who occasionally, if rarely, put on a feminist thinking cap.
I don’t know much about the details on how Mr Sanders treats women, but it seems he has a much higher chance of being accepted as a feminist. It’s all relative, but most of the things I’ve seen Brigham Young say about women leave me closer to a state of needing anger management therapy and sometimes having to randomly yell, “Serenity, now!”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow_9MglZrhs
That said, I can definitely support the idea that Bernie is a good guy.
I had similar thoughts when I read the article as well.
I apologize for any bad feelings my above comment might stir up, but I’ve seen a lot of people hurt by looking at Brigham Young in a one-sided manner. It would be good for me to learn more about the positive aspects of him, but it’s certainly difficult for me after some of what I’ve seen of his own writings.
A lot of people feel like he was the right one to take the Saints to the Salt Lake basin. That Joseph couldn’t have done it. That Young had better organizational skills for that kind of operation. But for me that’s about where it ends with him. As I read about his comments regarding blacks, regardless of the prevailing thought on blacks at the time, he was a person I don’t think that Id care to have known. And I’m kind of sick of hearing people talk about “well that was the prevailing thought at the time regarding women and blacks”, etc. My point is this, he was supposed to be a prophet of God, and thereby different from other people if he truly had the ear of the Lord. Surely the Lord didn’t and does not feel the way Brigham did about blacks and women. I admit I am not a scholar about this stuff. I am now coming into my own as a student of church history. So quite obviously I don’t know everything there is to know, by far, about any of these guys. The one thing I do know, because I try to live my life like that, is that when youre LDS you have to live above the fray. You have to be a better person then your average ‘Joe Schmo’, if you want to have people believe that we have the one and only true church on the earth today. But if you apply this idea to some of the brethren over the history of the church it’s pretty scary to me. I’m certainly not claiming to be more perfect than the brethren, but if I had lived in the days of Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff all the way up to Spencer W Kimball I would like to think that I would have been a stalwart opponent to the churchs view on blacks and women. I could only hope.
Hilarious! Really reaching on most of those comparisons but the best was claiming Brigham Young was a feminist. I don’t think so. The only reason he was in favor of women’s suffrage was to further the cause of statehood, not because he cared about women’s rights.
I have to laugh when I read that Brigham opposed the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few families since he did precisely that, becoming one of the wealthiest individuals in Utah. And, as Professor Turner documents in his recent book “Pioneer Prophet,” when Brother Brigham rolled out his communitarian economic plan (the United Order) and directed the saints to deed all of their property to the church, there were quite a few church leaders who declined to do so, including . . . (wait for it) . . . President Young himself!
In June 1874, Brigham announced that he was “going into the Order with all that I have.” But just two months later, he acknowledged that he did not trust anyone else to manage his major enterprises, including a woolen factory in Provo. (See pp. 397-401 of “Pioneer Prophet.”)
DivineWind,
That sounds about right, Divine. What’s that saying about ‘ what’s good for the goose is good for the gander’?
Looks like the author had his blinders on when talking about Brigham Young. That guy was a despot who had defectors killed during the mormon reformation. So, it’s hard to admire someone like that.
This is the Brigham I fell in love with. I didn’t know much of anything about his life, but his public speeches were and are inspirational in so many ways. I know much more about him, now, but I still am drawn to so many of his ideas.
Dr., I’d be interested in you views on church historian Leonard Arrington’s critiques of the failures of Brigham Young’s central planning.
nutz
Folks, now that the primary elections are over and Bernie is promoting Hillary for president, I guess I need to finally respond to a few reader comments. What I write below are brief reactions to a few criticisms, not anything extensive. Yes, I should have done so sooner, but I’ve been engaged in a lot of humanitarian work around the globe in recent months.
Just to clarify at the outset, I was writing a bit polemical, from an elections perspective, not to make some historical arguments that fully explain Brigham’s role in the grand scheme of things, including Mormon history, etc. So my few simple assertions were to provoke LDS voters, especially those in Utah, to think a bit about the primaries and why they should consider Bernie. Thankfully, Bernie won the caucuses here and in Idaho where there’s a large LDS presence, but I was also seeking to push LDS delegates to vote Bernie at the convention, etc.
For everyone, I should say at the beginning, I don’t hold Brigham to be perfect. Several seem to suggest he should be different from the typical person in every aspect since he was a prophet. I didn’t say so, nor do I believe such a thing. For me, each LDS prophet had certain qualities for their time, and none was ideal in the sense of absolute perfection. I’ve studied much about Brigham, having read his discourses as a college student, read a number of biographies (pro and con) in the years since, and have discussed his life with a number of scholars like Arrington, as well.
Over the years, church officials have been more open as to the foibles of our leaders and understanding of our history. To me such acknowledgements are useful in obtaining more complete and clearer facts. They also help me not place unrealistic expectations on church officials.
Several comments suggested the reader was capable of imputing Brigham’s motives. I just don’t assume I know enough to do so. I still have many questions, but tend to give him the benefit of the doubt because of the lack of solid details about some things, as well as my testimony of the church.
With this said, let me simply react to a few specifics below:
Regarding feminism, I’d still say Brigham was a feminist, ahead of most American male leaders in the second half of the 19th Century. Beyond encouraging the right to vote, he told women that more education on their part would answer the purpose of their creation. He made the education of girls a priority, and argued that if parents had to decide that either a son or daughter should attend school, it should be the girl because she would have the most influence on the next generation. One of his most progressive views about women was that if they were employed but discriminated by male managers and workers, he would hire them to his own firms to manage the money, do the accounting, and so forth.
Regarding the comment about Arrington’s “critiques of the failures of Brigham Young’s central planning,” you can read my thoughts in the book by my coauthor, Jim Lucas, and I, Working Toward Zion: Principles of the United Order for the Modern World (Aspen Books). There we have several detailed chapters on the design, purposes, and structures of the various models attempted in early Utah, as well as what worked, what didn’t, and why.
On the United Order and Brigham’s wealth, the data are mixed. If one studies the United Order deeply, one sees that it was a huge dilemma. Preaching LDS principles is usually different than fully practicing them, and the order was among the most challenging because of the sacrifice involved. For Brigham, like most LDS members, entering the United Order was a tough challenge. So it’s no surprise he went back and forth. Without clear legal specifications defining church monies and individual wealth, there were complexities. This is still a very undeveloped aspect of church history. Most of the evidence today seems to suggest the pioneer prophet’s personal and church holding were at times intermingled. The fact that he had to provide financial support to his large his polygamy tribe of many wives and children certainly made the necessity of capital crucial. As I understand it, after Brigham’s death, his estate ended up having a pretty small value, after settling matters with the institutional church. His heirs inherited some $300,000 which, while considerable in 1877 did not put him in the class of the Carnegie’s or the Rockefeller’s. Compared to the Robber Barons of the late 1800s, and the top One Percent Bernie criticizes today, I’d say Brigham was not even close to such wealth. In his rhetoric, he certainly pushed for equality in his time, even if he didn’t fully practice it fully. Like lots of people today.
Bottom line? I think if Brother Brigham were alive and able to vote in this presidential campaign, he would vote for Brother Sanders. And if it were between Hillary and Trump, as it now is, I’m pretty positive that Brigham would try to mobilize Mormons in favor of Hillary when November’s elections arrive.