Besides, if that was the standard operating procedure of the LDS, then why did you have to reach back through the depths of time 160 years to prove how bad the Church is????
We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe He is the Savior of the world and still reaches out to rescue any soul who wants to be rescued. We study with great effort the writings of Christ’s life. Each year, in Sunday School, we study a different book of Scripture. One year, it is the Old Testament, then New Testament.
We also consider the Book of Mormon another Testament of Jesus Christ. It is a record of the ancestors of the Native Americans, who fled Jerusalem in 600 BC because of the people’s wickedness and threats to kill the Prophet Lehi. He was a contemporary of Jeremiah, who was at that time preaching to those people, and being abused “daily.”
If you discovered that there was more to know about this Jesus, would you have desire to learn more about Him? I want to know everything I can about Him. So, I read things like the Apocrypha, and trust that God will teach me what is true and what is not. So, investigate it yourself, instead of taking anyone else’s word for it. I invite you to read the Book of Mormon.
Brigham Young was not only the prophet of his church in 1857 into the 1870s, but also territorial gov. How many Lds were convicted of this crime? One. John D. Lee.
After the massacre (in 1857), John D. Lee remained an active leader in Mormon affairs in southern Utah. However, by the late 1860s, questions about the massacre became more and more difficult to avoid, and in October 1870 Brigham Young excommunicated Lee from the Mormon Church for his role in the affair. Lee was the only one so punished and would later maintain that he became a scapegoat to take the public pressure off the more responsible Mormon leaders.
And so Lee remained a leader in the Church for THIRTEEN years before he was cut-off. Did you also know in April 1961, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints posthumously reinstated Lee's membership in the church.?
Who were among these key Mormons who led the slaughter?
* Lds Stake President Isaac Haight. Convicted? (Not on your life; it even took the Lds church 11 yrs to ex-communicate him!)
* Counselor to Lds Stake President Haight, John Mount Higbee. Convicted? (Not on your life)
* Parowan Stake President William Horne Dame. Convicted? (Not on your life; in fact, his stake presidency came after the massacre!)
* Lds bishop Philip Klingensmith. Convicted? (Not on your life)
* Future Lds bishop William Edwards. Convicted? (Not on your life; in fact, his bishop role came after the massacre!)
* Lds bishop John D. Lee. Convicted? (Yes...and the ONLY man so convicted -- and hung)
The Mormons covered it up so that NONE -- minus Lee decades later -- would be held responsible.
Excerpts from Sally Denton's 2003 book entitled: American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857 (Vintage Books, division from Random House):
George Smith, less than three weeks before the massacre, arrived in Southern Utah in late August, 1857. Smith was both an “apostle” and militia leader in the Lds church. Rachel Lee, one of John D. Lee's wives, recorded messages at the time in her diary that Smith's messages were “full of hostility and virulence.” (Denton, p. 116)
Lee's first trial resulted in a hung jury: "...the eight Mormons and one Jack Mormon favoring acquittal, the three non-Mormons leaning toward conviction" (Denton, p. 226)
Mormon leaders stonewalled witnesses. Brigham Young and George Smith both were conveniently ill...and "Of more than one hundred called, fewer than half would surface, and many of those came under duress." (Denton, p. 225)
Essentially the entirety of the Mormon church of the 1850s, the 1860s, & the 1870s covered it all up. If you had neighbors who wouldn't dare hurt a fly, but would cover up mass murder...would that somehow make you feel better 'bout them?
Well, guess what? The Mormon violence track record was even better on Sept. 10, 1857 than it is now. And yet that didn't seem to impact Sept. 11, 1857, did it?
Also, for a better history of Lds violence, please read: "Under the Banner of Heaven" book review
See also: Mormon murderers
And, who can forget Mark Hofmann? Former wife of Mark Hofmann to tell her side of the story