Last month a reader, Tom Jenson, commented that when he came across my note in TMD Vol. 1, which explains that having received my complaint, the Church removed an untrue statement about Zina D. H. Young from her official biographical sketch, he checked on line and found it was still there. This I found quite interesting as I knew the offending sentence had been removed from the lds.org web site. Before reviewing the outcome of further investigations into this, let’s first look at what I claimed in TMD Vol. 1:133-34. This is an extract…
In evidence of the way the Mormon Church continues even now, to lie and cover up the difficult and embarrassing aspects of its outrageous history, the following is from the official Church website. It is the ‘Biographical Sketch’ of Zina, appearing because she was General Relief Society President in her later years in Salt Lake City, from 1888 to 1901, the year in which she died.
“Zina D. H. Young, a midwife and an educator, worked closely with Eliza R. Snow in the Relief Society. In 1870 Brigham Young called Sister Young to promote silk production among the women of the Church as part of the Church’s emphasis on home industry and self sufficiency. During her presidency the Relief Society affiliated with the United States National Council of Women and campaigned for women’s suffrage. Sister Young continued the Relief Society’s emphasis on health care, grain storage, education, and compassionate service. Widowed by her first husband, she raised two sons from that marriage, one daughter from her later marriage to Brigham Young, and four of Brigham Young’s other children.” (Zina D. H. Young Biographical Sketch. Available at: www.lds.org under the heading of ‘Relief Society’ if you can find it). See: Relief Society General Presidents.
The official Church sketch clearly states that Zina was widowed by her first husband. He actually died in 1886, nine years after Young, who died in 1877. It says she raised two sons from that marriage, with the clear implication that she did so after Henry had died. They were actually aged forty-four and forty years old respectively when Henry died. It says Zina had a daughter from her later marriage to Brigham Young.
They had married in 1844 and in the Temple in 1846, forty years before Henry died, whose death was, as mentioned, nine years after Young died. Zina’s daughter by Brigham Young, Zina Presendia, was born 3 April 1850. Make of the sketch what you will; in one sentence, there is a complete fabrication of the truth, with the facts altered dramatically in order to create a modern day lie and cover up the real and embarrassing truth of the past. That lie is available to view on the Church web site today, where the Church incredulously creates the warm and fuzzy out of the dark and devious.
Note: Since writing the above, in a communication with an apostle of the Mormon Church, dated 28 May 2008, I questioned why they still include such lies in their propaganda and suggested that integrity demands they remove it. Whilst I did not receive a response or even an acknowledgement of the correspondence which included that comment, I note that the offending sentence: “Widowed by her first husband, she raised two sons from that marriage, one daughter from her later marriage to Brigham Young, and four of Brigham Young’s other children” has now been removed, as of September 2008, and the statement ends with the word ‘service’. I am pleased that the Church has done so, but the question remains: why was it there in the first instance? It would have been nice to have received a response confirming receipt of my letter, noting they were going to accept the criticism and remove the lies. All other RS Presidents listed, continue with the mention of a husband, but despite the first few being plural wives, no mention is made of their husbands’ other wives. Zina now appears as the only one without mention of a husband other than by inference, referred to throughout as ‘Sister Young’.
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The link that Tom discovered was not to the official bio, but actually a 2004 ‘poster’ of Relief Society Presidents and it does indeed include the complete original bio for Zina, just as recorded in the above extract, retaining the offending sentence. Subsequently, when preparing this for posting and rechecking the links – the entire bio has been completely changed to a more accurate account in a 2009 version – the year after I made my complaint. It seems they forgot to remove the original poster. The original link Tom found has since been diverted to an unrelated general callings page.
Official page for RS Presidents.
[EDIT: The Church has subsequently changed, diverted or deleted all the above RS links].
Use this direct link to Zina’s bio which has also been changed (yet again):
Zina’s bio was here in full before my complaint but the final statement has since been removed, as discussed in TMD Vol. 1. Discovery of the existence of the online poster made it interesting as we now have visual evidence of the ‘before’ and ‘after’ position, thus verifying the sentence that has been deleted from the official bio. However, it has now been completely removed from the poster in a new edition and replaced with completely different text. As long as the 2004 version exists we have verification of the facts.
[EDIT: The 2004 version has been removed].
This was the 2009 version which has since also been amended to exclude mention of Zina also being married to Joseph Smith.
“Zina D. H. Young was a nurturer and a healer within and beyond her family circle. She married Henry Jacobs (with whom she had two sons), was sealed to Joseph Smith, and later married Brigham Young (with whom she had a daughter). She also reared as her own the four children of Clarissa Ross Young, who had died. A competent midwife, she delivered hundreds of babies and ministered to the sick with faith and compassion. She traveled with Eliza R. Snow to strengthen Relief Society women and programs, supervised women’s participation in Utah’s silk industry, supported medical training and suffrage for women, and visited branches of the Relief Society in the Sandwich Islands, New York, and Canada. As the society’s general president from 1888 to 1901, she helped build bridges to women of other faiths by attending women’s congresses at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and supporting Latter-day Saint women’s membership in the National and International Councils of Women. She assembled women for the first general conference of the Relief Society and exhorted them to gather often to strengthen the bonds of sisterhood.”
Who would have thought that we would catch the very moment (2009) when the Church changed the bio and became just a little more (although not entirely, as they still don’t admit Zina’s marriage to Young was polyandrous or that Jacobs died after Young) honest about the past. Note also that the new bio also admits Zina’s marriage to Joseph Smith – after she married Jacobs.
[EDIT: since removed – again].
This was the first of Zina’s two polyandrous marriages. My thanks to Tom for locating the 2004 poster.
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Last month also saw the publication of a new booklet on ‘The First Vision‘ (50% off at Lulu). It mirrors the article on my web site and is made available in hard copy for those who would like to share the thuth behind the initial message that Mormon missionaries teach. It is also available as an inexpensive PDF eBook download with permission to copy and share (see copyright conditions). See the The Mormon Delusion website and my Lulu bookstore for more details. Booklet also available from Amazon and other outlets worldwide.
Jim Whitefield 