It is not debatable. The Mormons settled frontier areas in large numbers, and,by force of numbers, were a substantial voting bloc sufficient to unseat the powers that be. In Missouri, that issue was amplified by the fact that the Mormons were anti-slavery, and the surrounding areas were pro-slavery.
The Missouri “war” started in Gallatin, when the Mormons showed up to vote, and were met by a mob intent on stopping them. Of the 23 people killed in the Missouri “war,” 18 were Mormons massacred at a little settlement called Haun’s Mill, by a mob on horseback who rode in and began shooting people who were just going about their business. Some “war.”
People used the “cult” argument to whip up hatred and resentment and to justify what were really political fears of losing power. If knowing that early Mormons’ property was repeatedly stolen, that families were forced out of their homes in the dead of winter, people murdered, women raped, homes burned, and that they were not afforded basic constitutional rights is evidence of a “persecution complex,” then so be it.
Anyone practicing polygamy today is excommunicated from the Mormon church.
But, there is no evidence of any link between alleged ‘aggression’ and the former practice of polygamy. Before the Mormons came to Utah, only a handful of people were practicing polygamy, and it was not generally known. And, after they came to Utah and were open about it, only a tiny percentage did so.
...there is no evidence of any link between alleged ‘aggression’ and the former practice of polygamy-———————————————————————————————
The facts disprove that.