[Wow, justifying an extermination order to kill American citizens just because of their religious affiliation.]
You are a damn liar.
A) Sydney Rigdon issued the Danite extermination order against Gentiles FIRST in his Salt Sermon.
B) Smith led a group of 200 to take back Zion (I guess they were going back to bake cookies, not exterminate a bunch of Gentiles)
C) Bogg’s extermination order had nothing to do with religion, it was because Davies county was under attack, and there was word that Crooked River had been a massacre. Far West was peaceful and calm UNTIL JOSEPH SMITH SHOWED UP ON THE LAM FROM THE KIRTLAND BANK SCAM! A lot of staunch Mormons defected at Far West because they figured out Smith was a crook. How hard is it to read the history!
Here are a few facts you omitted in your post:
In July 1833, a Mormon printing press was destroyed by a Gentile mob after they learned the Book of Commandments, the precursor to Doctrine and Covenants, called for the extermination of Gentiles in Jackson County, Missouri.
In February 1835, Joseph Smith said:
“… I prophesy in the name of the Lord God of Israel, unless the United States redress the wrongs committed upon the Saints in the state of Missouri and punish the crimes committed by her officers that in a few years the government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much as a potsherd left.” – History of the Church, Vol. 2, p. 182.Sidney Rigdon's Salt Sermon on June 17, 1838 was addressed to Mormons who disagree with Smith. It is easily confused with his July 4th sermon (see below). The Mormons had fallen into what the historian Bancroft refers to as the First Mormon Civil War. The Saints formed an internal militia, the Danites, and began to engage in "blood atonement" with each other to quell internal dissent. It was in this framework that Rigdon preached:
"Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt hath lost its savor, wherewith shall the earth be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men … If the country cannot be freed of these men in any other way, I will assist to trample them down or erect a gallows on the square of Far West and hand them up as they did the gamblers at Vicksburg, and it would be an act at which the angels would smile with approbation."On July 4, 1938, Rigdon addressed the "Gentile issue" when he preached:
"Our cheeks have been given to the smiters, and our heads to those who have plucked off the hair. We have not only, when smitten on one cheek turned the other, but we have done it again, and again, and again, until we are wearied of being smitten, and tired of being trampled upon … But from this day and hour, we will suffer it no more … and that mob that comes in us to disturb us, it shall be between us and them a war of extermination; for we will follow them til the last drop of their blood is spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us; for we will carry the seat of war to their own houses and their own families, and one party or the other shall be utterly destroyed ... We this day then proclaim ourselves free, with a purpose and a determination that never can be broken – No never! No never!! No never!!!"On October 14, 1838, Joseph Smith declared war on the State of Missouri, a Jihad no less, when he preached:Following Rigdon's speech, the crowd led by Smith broke into wild cheering and then shouted in unison with a thunder that carried over the prairies: “Hosanna, hosanna to god and the lamb!"
"If the people [of Missouri] come on us to molest us, we will establish our religion by the sword. We will trample down our enemies and make it one gore of blood from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. I will be to this generation a second Mohammed, whose motto in treating for peace was 'the Quran or the Sword.’ So shall it eventually be with us – Joseph Smith or the Sword" – History of the Church, Vol. 3, p. 167On October 17, 1838, three days after Smith made his "religion by the sword" statement declaring war on the Gentiles, Mormons relieved Daviess County's Gentiles of their "consecrated property."
On October 25, 1938, a Mormon force ambushed two dozen Missouri National Guard soldiers at the Crooked River Massacre. Three guardsmen were killed and the Mormons mutilated their corpses.
On October 27, 1838, Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs issued the "Extermination Order" to John B. Clark, commander of the Missouri National Guard. This document stated in part:
The Saints surrendered to the Missouri National Guard at Far West on October 31, 1838. Smith, Rigdon and other Mormon leaders were charged with "treason, murder, arson, burglary, robbery, larceny, and perjury" and ordered held without bail. A few weeks later, Smith would escape by bribing his guards -- $850 plus a barrel of whiskey."The Mormons in the attitude of an open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of having made war upon the people of this State ... their outrages are beyond all description.
"The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary, for the public peace."
You are a damn liar.
False assertion your part, lol. Your own words damn yourself in post #360 and you continue your dammed justification of the extermination order in post #433.
You also failed to address the following:
- Do you think the pogrom at Haun's mill (3 days after the extermination order was signed) which resulted in 18 deaths was a defensive action?
- Furthermore, was Missouri wrong in 1976 to express a "deep regret for the injustice" of the 1838 extermination order?