E52: Bogus Brigham & Brothers

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:01)
Of course, babes!

**Mary Ann Clements** (0:08)
How's it going, Royal Ugly Dudes? I'm the Earl of Preston.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:16)
And I am the Duke of Ted.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:36)
Iron Maiden? Excellent!

**Mary Ann Clements** (0:39)
Execute them.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:42)
Bogus.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:44)
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:46)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:48)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion, this isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:15)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:20)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:28)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:54)
Now, I hope this isn't too much of a spoiler, but Bill and Ted's excellent adventure is just dripping with inside Mormon jokes. Like that clip? Bogus? Total reference to counterfeiting in Navu, am I right? Wait, what's that? Okay, I'm being told it has absolutely nothing to do with counterfeiting.
Bryan just stuck this in, because Bryan's a nerd.
Well, that's a shame, because we're gonna be talking about it anyway. Bill and Ted's adventure, I mean.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:18)
And here's the thing, counterfeiting has been around as long as money has been around. Because if money is a temptation, then getting the benefit of it without going to all the work to make the money has to be a pretty big temptation too, right? Now Bogus, as it worked for counterfeit, doesn't go back quite that far. The first usage, as far as we know, is in 1827 in a little town rag in Ohio, the Painesville Telegraph, edited by this dude, Eber D. Howe. Maybe some alarms and red lights are going off?
Yeah, we know this scene. The Telegraph was one of the first newspapers to talk about the Mormons in Kirtland. And the editor, Eber D yeah, he publishes Mormonism Unveiled, which goes down in history as the first so-called anti-Mormon book.
Yeah, I get it. We've been down this path before. I don't like calling things anti-Mormon either, but that's not our battle today.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:03)
Wait a minute. So are you trying to tell me that Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, the word bogus, is actually like a Mormon origin? It's like Mormon adjacent.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:11)
When they go back in time, it is.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:13)
Oh, I see what you did there. I mean, it's pretty wild. If you look at the entry for the word bogus in the Oxford English Dictionary, which is exactly the kind of peak nerd thing we do for you listeners, you're GD welcome. The list of references for bogus just screams Mormon. Snippets from the Navu neighbor, the Frontier Guardian, and even a Brigham Young sermon from the Journal of Discourses use this.
Oh geez, sounds like we have a history with counterfeiting or something. It's really on our mind. Let's talk.
The truth is, Mormons do have a history, and sure, Mormons will chalk it up to the usual suspects. Whenever shade gets thrown at our ancestors, it's super easy just to say, it's Satan, of course, opposing the Lord's work, or counterfeiting William Clayton's journals. They're bogus.
We know persecution complex is maybe our second most cherished spiritual gift. Number one spot is reserved for passive-aggressive discourse. Obviously. Maybe let's put all of our siege mentalities back in their holsters for just a minute for some real talk. Is there anything to it? Were Mormons actually making that bogus coin?

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:50)
The early years, you know, the ones we basically skipped over, don't have a whole lot. Things like this, quote, one character who practiced counterfeiting was a certain Joseph Bill Packer, a second cousin once removed of Samuel Bill, who married Joseph Smith's aunt Lydia Mack. Yeah, that's not really a smoking gun there. A more plausible connection comes with the New Israelites. Just like New Coke, they were Israelites, just way better.
Remember that New England just is exuding sexy new religious groups. These dudes have long been pointed to by some historians as a cultural influence on Mormons, just a generation later. If you look at some of their notable elements, you can see why they do this. They were into divination, the 10 tribes. It's tough to be the New Israelites if you're not into that.
Polygamy, studying Hebrew, building temples and even Jell-O. Okay, it's spiritual Jell-O, but still. Now, things with them got real when a sketchy dude named Justice Winchell rolled into town. They started doing treasure digs, which were tied up with dun, dun, dun, counterfeiting.