Podcast Notes

RFM 174 Context: RFM and Jonathan Streeter did a 3 hour podcast on Joseph Smith's polygamy, and they really dug into Sarah Ann Whitney's experience. Brian Hales gives a ton of apologetic responses to Sarah's experience, and all of them are quite weak. I know history can be quite subjective, but Hales has a massive conflict of interest. He has zero credibility. Having him explain Joseph Smith, is like having a corrupt police force do their own internal investigation. Here's why. I liken the bias Hales has with Joseph Smith and the church, to the codependent relationship a woman has with an abusive, alcoholic husband. (Stay with me on this). Joseph is the selfish, entitled, boorish, loose-cannon, alcoholic, addict, who wrecks havoc on everyone around him, using up all the resources and room. He leaves a trail of heartache and wreckage in the wake of his insanity and expects everyone to fall into line with his crazy, destructive, insatiable compulsions. He goes out on the town with the Friday paycheck and drinks himself into delerium and comes home angry and stumbling, puking all over the living room, smashing into things, and scaring his family. Brian Hales is the wife, who finally gets him tucked into bed while she spends the rest of the night cleaning up after him, erasing any evidence of his raging rampage and damage. Nevermind the years of abuse she continues to suffer at his hands. She is protecting herself, as much as anyone, from the truth of her marriage. Part of that denial involves constructing excuses for her husbands behavior, about which she never confronts him. The next day she acts as if everything is fine, and if someone notices that a lamp is broken or something is askew, she comes up with the explanations and excuses for her husband, ever shielding him from any kind of accountability. Why does she do this? Because she doesn't think she can make it alone without him. His abuse has her psychologically and emotionally dependent on him, convinced that she is nothing without him. Its classic. Brian Hales cannot break up with Joseph Smith, or the Mormon church, for the same reason. After listening to his mental contortions, I honestly don't know who is sicker, Brian Hales or Joseph Smith.