Chris Cain challenged

Yesterday, Hugh Hewitt had Cain and Voigt on his show for two full hours. I was the second caller Hugh took, during the 3rd hour of his program. During the hour I was on hold, Hugh read them a section of the September Ensign article - the letter Brigham Young wrote basically saying "leave them alone and let them go". Cain dismissed it as insufficiently sourced - claiming the letter itself has been lost to history, we only know about it from 2nd hand accounts. Voigt also talked about how sourced everything was on the internet and how easy it was to tell what happened.

My call:

LM: Before I take issue with ya, I want to say that I agree with you folks that it is important to search out the roots of stuff like this when they happen, even if they happen to one of your own. I am a Mormon, and coming to grips with this has been quite a challenge.

The issue I want to take, is when you look at the trailer, the scene opens with a Brigham Young comment, something to the tune of "I am the Voice of God, and anyone who doesn't like it will be hewn down". Where did that quote come from?

HH: Chris Cain?

CC: I don't have the quote in front of me... I can't tell you exactly... I should have brought the quotes with me, but I didn't bring them.

HH: But you're certain it's a quote from a published and reputable source?

CC: Yes.

LM: Well, let me tell you where I'm coming from. I participate regularly in an apologetic message board where the critics and the apologists come together, and both 'sides of the aisle' have tried to search the source of this quote, and we can't find anything older than a couple of years. It seems to have not existed until a couple of years ago.

HH: Chris, will you send me what you believe to be the source of that, and I'll make sure I post that at Hughhewitt.com? (CC says yes) I hope that works for you, Rob, because we can't get to the bottom of that now, but I'll look up, and I will follow up on it.

Hugh's Website
Interview audio
Transcript
Ensign Article can be found in the September 2007 Ensign.

LM

[edit - of course, Cain never produced any evidence, and Hugh never put anything up on his website. The issue was carried forward here: MADB thread