Mormons, like gays, have been persecuted. Mormons, like gays, have been rejected for who they were, beaten, driven from their homes, refused the right to vote, massacred and assassinated. Even though Mormon theology would never sanction a same-sex marriage, still Mormons should be open to the argument that the Rights of a Minority or the Rights of an unpopular group must not be up to the will of the people or majority vote. This diary is about the persecutions 19th-century Mormons endured, how they had a legal right up to a point to be protected from the lawless acts inflicted on them, but how due to popular opinion against them (some for good reason), the government did little to protect their rights.
For those Kossacks who think I'm a Mormon troll, fine, please delete now. My intent is to give some background bolstering some strategies I think would work to forward gay rights in the Mormon community and help gay marriage become law.
When Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, first started telling those around him that he'd seen a vision of God the father and Jesus Christ he was ridiculed. In his history that he wrote about 18 years after the event he states
though I was an obscure boy, only between fourteen and fifteen years of age, and my circumstances in life such as to make a boy of no consequence in the world, yet men of high standing would take notice sufficient to excite the public mind against me, and create bitter persecution.
Smith founded his church in April 1830 in New York state with six initial members. The Mormon church, now known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, now has over 13 million members. Though some people believed Smith's claim that God had told him that all churches were "an abomination" because they had fallen away from the original teachings of the New Testament Jesus, most considered him a charlatan.
Many converts to Smith's church started to moving to Missouri. In 1831 Smith had a revelation that named Independence, MO, as the gathering spot that would become the New Jerusalem in the new Zion of the end times. Smith claimed that it was God's will that the Mormons inherit Jackson County. As thousands of Mormon converts started coming into Missouri, the existing Missourians began to be concerned. Mormons had very different beliefs from them, chiefly that theirs was the only true church and that all other religions were wrong. Mormons believed that the American Indians were part of God's chosen, covenant people, and they were non-slave-holders in a slave state.
In 1833 the Missourians circulated a bulletin listing the problems they had, detailing their plan to get the Mormons to leave Jackson County “peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must.” The bulletin was signed by a colonel in the Missouri militia, a justice of the peace, the postmaster, county clerks, an attorney and a jailor among scores of others. The two things that most worried the Missourians was that the Mormons, who had a history of voting in bloc, were ever increasing in number and therefore political power and that they published an article that was interpreted by the Missourians as a call to black Mormon converts to come gather in Missouri.
The Missourians insulted the Mormons, threw bricks at their homes breaking the windows, burned their haystacks, destroyed the printing press that had printed the article about the "negroes and mulattoes" and finally assembled a group of 400-500 men to drive them out. The Mormons came to an agreement with the vigilantes that they would not set up another printing press in Jackson County, they would tell other Mormons not to come there and they would pack up and move out.
The Mormons appealed to the Governor for assistance. Governor Dunklin seemed inclined to help them stating that
A more clear and indisputable right does not exist, than that of the Mormon people, who were expelled from their homes in Jackson County, to return and live on their lands (History of the Church 2:85),
but anti-Mormon sentiment was so strong that in the end it was politically impossible for Dunklin to send in the state militia and force the resettlement of Mormons back onto their lands in Jackson County.
The Mormons moved to other counties in Missouri but were met with similar rejections. By 1838 the Mormons decided to fight back beginning what is called the Missouri Mormon Wars. It was initiated by a skirmish in Gallatin over Mormons being able to vote and ended at Far West Missouri, then Mormon headquarters, when Mormons agreed to surrender all their weapons, turn over their leaders to stand trial, give up their property to pay for war damages and leave the state immediately.
Missourians convinced Governor Lilburn Boggs that the Mormons were in open rebellion against the state. In response Boggs issued his infamousExtermination Order (also see here) and commanded his militia to attack the Mormons.
One of the most egregious events of the war occurred at Haun's Mill, a settlement of about 25 Mormon families. There is no evidence that they had taken part in any of the raids or conflicts between Mormon militias and Missourians that were occurring at the time, but they were aware of the tensions and fighting. Jacob Haun had heard of threats to burn down his mill and his community made plans to defend themselves.
