Comments on: The Most Trusted Man In America, Breaking News From 1857, And The Media

By: Pete Spiliakos

Pete Spiliakos — Sat, 26 May 2012 02:27:54 +0000

I would have had marginally more respect for the article if it had baldly stated that Romney personally owed an explanation for whatever act might have been committed by his coreligionists (but only his coreligionists and those others of “weird” religious groupings) across the centuries. The article would have been much more honest if it explictly took a stand on the bases of bigotry and guilt by association rather than on pretending to examine a political impact it admitted was nonexistent.

By: Eric Rasmusen

Eric Rasmusen — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:15:15 +0000

I wouldn’t call the article despicable. It is relevant if a candidate is a member of a weird cult that used to massacre people. For an account of the massacre from a Mormon church magazine, see

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=1c234dc029133110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&locale=0

This account is presumably slanted toward the Mormon view, but it makes it clear that a local “stake president” started the attack, then got permission from the church’s district militia commander to wipe out every single person old enough to report the attack to the federal government, and then shot the pioneers in cold blood after they had surrendered with promises of protection. Brigham Young did send a message, arriving two days too late, telling them not to harm wagon trains. The stake president and militia commander were excommunicated 13 years later, and 17 years later, 9 men were indicted, of whom one was convicted and executed. The top Mormon leadership, still venerated today, covered up the crime for 17 years and then tried to pin it on one scapegoat. That’s what you can get out of a PRO-Mormon article (with appropriate reading between the lines). For a balanced account see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_massacre .
For and anti-Mormon account, see http://1857massacre.com/MMM/Brigham_Youngs_Involvement.htm .

By: Raymond Takashi Swenson

Raymond Takashi Swenson — Thu, 24 May 2012 04:51:15 +0000

To put these things in perspective, how many public school children are taught that Fraklin Delano Roosevelt, against the advice of the FBI and his attorney general, ordered 100,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry into concentration camps guarded by barbed wire and machine gun towers, for three years, without any trial or hearing? How many are told that Chief Justice Earl Warren, regarded as heroic for the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, was one of the prime advocates of the Japanese internment camps? How many are told that FDR had turned away thousands of Jews seeking refuge from the Nazis, and only relented because of the courageous stance of a Democratic Senator from Utah, Elbert D. Thomas, who had served as a Mormon missionary in Japan?

Those actions by FDR, which reflected his racial and religious prejudices, contributed to the deaths of
hundreds of people. Yet his personal culpability is seldom considered in public discourse.

By: Pete Spiliakos

Pete Spiliakos — Thu, 24 May 2012 00:57:05 +0000

Raymond, one of the points brought out in the article was that the events of 1857 seemed to have no measureable political salience today. And yet the article was published anyway for purposes of guilt by association and to create a general creepiness vibe related to Mormons. It is obviously a despicable bad faith story. There are going to be more of them by the various organs of tolerance ove the next half year – just more subtle for the most part.

By: Peter Lawler

Peter Lawler — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:07:41 +0000

A little touchy there Raymond. I think you missed Pete’s irony.

From a merely Machiavellian view, all this Lie-a-watha stuff is playing out too early in the election cycle. The Democrats will think of something better than what they have going on now.

By: Carl Eric Scott

Carl Eric Scott — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:03:31 +0000

Some very amusing play with headlines here, Pete.

By: Raymond Takashi Swenson

Raymond Takashi Swenson — Wed, 23 May 2012 04:48:04 +0000

If people in Arkansas and Missouri still hold a grudge over the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, how about the people of Lawrence, Kansas, who lost 150 or more ancestors to an 1863 attack by the Missourians and other Confederate sympathizers under Quantrill’s Raiders? Good Christian men from the Ozarks.

How many more atrocities pile up if we look at the American Indians and slaves who suffered under the rule of the people in that region? Are 21st Century Americans supposed to nurture murderous grudges like the Hatfields and McCoys? Or are Christians supposed to learn to forgive others as they wish God to forgive them?