Setting history straight

I wonder if the young men who come to my house on bicycles will now stop looking at me incredulously before accsuing me of "making stuff up" when I mention the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Just another strange episode in the twisted history of this cult that, unfortunately, stains the name of Jesus Christ. How big of them to come clean about this episode 150 years later!

While I am not a member of the Mormon Church, I have great affection and admiration for those of the LDS church who I know. I have studied the Book of Mormon as well as the Pearl of Great Price and I have read all of the Doctrines and Covenants of the Church and countless other LDS literature, including Richard Bushman's book and the current "Massacre at Mountain Meadows" All of the questions about who ordered what, and who did what, seem, today, mute. The Church has evolved way beyond that page of history. One question does haunt me though. The perpetrators, well, the murderers...let's not mince words...were formerly law abiding, church-going members of the faith, none of whom had ever engaged in known criminal behavior or, otherwise, been in trouble with the law. It is safe to assume that all of them, as LDS faithful, or at least many of them, would have "prayed over" what they were about to do as the church has always taught it's members to do when confronted with difficult decisions or judgments that have to be made, and, presumably, they did what they felt the "spirit moved them to do." If so, then how could it have happened? That is the question by which I am haunted. Perhaps the answer is as simple as Einstein’s famous warning to mankind, "Blind respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."

I wonder if the young missionary men on bicycles think that they should be ashamed to stare at me as a black person because of what the white slave owners did to my ancestors. Just another episode of the shameful history of this country, Yes , I admit that I too am a cult member of this church. We follow a very charismatic leader that demands to much from us.A lot of people thought that our leader was crazy and too powerful that they put him to death.But as a group of devoted followers, we still followed him faithfully. His name is not Joseph Smith Jr., no, his name is Jesus Christ the same person that we name our church from. The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter day Saints.

ptollero - I really want to make sense of your posting, but it's difficult. I will just point out that: 1) Expecting shame from people that did nothing to you is illogical. 2) The U.S. does not have a shameful history. Slavery was a vestige of the Old World that over 500,000 Americans died putting to rest. The good so far outweighs the bad in American history that focusing on the bad seems like a compulsion. You're blessed to live in the greatest political expiriment in human history. Don't miss the forest for the trees. 3)For someone so sensitive about race, Mormonism is an odd choice. How recently did they even allow a black man to become a priest, or inter-racial couples to date and marry? 4) Joseph Smith was a liar and a rake with 34 wives...the last of whom was 14 years old. 5)The name of your cult is the only thing Christian about it.

Whether questions of “who did what” today seem mute (silent) or moot (deprived of practical significance) to anyone, know this: a day of judgement is coming, and all these things shall be laid bare, because time cannot cover sin. Yes, be haunted by the fact that these men were "moved by the spirit" to commit evil deeds, but what spirit was that? God is not the author of evil, and the Holy Spirit is holy. There is no evil in the Spirit of God. These men, who denied the deity of the crucified Christ, the only begotten Son of God, were following a different spirit. It was not of God, and their deeds were not of God. By all means: ...let people deal with the truth and not with mythology,.... Einstein, revised, might better have said, “Blind respect for [any] authority - that does not submit to God - is the greatest enemy of truth.” For all truth is God’s truth. And, there is but one way to the Father, and that is by the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” It may be too late for those who are no more, but it is not too late for you.

I sat in an L.D.S. Sacrament Meeting last Spring where Turley spoke in the Harrison, Arkansas Ward. Harley Fancher and his wife, not L.D.S., attended. Harley is the direct descendant of Alexander Fancher, leader of the MMM wagon train. He's also an officer in the MMM Association. The current L.D.S. Church historian and staff had spent many hours with Harley and other MMM Association leaders, getting to the bottom of the story together for over 2 years. My personal conversation with M/M Fancher convinced me that they are more than satisfied with Turley's research. As far as they are concerned, it's over, but the media must still its venues to a public who missed that meeting. A group of unrelated bigoted people who spend untold hours spreading hate (similar to what's currently happening in Eastern Europe) also lists their names among those commenting above and below. Hard to combat success, isn't it? Keep trying . . . and have fun wasting your lives away . . . :)