Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
That said, though, I do not think that the Church, as such, is really connected with it.\u00a0 Nor do I think that it was essentially a matter of religion.\u00a0 Let me clarify that:\u00a0 Some have tried to portray the Mountain Meadows Massacre as an expression of religious zeal and fanaticism.\u00a0 However, in my judgment, that is to misread it.\u00a0 It was an expression of fear<\/em>. \u00a0\u00a0It was connected with religion in the sense that those Mormon militiamen, some of whom had experienced religious persecution and being driven from state to state, all of whom knew<\/em> about the persecutions in New York and Ohio and Missouri and Illinois, feared for their homes and their families.\u00a0 They were afraid, with a U.S. army already headed for Utah territory to put down a non-existent \u201cMormon rebellion,\u201d that they were about to be driven from their homes yet again<\/em>.\u00a0 But where were they supposed to flee?\u00a0 In coming to settle the Great Basin West, they had already left the United States.\u00a0 When would it ever end?<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, so, one horrible decision followed upon another, and one of the most terrible events in the history of the American westward expansion occurred.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some have sought to blame Brigham Young and senior leaders of the Church for the Massacre.\u00a0 But while, in retrospect, we might wish that some of the rhetoric had been toned down, there is simply no evidence that President Young or any of the apostles ordered the killings, and there is considerable evidence against that claim.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t seek to justify what happened at Mountain Meadows.\u00a0 It was appalling and quite unjustified.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the things that fascinates me, however, is its illustration of the fact that even good people can be brought, under the right (wrong) circumstances, to do terrible things. \u00a0These were not thugs or habitual criminals who carried out the killings. \u00a0They were pious farmers and pioneers. \u00a0The Massacre is, therefore, an admonition to us to watch constantly, lest we fall into an analogous trap.\u00a0 Few of us will become involved in mass murder, of course, but we might well be lured by peer pressure, by a boss\u2019s expectations, or whatever to engage in unethical acts, or to join in injustice or unkindness that we would not do on our own. .<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I would actually like, someday, to give a sacrament meeting talk or a fireside on the Mountain Meadows Massacre.\u00a0 Not merely or largely to talk about what happened \u2014 there are excellent historians for that \u2014 but to seek to draw religious and spiritual lessons from it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
When we were there on Wednesday, the weather was beautiful.\u00a0 The place was serene.\u00a0 It was almost exactly the same time of the year on which the Mountain Meadows Massacre occurred.\u00a0 (Most of it, strikingly, happened on 11 September.)\u00a0 It\u2019s a solemn spot.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad that we went.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 While we were in the neighborhood of Central, Utah \u2013 which isn\u2019t in central Utah but, rather, in southwestern Utah, about 35 or 40 miles from St. George \u2013 we took the opportunity to visit the site of the infamous 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre.\u00a0 It is much more developed since the last time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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