Perhaps itâ??s an example of historical over-reach. But Iâ??m reasonably comfortable suggesting that the LDS church in its current formâ??in its current characterâ??is much more the product of Brigham Youngâ??s practical determination than of Joseph Smithâ??s earnest vision. At least, a good case can be made that the way that LDS Mormons are more concerned with moving refrigerators than they are with theological proofs of godâ??s existence is the consequence of Brighamâ??s socialist pragmatism rather than of Smithâ??s religious imagination. Certainly, the way in which LDS people are encouraged to think of the â??President of the Churchâ? as the pinnacle of an upwardly-narrowing hierarchy is the consequence of how Brigham shaped and then inhabited this office.
Where Smithâ??s organization was always in some disarray as a consequence of his inclination to spread authority out horizontally, Brigham, rather brutishly, in fact, shaped the institution vertically. One finds a stark picture of Brigham the Bully in Gary J. Bergeraâ??s Conflict in the Quorum. In Iowa in 1847, Brigham elbows his way into this supreme position, to operate, as he said, â??untrammelledâ?. Pushing two centuries later, the LDS church seems as committed as ever to sustaining a cult of personality around whichever person happens to occupy the chair that Brigham built.
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