The Haun’s Mill settlers had negotiated a peace pact with the nearby Livingston County militia, but as a result of attacks that had occurred on non-Mormon settlements like Gallatin and Millpost and the anger and frustration that the local Missourians felt that was directed at Mormons in general, the pact did not hold. In the late afternoon on October 30, 1838, a group of 200-250 armed men surprised and attacked the settlement of Haun’s Mill. The men of the settlement had previously agreed to meet at the blacksmith shop and from there defend themselves were a raid to occur. After telling their wives and children to run to the woods for safety, about 35 of them headed for the shop to take up weapons that had previously been cashed there. But the plan to fight from there proved to be a bad one. The walls of the shop had gaping holes that had never been chinked which made it a death trap into which shot after shot came pouring in at them. When it was clear that there was no calling truce as they had tried to do at least twice, those in the blacksmith shop who were still alive decided to abandon it and run for the woods. In the end 17 from the settlement died including 2 children, one shot in the head at pointblank range. Three individuals from the mob were wounded, but not fatally.
Driven out of Missouri the Mormons next went to Illinois. There they founded Nauvoo in the summer of 1839 and lived there in relative peace for the next five years. But during this time Smith, who was now Prophet and head of the Church as well as mayor of Nauvoo as well as commander of the Nauvoo legion, had been developing some theology that offended not only surrounding non-Mormons but also some in the religious hierarchy. He was secretly practicing polygamy and by 1844 had married as many as 11 women that were already married in addition to a score of single women. With his dual role as Prophet and mayor, he had combined church and state into one theocracy. These actions compelled a number of Mormons to believe that Smith was a fallen prophet. A group disaffected from Smith published their complaints against him in the Nauvoo Expositor which only published one issue.
Publishers of the Expositor, Law and his associates declared Joseph Smith an apostate, a fallen prophet, a polygamist, a power-monger, a blasphemer. Smith and those loyal to him feared that such controversy would cause unrest if allowed to continue. After deliberating for two days the Nauvoo city council decided to declare the Expositor a public nuisance. As mayor Smith ordered the city marshall to destroy the press and any remaining papers. This was done on June 10, 1844. Smith, in explaining his actions wrote to Governor Thomas Ford on June 14, 1844, that the
paper of itself was libelous of the deepest dye, and very injurious as a vehicle of defamation,—tending to corrupt the morals, and disturb the peace, tranquillity and happiness of the whole community, and especially that of Nauvoo.
His critics believed that he had violated the Illinois State Constitution providing for freedom of the press.
Smith thought that destroying the press would stop the slanders and insinuations about him. He miscalculated the offense that people would feel at that attack on the freedom of the press. He had watched in 1833 as his Mormon press in Independence, MO, had been ruined by Missourians who hated what was being printed. Nothing happened to them. Most likely Smith thought stopping his opponents in this way would likewise be successful. However, charges of treason and instigating a riot were brought against him and the city council. Fearing that he could not have a fair trial, but rather that he would be killed, he began his escape across the Missouri river toward the west. He was convinced to come back and stand trial by his wife, Emma.
Governor Ford had assured Smith protection, but on the afternoon of June 27, 1844, shortly after 5pm, a mob of about 100 men with blackened faces stormed the Carthage jail house where Smith, his brother Hyrum and two other Mormons were imprisoned. A six-shooter pistol had been smuggled in to Smith in case he needed to defend himself which he used against the mob. But he and his associates were overpowered by the assailants; the two Smith brothers were killed.
Mormons were residents and citizens of Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. They were residents and citizens of the United States. They had a right to be covered by the laws of the states and country that protected them and their property from abuse. Yet they were tarred and feathered and driven out of their homes while vigilantes stole their possessions. When they decided to fight back they were declared an enemy of the state in Missouri and threatened with extermination.
