"Tom Sixkiller" wrote in message
...
"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
In a previous article, "C J Campbell"
said:
punishment. But they just fall all over themselves supporting the right
to
commit suicide, euthanize old people, and kill unborn children. It has
reached the point that the Democratic Party resembles nothing so much
as
a
cult of death worshippers.
Remember the good old days, when it was the Republicans who thought that
the government shouldn't make laws taking away your right to do
something
unless it harmed others? That was back before they became a wholey
owned
subsidiary of the radical Christian Right.
And according to CJ's profile on Jay's site, that's a dead-on assessment.
The radical Christian right might beg to differ with that view. When I was
working on Troy Romero's campaign for state senate a few years ago, the
local Journal-American pointed out that Troy is a 'Mormon' and recommended
voting against him because of his Christian beliefs. The Christian right was
so incensed at a 'Mormon' running for office that they fielded their own
candidate and campaigned against Troy claiming that he is not a Christian.
So I guess you just can't win for losing.
It has always been like that. Still, the State of Illinois recently passed a
resolution apologizing for the State sanctioned assassination of Joseph
Smith (then the Presidential candidate of the Reform Party), seizing of all
lands and assets belonging to 'Mormons,' official disenfranchisement of all
members, driving them out of their homes in the middle of winter without
adequate food and clothing, and using military force to burn and pillage the
city of Nauvoo. That was very nice of them and the resolution was gratefully
received by members of the Church. Still, you see the same attitudes that
prevailed in those times are still around, even on this news group.
A copy of the resolution is below:
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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION
2
WHEREAS, 138 years ago Brigham Young and more than 20,000
3
members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were
4
expelled from the State of Illinois after the Illinois General
5
Assembly withdrew its charter for the city of Nauvoo, Illinois
6
in Hancock County in 1844; and
7
WHEREAS, During a period of seven years of Illinois
8
history, from 1839 to 1846, Latter-day Saints built and
9
developed the city of Nauvoo into the largest city in the State
10
of Illinois and the tenth largest city in the nation; and
11
WHEREAS, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
12
was established by Joseph Smith in Fayette, New York on April
13
6, 1830; and
14
WHEREAS, The Mormon Prophet, Joseph Smith, led the
15
community of Latter-day Saints from Fayette, New York to
16
Kirtland, Ohio in 1831; and from Ohio to Independence,
17
Missouri, in 1837; and
18
WHEREAS, Joseph Smith, a strong anti-slavery advocate, led
19
his community of some 15,000 Latter-day Saints to the
20
Mississippi River town of Nauvoo, in Illinois, following their
21
expulsion from the slave State of Missouri in 1839; and
22
WHEREAS, Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints exercised
23
enormous industry and effort in the development and growth of
24
the town of Nauvoo, succeeding in creating a prosperous
25
community in which they drained the local swamp lands and
26
transformed them into productive agricultural and residential
27
environments; and
28
WHEREAS, Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints were given
29
an extraordinary charter for the powers of home-rule by the
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Illinois General Assembly to create and preside over their own
2
court system and also to maintain their own military force,
3
second in size only to the United States Army; and
4
WHEREAS, Joseph Smith and the community of Latter-day
5
Saints exercised extensive missionary activities which drew
6
new Mormon settlers to the city Nauvoo, reaching a population
7
of some 20,000 citizens by 1844; and
8
WHEREAS, The prevailing economic conditions of the nation
9
in general, and Illinois in particular, faced a downturn in the
10
early 1840s, with the result that the rapidly growing
11
population of Nauvoo faced drastic levels of unemployment
12
without success in attracting needed industry; and
13
WHEREAS, During the period of their residency in Nauvoo,
14
Joseph Smith and his community of Latter-day Saints began as
15
political Democrats, transferring their political allegiance
16
to the Whig Party in both the elections of 1838 and 1840,
17
before once again transferring their affiliations back to the
18
Democratic Party in the election of 1842, until the
19
establishment of the Reform Party by Smith in time for the
20
election of 1844, when he began to seriously campaign for the
21
