- Intending to give the appearance of Native American aggression, the militia's plan was to arm some Southern Paiute Native Americans and persuade them to join with a larger party of their own militiamen—disguised as Native Americans—in an attack. During the militia's first assault on the wagon train the emigrants fought back, and a five-day siege ensued. Eventually fear spread among the militia's leaders that some emigrants had caught sight of white men and had likely discovered the identity of their attackers. As a result militia commander William H. Dame ordered his forces to kill the emigrants.
Yes, you ought to have, if only because it took me a long time to understand this thread. Also, fwiw, some of the most interesting people I've met have been Mormons.
Respectfully: I am fully willing to believe that you have met interesting Mormons. Further, I will concede that Mormons, in isolation, are innocuous. However, having grown up in a Mormon-majority town as a non-mormon, it has been my experience that Mormons as a group are an apocalyptic death cult that view the rest of humanity as non-player characters in their pursuit of a racially-pure nirvana. Growing up, it was constantly asserted in class (by Mormon teachers) that Mormons were the kindest and most innocuous branch of Christianity. Any mention of Mountain Meadows was assailed as a lie. I was actually sent to the Principal's (mormon) office once for bringing it up. It was further suggested that anyone who would say such horrible things about the Mormons was going to hell, but it was common knowledge that those of us who didn't worship at Temple were damned anyway. In 5th grade we were to do a book report on "a famous person." When I selected Joan d'Arc I was told by my (mormon) librarian that my choice was unacceptable because "she isn't famous enough." When I then selected Hitler I was given Brigham Young. I invite you to imagine the revisionist pablum a mormon librarian would have in her mormon library for mormon children about Brigham Young. My 5th grade teacher, fresh out of BYU, was the prettiest woman in school by far. She also displayed the most vicious racism against the one black kid in school I have ever seen. Having grown up in a privileged white enclave surrounded by dirt-poor hispanics, Navajos and Hopi, prejudice was nothing new; this woman's hatred for the black kid, on the other hand, was at a level that still makes me uncomfortable. She reaches out to me via my mother every few years; apparently I was one of her favorite pupils. I haven't found a way to respectfully say "the way you treated Carlton appalls me to this day." A majority mormon town has, of course, majority mormon administration. Things were complicated by the fact that (A) my last name and the last name of the police chief were the same and (B) my mother taught at alternative schools in Santa Fe, which means the chief of police would occasionally receive invitations to lesbian weddings etc. They were always delivered to us, opened, by hand, with full disapproval, by uniformed officers. And while I'm sure there are teenagers all over the United States that have been ticketed for 26 in a 25, it takes a special kind of enmity to be followed all over town for four hours in hopes that you'll screw up enough to be shaken down. That level of interaction between church and state allows all sorts of shit to slip between the cracks, of course. Like the two girls that ran away in 8th grade never to be seen again. Like the rampant rumors of child abuse. Like the cover-ups of "training accidents" at the shooting range that claimed three hispanics in ten years. Which all starts to sound like wild-eyed conspiracy but this whole clusterfuck forced two of my friends to leave town on a 1-week timeframe having lived there their whole life. On the plus side, they're six figures richer. On the minus side, whistleblower retaliation and being forced to leave your home. Food for thought: Mormons are disproportionally represented in WMD research. I don't know why. I suspect it's because they figure that they're the only actual humans on earth and that so long as they've been sealed, all that's left is the waiting. So. I can't say my experience was typical. I can say it was negative. And while it is only my opinion, it is my opinion that a world free of the LDS church is a better one.
I grew up in a majority Catholic enclave in a majority Protestant area. All the city leaders, all the cops, all the judges were Protestant. The Protestands hated the dirty catholic kids and treated us like shit, but at least the rules were given lip service. Until the Mormons rolled into the area in the 80's. They intentionally moved into voting districts to get people of their faith in city and county government. The Catholics and the Protestants were more of a polite, not in your face racist, more like "oh you know how those people are" sort of thing, not just to blacks (mostly protestant) and Hispanics (mostly Catholic) but to everyone who did not go to their church. The Mormons that came to town? Right up in your face "I hate the niggers" racists. It is one of the reasons I will never be religious again. Do you know why the Mormons hate black skinned people? Until 2013 dark skin was a curse from god and a mark of evil They did not apologize, officially, until 20-fucking-13. The Mormons like to put on this cheerful friendly face, but so do the Scientologists.She also displayed the most vicious racism against the one black kid in school I have ever seen. Having grown up in a privileged white enclave surrounded by dirt-poor hispanics, Navajos and Hopi, prejudice was nothing new; this woman's hatred for the black kid, on the other hand, was at a level that still makes me uncomfortable.
As blacks were banned from entering celestial marriage prior to 1978, some interpreted this to mean black people would be treated as unmarried whites, being confined to only ever live in God's presence as a ministering servant. In 1954, Apostle Mark E. Petersen told BYU students: "If that Negro is faithful all his days, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get a celestial resurrection." Apostle George F. Richards in a talk at General Conference similarly taught: "[t]he Negro is an unfortunate man. He has been given a black skin. But that is as nothing compared with that greater handicap that he is not permitted to receive the Priesthood and the ordinances of the temple, necessary to prepare men and women to enter into and enjoy a fullness of glory in the celestial kingdom."
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2 nephi 5:21 I love how they've scrubbed Wikipedia of any mention of institutional racism as if all those missionaries they sent to Africa were, like, just there for humanitarian aid. Because mission work is totally not about turning young kids away from the outside world that doesn't want to hear the gospel. TOTALLY NOT. Huh. Revisionist history. Kinda like Mountain Meadows.And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.