“I’m not the one defending an extermination order.”
You sure are buddy. You conveniently forget that the first ‘extermination order’ was issued by Sydney Rigdon, Smith’s right hand man, to the Mormon Danite vigilante group BEFORE Governor Bogg’s counterbalancing order. And you conveniently forget to say that the 10,000 Missouri State Militia surrounding 1000 Mormons at Far West stood down the moment Joseph Smith and his leadership henchmen were given up, hardly the actions of people bent on extermination for no reason.
Now if you want someone on an extermination path, you might look to your Mormon friends during this period. Joseph Smith was hell for leather riding with 200 men to exterminate a bunch of people in Jackson County and was only kept from that path by a bout of cholera. And Smith’s Danites sure weren’t all about having a slumber party. Then at Nauvoo, you miss completely the point that had Smith survived, he would have gone on an extermination raiding party with his Legion.
So, because you are as ignorant as a post about the history, you are willing to completely overlook the sins of one side just so you can throw some Holier than Thou insults at me. I note you never quote any original documents from the era to back up your points, is this because you are lazy or because you just don’t care about the truth?
“And no, I don’t think its an extreme example, because if the Mormons had stayed in Missouri, thats exactly what would have happened. If the Mormons were so powerful, why didn’t they stay and fight off the mobbers?”
The mobbers you say? I believe that is quite an insult, because what you are really saying is “those damn Gentiles”. Mobbers is a Mormon codeword for anyone who opposed them for any reason. Now I understand, you are just a Mormon apologist, Mormons are right no matter what thery do. Blood Atonement anyone? Some moral standard that is, the three monkeys standard, deaf dumb and blind to evil on their own side of the tracks.
Well you can go pray to the crazy crystal gazer/tinpot general/ prophet/ king/ exterminator Joseph Smith all you want, but count me out.
And cut the “exterminating the Jews” crap. The Jews didn’t have a king, they didn’t have an army and they weren’t threatening secession, so they were persecuted strictly for religious reasons.
Smith had run a bank swindle, raised two armies plus a posse, had set up a shadow government and was attempting to carve out a terrestrial kingdom - he was a threat to civil society the same as a Jim Jones. If there had been a real desire to exterminate the Mormons, they would no longer exist. Their being pushed from place to place is certainly lamentable and cruel, but blame can be put on the ulterior designs of the early Mormon leadership for raw power. Even the Jews were not treated this way, so you need to ask yourself, what were the Mormons doing that so incensed everone else? It wasn’t baking cookies I can tell you.