John Taylor Quotes
There was not virtue enough either in state or general government to protect an innocent, helpless people in the enjoyment of their Constitutional rights.
John Taylor, 1808-1887, Mormon Apostle & Third President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Referring to the fact that mobs and individuals frequently attacked and murdered Mormons and most politicians and officials were not courageous enough to protect the Mormons who were a hated minority in most places.
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
There was extensive persecution of Mormons with mobs denouncing them and attacking Mormon facilities and people often with the support of the government officials who were charged with protecting people and maintaining law and order.
In 1836 the House of Representatives adopted the so-called "Gag Rule" whereby the house could not act on all further petitions regarding slavery, even though thousands of petitions were being received. Adams was one of the few who protested the Gag Rule:. Adams even submitted petitions with which he did not agree:. Every year Adams attempted to get the Gag Rule repealed. He was even threatened with censure for his efforts, but his status as an ex-president protected him. Finally, in 1844, Adams' perennial resolution carried:
the drafting of the Constitution Left before it ended.
Mormons were not only discriminated against but frequently robbed, murdered and ethnically cleansed from different parts of the country. In general the Federal Government did little or nothing regarding the plight of the Mormons.
This is a remarkable quotation. Because of the issue of plural marriage, many Americans regarded the early Mormons as having no respect for the country or its laws. However, as this quotation shows, the Mormon leader, prophet and founder specifically commanded his people to not only support the United States law but specifically mentions The Constitution. He told his followers that God approves of the United States constitution and states that it is in a sense universal, belonging to all mankind. There is no other religious founder who so thoroughly validated a national constitution and system in the history of the world. Yet he was assassinated and after his death, the United States Government was almost in a full scale war with the Mormons. There is still a vestige of anti-Mormonism in the United States among some Christian Fundamentalists. Yet the Mormon church has been a thoroughly American church, historically, conceptually, and philosophically It has even shared some of the American historical errors such as its sexism and discriminatory rules and view of Blacks. The latter has been remedied {625268} as the rest of America has changed, and the discriminatory role of women is very traditional and is shared with most other Christian fundamentalists and orthodox Jews.
See {626663} for a description of the police illegal violence and {626665} for an earlier statement by the commissioner green lighting brutality with nightsticks. His resignation was forced shortly after. As remarkable as it seems to us today, there was a time where constitutional rights and the law was were commonly abused and broken by the police and the politicians. This occurred in New York which was actually more liberal than most of the country. The Police Commissioner had to resign. In other parts of the country, there were similar police law-breaking but there was little public concern and no one had to resign.
Arguing for a Bill of Rights to assuage public objections to the original Constitution:
The 100,000 Mormons in the Utah Territory rebelled at the hostile Federal officials coming into Utah to run things without the consent of the citizens of the territory. It was a cry for the territorial version of States’ Rights.
Statement regarding the situation the Mormons encountered where the majority of the citizens in the areas that they inhabited were not only opposed to Mormonism but felt it moral to attack, harass and even murder Mormons. Because the bigots were in the majority, the politicians and officials were loath to protect the Mormons. In Mormon religious prophesy, before the Second Coming of Christ the Mormons must settle in Zion and the Jews in Israel. So the persecution preventing them from settling in Zion was the work of Satan to prevent Christ’s coming.
Mormons were not only discriminated against but frequently robbed, murdered and ethnically cleansed from different parts of the country. In general the Federal Government did little or nothing regarding the plight of the Mormons.
This quotation which appears absurd on the surface given Iran’s terrible record with religious minorities provides insight to Islamic orthodox thought. For the orthodox Muslim, Sharia—Koranic Law—is the basis of the society. God defines the rights of people and their obligations. Whatever rights are provided by Sharia, Khomeini and some others wished to provide them equally to religious minorities also. However, those rights do not include the right to criticize the Islamic law or the leaders who implement it. That would be heresy if done by a Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew. A Christian church may not erect a public cross or ring bells on Sunday. That is prohibited by the Koran and is imposed on all. Bahai religious adherents are tracked down in the Islamic Republic and are often executed. ‘What about their rights?’ they ask. The answer is that the Bahai were Muslims who have become “backsliders” and heretics, and under Sharia, they must be executed for heresy; they are deemed to be heretical Muslims and not members of a minority religion.
John Taylor was an English religious leader who served as the third president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1880 to 1887. He is the first and so far only president of the LDS Church to have been born outside the United States.
