Most people who write about cherry-picking Brigham Young are critical of the process, which is wide spread. Instead of one more post like that, I’m going to engage in cherry-picking him myself in this post.
It is fun and easy to cherry-pick brother Brigham.
- He loved to speculate on topics from multiple directions in order to explore and learn.
- He enjoyed using pure logic on topics.
- He wasn’t afraid to be wrong and told people to just assume he had been wrong rather than waste their time asking him if he had made a mistake.
With that in mind, I’m going to share some things he taught at one time or another that make for some interesting thoughts.
First, Adam. Brigham Young taught a few times that Adam was not a person, but was a title and figurative. There were hundreds or thousands of “Adams” because the word applied to anyone who was the progenitor of a group or a place. This is a fun teaching every time I run into someone who is a bit literalist in their approach. It also makes for a nice divergence from other things Brigham Young said.
Second, his lecture on polygamy where he taught that it was temporary, and would only last until women were restored to being equal to men. He combined that with teaching that the reason women were not equal to men is that men had wronged women and denied them the education and experience they needed to be equal. You can, of course, see how that leads to the conclusion that polygamy only exists because men have wronged women. And only continues in any context because men have failed to cease wronging women.
Third and most interesting, his teachings on privation and poverty vs. wealth. He preached a sermon that he also claimed was inspired, that the greatest threat to the Church and people came not from the hardships and privation they faced in the early Utah days, but would come when the Church came into great and almost unimaginable wealth. That was when the Church would face its strongest existential crisis.
It gives one a great deal to ponder these days.
What are your favorite teachings of Brigham Young that you like to cherry-pick?
Wheat & Tares 
My favorite had to be his absolute universalism. He taught that the spirit matter that makes us is like clay in the potters hand. We will be given every chance to reach our full potential and if we don’t make it, the spiritual matter that makes us up will be destroyed and thrown back in the pile and that spiritual matter will have another chance. In this scenario, there is no hell. You always have the option of progress and when the powers that be determine you aren’t progressing anymore you get some spiritual euthanasia and they try again.
A close second would be his alleged permission for certain brethren to go have sex with women who had infertile husbands to give them children. The implied teaching is that sex is not only between a man and woman who are legally and lawfully wedded. Loopholes have existed far before soaking.
“If you can’t educate your sons and your daughters, educate your daughters.” My mother used to recite that all the time when I was growing up.
I also love his definition of “perfect”. “The best you can in the circumstances you are in.” For all his faults he preached a much more uplifting gospel than the current leaders do. There, I said it.
It would be really great if you (or a commenter) could post Brigham’s actual words and the associated sources.
Every kingdom will be blotted out of existence, except the one whose ruling spirit is the Holy Ghost, and whose king is the Lord. The Lord said to Jeremiah the Prophet, “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hands of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.” The clay that marred in the potter’s hands was thrown back into the unprepared portion, to be prepared over again. So it will be with every wicked man and woman, and every wicked nation, kingdom, and government upon earth, sooner or later; they will be thrown back to the native element from which they originated, to be worked over again, and be prepared to enjoy some sort of a kingdom. (1)
Jesus says, he will DESTROY death and him that hath the power of it. What can you make of this but decomposition, the returning of the organized particles to their native element, after suffering the wrath of God until the time appointed. That appears a mystery, but the principle has been in existence from all eternity, only it is something you have not known or thought of. When the elements in an organized form do not fill the end of their creation, they are thrown back again, like brother Kimball’s old pottery ware, to be ground up, and made over again. All I have to say about it is what Jesus says—I will destroy Death, and him that hath the power of it, which is the devil. And if he ever makes “a full end of the wicked,” what else can he do than entirely disorganize them, and reduce them to their native element? Here are some of the mysteries of the kingdom. (2)
1) JD 2:124
2) JD 1:275-276
Brigham Young is a treasure trove. Some really interesting thoughts…some really horrible ones…some that just seem like he was daydreaming and talking at the same time. The three in the OP make for some great discussion.
Here are my three cherry-picked topics from Brother Brigham:
Brigham Young saying that he thinks people are living on the sun because otherwise, it would be a waste. (JD vol. 13 p. 271)
His talk about how scientists disproving literal creationism poses no problem at all for Mormonism and that the scientists are surely right, that Moses was probably just passing down the same story that had been told for generations, but that didn’t mean Genesis has any scientific basis. (JD vol. 14 p. 116)
Despite the comment in the OP about polygamy being temporary and due to inequality, he also said that the only men who become Gods are the polygamists. Non-polygamists are welcome to come hang out, but will never “reign as kings in glory.” (JD vol. 11 p. 268-269)
I will say that while there are many things I’m not a fan of regarding Brigham Young, I do admire some of the other things he said too. Here are a few more things he said that I admire.
Good people are everywhere if we just look around and try to be open.
This one is interesting, especially when pointed back at Mormonism. Despite flaws in the modern LDS Church, Mormonism more broadly, or any other religion, tearing it down or tearing down the people in it surely isn’t the answer. Yes, we should discuss the good and the bad, but then use it to build communities that can make the world a better place. I think the W&T community generally tries to do this.
I just like this one in our age of distraction and polarization.
Sorry if this gets posted twice, my computer glitched.
“Mormonism,” so-called, embraces every principle pertaining to life and salvation, for time and eternity. No matter who has it. If the infidel has got truth it belongs to “Mormonism.” The truth and sound doctrine possessed by the sectarian world, and they have a great deal, all belong to this Church. As for their morality, many of them are, morally, just as good as we are. All that is good, lovely, and praiseworthy belongs to this Church and Kingdom. “Mormonism” includes all truth. There is no truth but what belongs to the Gospel. It is life, eternal life; it is bliss; it is the fulness of all things in the gods and in the eternities of the gods.” Discourses of Brigham Young, volume 3
Several other Brigham Young Quotes about “Truth” are found here. https://oneclimbs.com/2010/10/10/brigham-young-on-truth This quote is one of the main reasons I remain in the church. I feel this quote gives me permission, and I give myself permission to embrace and live by TRUTH, wherever I find it. I seek to live true to the truth that I have found, even if it’s different than what is taught over the pulpit on Sundays, and Brigham Young says that I can do that and still remain Mormon.
“I doubt whether it can be found, from the revelations that are given and the facts as they exist, that there is a female in all the regions of hell.”
Journal of Discourses 8:222.
So Dua Lipa and I are safe despite our honkytonk times.
“Work less, wear less, eat less, and we will be a much wiser, wealthier, and healthier people” is one I’ve always kept in my back pocket whenever I’ve needed to push back against the ever-creeping Protestant work ethic in our faith.
“He wasn’t afraid to be wrong.”
Tell that to Orson Pratt.