Mormons Quotes
The quotation about the relationship of the government and the people is from a famous veto message of Grover Cleveland—see {563567}. Unlike some other religious organizations which seek and sometimes pressure government for funds with which they can administer welfare and other needed social services, the Mormons are strong advocates of the separation of church and state. They fund their own extensive set of social services and as this quote illustrates even discourages their members from participating in Government social programs.
The issue of women working or homemaking has been in controversy for the last century. This quotation illustrates the classic view that was held not only by Mormons but other denominations and even some secular advocates of the importance of a full time homemaker for the upbringing of children. Nonetheless, the economic pressure, together with changing notions of gender equality, have a larger and larger proportion of women working outside the home. Historically, this has been more common in poorer families but currently is common in middle and upper class families.
Mormons in later years found this principle difficult to enforce where there was unemployment and workers were idle through no fault of their own. The local Mormon churches were very active in encouraging wealthier Mormons to hire those who were unemployed.
Young had been monogamous for 18 years when Church founder and leader Joseph Smith ordered him to take more wives.
Earlier {629154} Smith was much more sympathetic with slavery. His views evolved as you can see by the comparison. He stated that he had a vision and made two prophesies {629156} that indeed came true. The last idea of slave buyouts seemed plausible to many abolitionists initially when they were not really knowledgeable about the economics of slavery. However, once they studied it, it became clear what it would not work even if the Southerners would then be willing to accept Blacks as free laborers which most were not, The two biggest problems were: 1) the international slave trade had been abolished. The only source of new slaves for growth was breeding them. Therefore, having slaves had TWO economic values—the work that they could do and the reproduction of themselves. A critical mass of owned slaves produced an income forever. And for Southerners who were culturally adverse to work (see {629169}), just having cash for their slaves was not enough. They were the servants, the farm labor, and their recreational sex. 2) and most important, the value or the slaves of the South was greater than the economic value of all the land, all the farms, all the buildings, all the factories, and all the inventory of the stores of the South all put together. The Southern slaves were the majority of the wealth of the south. There was no asset that could ever produce enough value to pay for the slaves—even over time. It would be like trying to buy all the shares of all the corporations in America today. There is no asset big enough to raise the money to ever finance it. The idea may have worked in Colonial America or even prior to the outlaw of the international slave trade, but by the time anyone took the idea seriously it was economically no longer feasible.
At the time he was not Church president. The Mormon Church has had a very complex history regarding race; Blacks for example were prohibited from leadership positions in the Church. While not the only racist church, Mormon racism was more nuanced. Mormons aggressively sought Blacks and other ethnics for conversion into the church and on a personal and social level did not exhibit the antipathy towards non-whites that so many in other religions did. Yet their theology prohibited Blacks from certain leadership positions. Other religious racism was personal and social but not theological; Mormon racism was theological and not personal. Reforms have changed things slightly but critics of the church leadership at the start of the 21st century pointed to the attitudes of the President of the Church.
One of their friends was then Judge Stephen Douglas who advocated equality for Mormons and appointed Mormons to various posts. Mormon support helped the Democrat’s Thomas L. Ford win the next gubernatorial race over his Whig opponent who was virulently anti-Mormon.
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.
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.
The Mormons were the most persecuted religion in American History and have a keen appreciation for the importance of upholding Constitutional Rights.
Smith and his converts were severely persecuted and the governments at the time (local, State, and Federal) would not uphold many of their rights and freedoms. Hence the observation. Smith had written to most of the then likely Presidential candidates of both major parties asking for their position on the Mormons who were facing persecution wherever they went. None of the politicians would make and satisfactory commitments. Smith took Direct Action and became the only major religious official to have run for the Presidency of the United States until Pat Robertson tried and failed in 2000. Smith’s assassination shortly thereafter cut his run for the Presidency short before it made much headway and politically he had no chance to affect the race.
This Mormon prayer turned out to foresage one of the most fascinating set of events in world history. In 1841, an American Mormon leader and prophet journeyed all the way to Jerusalem to consecrate Palestine for the Jewish people. His prayer predicted the creation of the state of Israel with a Jewish government and its capital in Jerusalem. He stated that David, a descendent from the biblical Jewish King David will be its first ruler. Over 100 years later the state of Israel came into being and its first prime minister was Jewish David Ben-Gurion. This regathering of the Jews in Israel had been prophesized in the Bible, but this seems to be the first modern action taken to make it happen. This was more than 20 years before the first Jewish writing appeared advocating the Jewish return to Palestine--Moses Hess's 1862 work, Rome & Jerusalem; The Last National Question. It was over 50 years before Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, even published his first work on the subject.
Young said when Utah was admitted as a state, it would then have this right
