In the state of Missouri, up until 1976, it was legal to shoot a Mormon on sight.<\/p>\n
Actually, it probably wasn\u2019t, because more recent murder statutes would have taken precedence over the so-called \u201cExtermination Order\u201d issued in 1838 by then-Governor Lilliburn Boggs. That order read, in part, as follows:<\/p>\n
The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In terms of practical application, by the late 20th Century, the order was little more than a silly \u201cblue\u201d law, like laws against spitting on Sunday or whistling past graveyards. No one was shooting Mormons in Missouri in 1976. But the Extermination Order was still on the books.<\/p>\n
Those not of my faith may not have heard this before. They may not know how many times the Mormons were driven from their homes or how many saw their own children murdered before their eyes. They may not know of the cities and temples they had built with their own hands at great personal sacrifice, only to have them razed to the ground by bloodthirsty mobs. They may understand that the Mormons wound up in Utah because they fled the United States, where President Martin Van Buren had told them \u201cyour cause is just, but I can do nothing for you.\u201d They slogged West to find a place where, in Brigham Young\u2019s words, \u201cthe devil can not dig us out.\u201d They settled in the desert of the Salt Lake Valley because, frankly, it was a place that no one else wanted. (Having lived through many a Salt Lake winter, I can see why.)<\/p>\n
Mormons tell these stories among themselves, but they do so without bitterness or resentment. It\u2019s part of our history, and we\u2019re proud of our ancestors who sacrificed so much to preserve our faith. At the same time, we try to look forward and not backward.<\/p>\n
The Latter-day Saints who braved the elements to cross the plains in the mid-nineteenth century sang a song that is still popular among modern LDS congregations. It\u2019s called \u201cCome, Come, Ye Saints.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some excerpts:<\/p>\n
Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear;
\nBut with joy wend your way\u2026<\/p>\nWhy should we mourn or think our lot is hard? \u2028’
\nTis not so; all is right\u2026<\/p>\nWe’ll find the place which God for us prepared,
\nFar away in the West,
\nWhere none shall come to hurt or make afraid;
\nThere the Saints will be blessed.
\nWe’ll make the air with music ring,
\nShout praises to our God and King;
\nAbove the rest these words we’ll tell–
\nAll is well! all is well!<\/p><\/blockquote>\nMost of the people who sang this song had suffered horribly as a result of manmade and natural disasters. But, like Job, they refused to curse God and die. They chose, instead, to sing of joy and celebration.<\/p>\n
In other words, this is not the song of victims.<\/p>\n
I offer this as information as a historical context for those of you who might be tempted to see the new movie “September Dawn,” which opened in theatres two days ago. The movie dramatizes the horrific events surrounding the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, in which 120 innocent people were butchered by a handful of Mormons who may have sung the song but not absorbed its lessons. They weren\u2019t interested in wending their way with joy. They were frightened and paranoid. They had suffered; they wanted someone to pay. So they did an utterly evil thing. And, to this day, the wounds from that event haunt the families of both victims and perpetrators alike.<\/p>\n
Given the amount of abuse the Mormons themselves suffered, and the thousands of lives lost, it\u2019s remarkable that this one hideous incident of revenge stands unique in Mormon history. You\u2019d think, if terrorist-style massacres were, in fact, rooted in some secret, unspeakably evil Mormon doctrine that these kinds of slaughters would happen more than once every 150 years.<\/p>\n
The film, which I have not seen, reportedly attempts to equate Mormons with al Qaeda Muslims, which is exactly wrong. Even in the early days of the Church, the Mormons weren\u2019t interested in retaliation. That\u2019s why they trekked across the plains in the first place. They went West to leave their grievances behind.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t matter, really. The movie is getting savaged by the critics<\/a>, and it is unlikely to set the box office on fire. It\u2019s a bit like the extermination order in 1976 \u2013 it\u2019s there, yes, but no one is paying attention to it.<\/p>\n
So now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to Church, where I will wend my way with joy with five screaming young’uns who are still angry that I made them bathe this morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inthe state of Missouri, up until 1976, it was legal to shoot a Mormon on sight.Actually, it probably wasn\u2019t, because more recent murder statutes would have taken precedence over the so-called \u201cExtermination Order\u201d issued in 1838 by then-Governor Lilliburn Boggs. That order read, in part, as follows:
The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and <\/blockquote> ... Read more<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5260,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions\/5260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}