Search for “Mountain Meadow Massacre”. An Arkansas wagon train was attacked and every man, woman, and child was murdered.
Ping
They took children under the age of eight and farmed them out to other mormon families. Eventually the kids were found.
In Mountain Meadows they spared those under 6 years of age. I am not arguing moral equivalence with mountain meadows. it was murder and was wrong and the leader was shot by a firing squad and rightly so. IMO, even more of teh participants should have been executed as well. But it is interesting that the article does not address any of these relevant points in any depth.
What is really interesting is that there are so called conservatives who fail to understand the significance and want to justify or turn a blind eye to some of the worst constitutional violations againt life liberty, property and religion that occured against Mormon US citizens in our nations history.
Then there is the political factor which nobody seems to address. Joseph Smith was killed a month after he declared his presidential candidacy by the Democratic Governors. Gov. Ford refers to himself as Pontius Pilate over the matter in his history. It took a Republican Governor in 1976 to officially apologize for the Constitutionaal violations perpetuated against mormons and rescind the Extermination order which was still on the law books.