Additionally, as I make this case to people, I have been interrupted with a “Oh… that’s right… wasn’t it (insert former president of the church here)?” This is one of the oldest Mormon myths out there, one I had wondered about for years.
I found an interesting article a couple of years ago by Huan Hsu of the Washington City Paper that contained the following information:
Though the ultimate goal is the same, the pressures that single men and women face during the journey vary. In a 1996 interview with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes, All-Pro quarterback Steve Young, a direct descendant of Prophet Brigham Young, tried to explain what it’s like to be 34, single, and Mormon. “You want to talk about the pressure I feel?” Young asked Wallace. “Brigham Young once said…that anyone over 27 years of age that’s not married is a menace to society. So here’s my [great-great-great] grandfather telling me to get with it. You don’t think I feel the pressure? I guarantee it.”
Actually, Brigham Young never said that. The closest thing is something George Q. Cannon, a church apostle, said in 1878: “I am firmly of the opinion that a large number of unmarried men, over the age of 24 years, is a dangerous element in any community.…”
Hsu, Huan. "The Church of Latter-day Singles." Washington City Paper. 29 July 2005.
Please join with me and all the single 30-somethings in a collective sigh of relief.
Faithpromotingrumors.com Fact Tracker:
Assertion: Brigham Young claimed that to be over the age of 27 and unmarried is to be a “Menace to Society.”
Refuted
Assertion: Any church leader claimed that to be over the age of 27 and unmarried is to be a “Menace to Society.”
Refuted
4 comments:
Thanks. I study at BYU-Idaho and someone tried to tell me Brigham Young said that. I looked up the quote on Lds.org and it said "no results found".
It stinks that the new deadline is 24 now. :)
George Q. Cannon said: “Our boys, when they arrive at the years of maturity and can take care of a wife, should get married, and there should not be a lot of young men growing up in our midst who ought to be, but ar not married. While I do not make the remark to apply to individual cases, I am firmly of the opinion that a large number of unmarried men, over the age of twenty-four years, is a dangerous element in any community, and an element upon which society should look with a jealous eye. For every man knowing himself, knows how his fellow-man is constituted; and if men do not marry, they are too apt to do something worse. Then, brethren, encourage our young men to marry, and see that they are furnished employment, so that they can marry.” (George F. Gibbs, “Discourse by Elder Geo. Q. Cannon…April 7, 1878,” Journal of Discourses, vol. 20, p. 7)
I particularly like the part where Elder Cannon says, "see that they are furnished employment, so that they can marry." Let's focus on that part shall we?
AND... remember that the usual age for beginning to learn a profession was between 14-18 at the time of this statement.
I was at a devotional at BYU in September of 1974, I think, where President Spencer W Kimball made that statement
Post a Comment