Early LDS persecution

[MalcolmVillager]

TL:DR Early church persecution was brought on by horrible people, not by Christian neighbors who were unprovokenly picked on by a bully.

I was listening to a few podcasts on the drive home to Utah for Thanksgiving today. They were about some early saint stuff. It hit me that the Mormons were so hated, persecuted, and driven out because they were horrible Christians!

If they had been loving, charitable, forgiving, and neighborly they would have been welcomed with open arms to these growing communities, even if they were peculiar.

The Amish, Mennonite, Huderite, and Quaker communities didn't have these problems of extermination orders (of course that order was only in retaliation to Sidney Rigdon's extermination order against Missouri) or being tarred and feathered (of course that was in response to unwanted sexual advances to young girls), repossession of property (of course thst was just in response to a failed bank due to inflated RE price speculation), false imprisonment (of course that was due to destroying the press that printed a factually accurate exposition ), etc...

The persecution complex is rediculous and mostly unfounded. If the early church were my child, and they complained of being picked on unfairly, I would tell them to turn the other check, love one another, do unto others, judge not, etc... and quit blaming others for this stuff. People don't just choose to hate or bother good people. It is sort of a karma or reap what you sow principle I guess.

Anyway, that is my rant for the day.

[desertrat]

The Lord's prophets have always been persecuted because the wicked take the truth to be hard. It is a sign of the divinity of the work! TBM whisperer out.

[Mormorrisey]

I really like this analysis, it reminds me of something I said some years ago in a Sunday School class. The SS teacher was giving a summary of the "persecutions of the saints" and mentioned how Satan was behind it all; and of course the chiming in began on how it was just like our day because of our stance on "de gayz" and their war on the family. I raised my hand, and made the comment that since the Saints were chased across America from New York to Utah, when do you start to realize that maybe people just plain don't like you because of what YOU are doing? That maybe this wasn't just persecution, but the early Saints were self-righteous twits that had weird doctrines like polygamy and the United Order? And maybe, just maybe, the conservative nature of the church channels the current structure into the same self-righteous paths? I then likened it to the guy who has been married 5 times and blamed the other party each time for the marital breakdown. Pin drop, and lots of muttering about "crazy Brother M."

But you are so right - while the Amish, Hutterites, Quakers, etc. did deal with some amount of persecution (at least up here in the Great White North, and so I assume the same in the US) just because they weren't mainstream Protestant, but DEFINITELY not to the level of the early Saints. And I stand by my earlier statement as to why. Great post!

[Culper Jr.]

I was shocked when I read that the Mormons had also burned and looted towns in Missouri. That basically the battle of Crooked River was the Mormons attacking the equivalent of a National Guard unit sent in to keep the peace. The more I read about real church history, the more I go, "Oh, that makes sense now!" Those terrible people trying to rob innocent Joseph of the plates were actually people who hired him to find treasure with his peep stone and they thought he had double crossed them. Tarred and feathered in Kirtland... actually for making advances toward Marinda. I guess he finally got her in the end. The emotional accounts of Mormon persecution now elicit an eye roll from me instead of tears.

[moksha]

Tarred and feathered in Kirtland... actually for making advances toward Marinda. I guess he finally got her in the end.

Doesn't matter which end, her brother was plenty pissed.

[Culper Jr.]

Doesn't matter which end, her brother was plenty pissed.

LOL, yep, as Joseph was getting tarred and feathered (and nearly castrated) I'm sure he was thinking, "Should've sent him on a mission to Palestine or something before I made my move.... yeah, I'll remember that for next time..."

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

It's not just LDS persecution that is misrepresented historically, but early Christianity as well. There is a pretty darn good radio west episode "The Myth of Persecution" that is fun to listen to. I would almost say that modern Christians in the middle east have more legitimate persecution recorded these days due to ISIS.

[Hagoth]

It's not just LDS persecution that is misrepresented historically, but early Christianity as well. There is a pretty darn good radio west episode "The Myth of Persecution" that is fun to listen to. I would almost say that modern Christians in the middle east have more legitimate persecution recorded these days due to ISIS.

I listened to the Radio West episode and it was fascinating. According to author, Candida Moss, a historian of early Christianity at Notre Dame, there were only a couple of dozen "Christians" killed by the Romans in the two centuries after Christ and they were executed for political crimes, not because of religious persecution. I put the word "Christian" in quotes because Moss points out the these people weren't calling themselves Christians at the time. Jesus was a Jew as were his early followers who believed him to be the Jewish messiah. I was surprised to learn that the entire Christians-in-the-Colosseum thing is a myth too. According to Moss, there was a brief period of actual persecution for two years under one of the later Roman emperors (I forget which one) when there was state-mandated religious persecution not just of followers of Christ, but of anyone who refused to give offerings to the state gods.

I think what Christians often overlook when they are feeling so persecuted by the War on Christmas is the monumental persecution that has been dished out by Christians over the centuries in their treatment of Jews, in the Crusades and in the Inquisitions. The inquisitions alone are credited with an estimated 100,000+ deaths from execution, torture and imprisonment for being enemies to the Christian church, most of them for being witches - something that never even existed.

In that light it makes it seem a little less horrific when Starbucks attacks Christmas by failing to put snowflakes on their holiday cup.

[document]

I think much of it has to rest in the beatitudes. I believe those are applied both to the individual and people apply them to their community as well. As we all know they have a state and a result, all except for one are things that we (as individuals or communities) do: be poor in spirit, mourn, be meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, be merciful, be pure in heart, and be peacemakers.

I think many of us (no matter their religion) are self-justifiers. We may look to another group and see their faults while we are blind to our own. We condemn those around us for various things, but when we do them ourselves, we are justified for all sorts of reasons. I'm going all Jesus on this post anyway, so why not just say that we are great at seeing the mote but horrible at seeing the beam.

So, it is very easy to see ourselves as all of those things, especially when we justify ourselves continually. Poor in spirit, I say a prayer every night asking for forgiveness and I take communion, check! Be pure in heart, I have a temple recommend, check! Repeat and continue.

Then we get to this pesky last item in the beatitudes, be persecuted. Well, that isn't something that you can really do, it is something that happens to you. So, just as we justify ourselves continually in righteousness, we then exaggerate persecution so we can feel that we have checked this off of the box. Someone said they don't believe in my religion and have a nice day, BAM!, persecution.

But that is on the personal level. As I mentioned before, we apply the same justifications to our religious community as we do to ourselves. We hold funerals and thus we mourn, check! We forgive sins, check! But then again, that pesky persecution clause. So, we make that up as well.

Joseph Smith was tarred and feathered for reasons having little (if any) to do with religion. Persecution! The saints were chased out of Kirtland due to land speculation and a horrible anti-banking system gone awry. Persecution! Joseph Smith was jailed because he illegally destroyed a printing press. Persecution! Joseph Smith was killed because he proved himself again and again above the law and scared the living heck out of neighbors. Persecution!

Likewise today. Protesters show up outside of a church after they have successfully lobbied to limit the marriage rights of another group. Persecution!

It is just another check in the box.