Throwing God Under the Bus: Why Good People Like Brad Wilcox Say What They Say

I believe Brother Wilcox is a fundamentally good person. I believe his recent apology is sincere, however limited in its scope. I also sympathize with those calling for his release as a general officer of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as a religion professor at BYU. This is heartbreaking, given how so much of his influence has been positive. Yet he has repeatedly used his popular, professional,  and ecclesiastical status to perpetuate assumptions and biases that harm youth and undermine Christian discipleship. 

But here’s the thing: removing Brother Wilcox from positions of influence will do absolutely nothing to solve the underlying problem.

You see, Brother Wilcox doesn’t “believe in” the priesthood ban. He didn’t defend the Priesthood Ban because he’s a vile racist. He defended the Priesthood Ban because he doesn’t want the youth to think that past prophets were racist. 

I get it. Fundamental among the Church’s truth claims is that we—and we alone—are led by a prophet who speaks for God. In precisely the way some other Christians ground their faith in the Holy Bible, which they regard as “without error fault in all its teachings,” most Latter-day Saints place their trust in past and current prophets as unerring guides. We’re taught this claim while we’re young, and we risk excommunication if we challenge it.

Joseph Smith even delivered a revelation in God’s voice in which his followers were told that “What I the Lord have spoken I have spoken . . . whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” (D&C 1:38)

But youth leaders find themselves in a difficult position. Particular  policies and historical teachings are so egregious to the rising generation’s sensibilities that dismissive answers, deflection, and gaslighting no longer cut the mustard. In the past when legitimate concerns arose, youth leaders and seminary teachers patiently guided the questioner through their doubt in a predictable sequence like this:

• Prophets tell us what God wants us to know and do.
• The prophets told us “X”
• Therefore, “X” = what God wants us to know and do.

I know this pattern because I was trained to use it as a young missionary and have seen it modeled again and again in countless situations. And guess what? It works for everything!

Why are children being denied baptism if one of their parents is legally married to a spouse of the same sex? “Dear brother, this new policy was revealed to the prophet. Therefore we know it comes from God.” 

Why did Joseph Smith marry other men’s wives? “Dear Sister, these early saints had enough faith to accept Joseph Smith’s plural marriage proposals. They knew he was a prophet of God. If you have enough faith that Joseph was a prophet, you too can feel peace and know this came from God.”

But hold on! When it comes to banning worthy black men from priesthood ordination and depriving black women and men from temple blessings, we can no longer pretend that this policy was not rooted in racism. We know it was. 

Perhaps what ought to offend us most about Brother Wilcox’s sneering responses to sincere questions is this: When faced with the choice of souring a young person’s relationship with God, or a relationship with our prophets, Wilcox is willing to sour their relationship to God. He has repeated this corrosive message to thousands of youth. After mocking their questions, he tells them, again and again, that it’s God who deprived black men and women from forming eternal families; it’s God who thought they shouldn’t have the priesthood because of some inscrutable timeline. Do you not see how this distorts their notion of the goodness of God? Do you not see how throwing God under the bus when it was mortals who messed up is not only wrong-headed but perverse?

Stop. Stop perpetuating this idolatrous belief that human leaders, by virtue of their calling, will never lead us astray.  Stop defending the indefensible. Stop distorting our vision of Heavenly Parents for whom prejudice and racism and misogyny and religious bigotry are wounds they are calling us to heal, not perpetuate.

Stop. Stop perpetuating this idolatrous belief that human leaders, by virtue of their calling, will never lead us astray.  Stop defending the indefensible. Stop distorting our vision of Heavenly Parents for whom prejudice and racism and misogyny and religious bigotry are wounds they are calling us to heal, not perpetuate.

Buddha in the Beehive

Change is possible. More and more leaders are listening with their heart. More and more are acknowledging they don’t know how to make sense of some of our history. More and more are sitting with the discomfort that comes to moral persons and ethical institutions who acknowledge that we have sometimes failed to live up to our deepest values. 

Before long, some other foot-in-mouth moment will embroil another basically good person in controversy. They will be pilloried. If they aren’t too high on the pecking order BYU might decide it’s expedient to cut them loose, as they did Randy Bott a decade ago. But the problem will persist. Until we center our worship and teachings around relationships of love—you know, love of God and our neighbor—our children will have no reason to engage. Only when they see our history (there’s no more hiding it) and hear us doing the honest work of truth and reconciliation will they want anything to do with our future.

And that would be a shame.