Joseph Smith claimed that one of the reasons he had decided in 1844 to run for President of the United States was so he could obtain the position of power necessary to protect his people’s civil and religious rights:
I would not have suffered my name to have been used by my friends on anywise as President of the United States, or candidate for that office, if I and my friends could have had the privilege of enjoying our religious and civil rights as American citizens, even those rights which the Constitution guarantees unto all her citizens alike. But this as a people we have been denied from the beginning. Persecution has rolled upon our heads from time to time, from portions of the United States, like peals of thunder, because of our religion; and no portion of this government as yet has stepped forward for our relief. And in view of these things, I feel it to be my right and privilege to obtain what influence and power I can, lawfully, in the United States, for the protection of injured innocence." (Smith, History of the Church, 6:210-211)
Smith was acutely aware of the inadequacies of the local and state authorities in acting to protect his rights and the rights of his followers. Most of the time the authorities did not act due to public pressure. The Will of the People gave 19th-century Mormons heartache and loss. They had their houses and heads brick-battled, their property pillaged and confiscated, their right to vote threatened, their settlements attacked, their members massacred and their leaders assassinated.
From this very personal history they should have learned that the rights of a minority or of an unpopular group cannot and must not be left to the majority to decide. The rule of law based on the principles of freedom in our Constitution must be the guiding force. 21st-century Mormons still revere the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law. They will understand this argument. Mormons are anti-gay marriage. But they are not anti-Constitution and they believe in honoring, obeying and sustaining the law.
Immediately after the passage of Proposition 8, calls went out to boycott the Mormons who had contributed to the Yes campaign and picket their temples and churches. It is important to understand who the opposition is and make it known that their actions that took away civil rights were hurtful, but in a political battle it is also important to understand if and how the opposition can be converted.
In the 1960s and ‘70s as the Civil Rights movement took hold, the Mormon Church came under great scrutiny and criticism because of its policy to deny ordination of the priesthood to males who happened to be black. Though people within and without the Church pushed for change, it can be argued that change only came after protests at BYU games started embarrassing the Church and possible actions for discrimination suits against the Church were threatened. In 1978 the leaders of the Church had a revelation that allowed them to change the requirements for ordination into the priesthood, opening it up to all worthy males. The Church is very sensitive to public opinion. It will entrench for a while following the criticism they have received for their stance on Proposition 8 and be very staunchly anti-gay marriage, but if enough public outcry causes enough embarrassment they might relinquish the need to oppose outright the right of homosexuals to marry. However, it must be held in mind that acts of vandalism and calls to limit their rights to practice the tenets of their religion only serve to strengthen their position and so must be avoided.
In the Articles of Faith, a list of beliefs that Joseph Smith composed condensing the main tenets of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into 13 statements, he declared in number 12 that
We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
The document from 1995, “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” states,
Parents have a sacred duty to teach [their children] to love and serve one another, to observe the commandments of God and to be law-abiding citizens wherever they live.
Mormons admit that obeying the laws of the land sometimes have to take precedence over dogma. They gave up the practice of polygamy to end the political pressures exerted against them through the Edmunds-Tucker Act because of the practice.
We need to continue to work for the legalization of same-sex marriage across the country. When same sex marriage becomes the law of the land, Mormons will back down.
Likewise Mormons are strong believers in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Not only is it the parents’ sacred duty to teach their children to love and serve one another but it is all members’ sacred duty to love and serve one another. They take the Golden Rule seriously and can be moved when encouraged to treat their gay brothers and sisters as they themselves would like to be treated.
Finally as Harvey Milk advised gay people everywhere during the 1978 campaign to block Proposition 6, a proposition that would have barred homosexuals from teaching in schools, come out. Get to know your mormon neighbors and coworkers. Share your family successes and setbacks with them. Help them understand that you want to be there for your mate in sickness and in health; that you do tenderly care for your children. They’ll get it and see that when it comes to Rights in the public arena, especially your right to be a family, they can’t deny you yours.