The Potato Saint

http://images.wisegeek.com/whole-and-sliced-raw-potatoes.jpg

Which Apostle is referred to as the Potato Saint?

a.                  Luke Johnson

b.                  Anthon Lund

c.                   George A. Smith

d.                  Moses Thatcher

Yesterday’s answer:

B   B. H. Roberts

From the life of B. H. Roberts:   June 1895:   Utah Democrats nominated Moses Thatcher for the U.S. Senate and B. H. Roberts for the House of Representatives.

October:   At conference Joseph F. Smith of the First Presidency remarked that Roberts and Thatcher were out of harmony with the brethren because they had not cleared their political activities in advance. Five weeks later, both Democrats were defeated. Roberts later wrote that “unquestionable . . . the defeat of Mr. Roberts and the Democratic party in general was more or less influenced by the criticism.”

February 1886:   Roberts and Thatcher refused to sign a Church “political manifesto” which stipulated that before a general authority could seek political office he must “apply to the proper authorities and learn from them whether he can, consistently with the obligations already entered into with the Church upon assuming his office, take upon himself the added duties and labors and responsibilities of the new positon.”

March 5:   The First Presidency, the Twelve, and Seven Presidents of Seventy continued to labor with the Democrat leader, “We spent the whole day here until six o’ clock laboring with B. H. Roberts,” Wilford Woodruff wrote. “He stood like Adamant and he is going to destruction.” Roberts felt that he political manifesto constituted an infringement on basic civil liberties. He was suspended from ecclesiastical duties and given three weeks to recant. Two weeks later Heber J. Grant recorded that Roberts “held all the brethren at bay.”

March 24:   He walked the streets all night, wrestling with the dilemma of sacrificing principle or being stripped of his Church blessings. Just hours before the deadline, he decided to sign and was accepted back into fellowship.

Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1982), 243-244.