office of President of the United States; and
22
WHEREAS, The expression of political authority and power
23
within the community of Latter-day Saints was seen by many
24
citizens in Illinois as reasons for caution and concern, seeing
25
the control of local courts by Joseph Smith as autocratic, and
26
interpreting the leverage and influence of the Mormon
27
community's voting strength as an over influential forceful and
28
voting bloc; and
29
WHEREAS, Local religious customs among the Latter-day
30
Saints began to be viewed with suspicion, bias and
31
misunderstanding; and
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WHEREAS, Following the destruction of a local anti-Mormon
2
newspaper known as the Expositor, violence against the
3
Latter-day Saint community increased; and
4
WHEREAS, The Governor of the State of Illinois, Thomas
5
Ford, called out the Illinois Militia to keep order; and
6
WHEREAS, Governor Ford had the Prophet Joseph Smith and his
7
brother, Hiram Smith, jailed, on suspicion of complicity in the
8
destruction of the Expositor, in the nearby town jail of
9
Carthage, Illinois; and
10
WHEREAS, A violent mob stormed the Carthage jail on June
11
27, 1844, causing the deaths of Joseph and Hiram Smith; and
12
WHEREAS, Between 1844 and 1845, violent acts against the
13
community of Latter-day Saints increased in volume and
14
intensity, demonstrated in such acts as the burning of crops,
15
the destruction of homes and the threaten extermination of the
16
entire Mormon population; and
17
WHEREAS, Faced with the extremism against the community of
18
Latter-day Saints, Brigham Young, the new leader of the Nauvoo
19
community made plans to take his people out of Illinois; and
20
WHEREAS, Beginning on February 4, 1846, Brigham Young began
21
sending the community of Latter-day Saints out of their
22
homeland of Nauvoo, Illinois across the frozen waters of the
23
Mississippi River, in the largest forced migration in American
24
history; and
25
WHEREAS, Brigham Young made an exodus from the State of
26
Illinois, leading tens of thousands of men, women and children,
27
together with livestock and wagons that stretched across the
28
expansive winter horizon for miles; and
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WHEREAS, In this Mormon exodus, Brigham Young and the
2
community of Latter-day Saints left behind their life in
3
Illinois and the shining city that they had fashioned from both
4
their faith and the hard work of their hands; and
5
WHEREAS, Brigham Young and the community of Latter-day
6
Saints set off in the midst of winter for Utah, some 1300 miles
7
to the west; and
8
WHEREAS, The severity of the winter placed on Brigham Young
9
and the community of Latter-day Saints extreme hardships,
10
trudging across the Iowa Plains to the far side of that state
11
where they made a winter camp; and
12
WHEREAS, In the Spring of 1847, Brigham Young and the
13
community of Latter-day Saints began again their journey to
14
Utah, beyond the Rocky Mountain Range, to the valley of the
15
Great Salt Lake; and
16
WHEREAS, On July 24, 1847, Brigham Young and the community
17
of Latter-day Saints arrived in that valley following a trek of
18
more than five months, journeying across the heart of the
19
American continent, from the heartbreak of events in Nauvoo,
20
Illinois to a place of far-western refuge; and
21
WHEREAS, Within 50 years of their arrival in the territory
22
of Utah, the community of Latter-day Saint became the 45th
23
state in the Union on January 4, 1896; and
24
WHEREAS, The community of Latter-day Saints grew from a
25
population of 250,000 at the end of the 19th century to a
26
population of more than 10 million people in our present day;
27
and
28
WHEREAS, The goodness, patriotism, high moral conduct, and
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generosity of the community of Latter-day Saints has enriched
2
the landscape of the United States and the world; and
3
WHEREAS, The biases and prejudices of a less enlightened
4
age in the history of the State of Illinois caused untolled
5
hardship and trauma for the community of Latter-day Saints by
6
the distrust, violence, and inhospitable actions of a dark time
7
in our past; therefore, be it
8
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
9
NINETY-THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
10
acknowledge the disparity of those past actions and suspicions,
11
regretting the expulsion of the community of Latter-day Saints,
12
a people of faith and hard work; and be it further
13
RESOLVED, That we asks the pardon and forgiveness of the
14
community of Latter-day Saints for the misguided efforts of our
15
citizens, Chief Executive and the General Assembly in the
16
expulsion of their Mormon ancestors from the gleaming city of
17
Nauvoo and the State of Illinois.
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