Posted on 08/18/2007 11:25:10 AM PDT by tantiboh
Due to USA Today's copyright complaints, I couldn't link to the actual editorial, and I didn't think it wise to excerpt the actual piece, but here's the address:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/08/hollywoods-terr.html
The review is also discussed here:
http://www.romneyexperience.com/2007/08/14/new-defenses/
Excerpt: "Michael Medved reviews September Dawn, the upcoming flick about an episode of 19th century Mormon violence. Medved makes the very good point that Mormons generally take their public opinion licks pretty well, with no signs of rioting in the streets or driving explosives laden cars into crowds. Given this, Medved argues that Hollywood’s drive to portray Mormons as terrorists, while giving Islamic Jihadists a complete pass, is a little suspicious. This is not a Romney-focused argument, but it’s nice to see a vigorous defense of a minority religious community that is full of nothing if not good citizens."
Let me put my opinion of the Mountain Meadows Massacre out there up front.
MMM is a tragic, shameful event that should bring some humility to every Latter-Day Saint. It was an atrocity which should not be excused, from which we should learn, and which we should continue to ensure will never happen again.
However, the evidence I have seen does not demonstrate that the LDS Church, as an organization, was responsible. This atrocity was committed by a group of renegades. Indeed, the Mormon leadership at the time did what they could to prevent it. Those who think that Brigham Young condoned or ordered the massacre are wide of the mark.
There are extenuating circumstances which may serve to -explain- why the perpetrators committed this act, and these circumstances may be explored to some profit; but they should not be used to -excuse- the act.
Where I do think the LDS Church bears some responsibility is in the follow-up. The Church should have worked harder to punish the perpetrators. I think this failed responsibility was an impetus behind the construction of the memorial at Church expense a few years ago.
All that said, what I've learned about the movie "September Dawn" has convinced me that it is essentially a hit piece on Mormonism. Being LDS myself, this doesn't concern me too much, as America's grown quite skeptical of anything coming from the movie industry.
Ping
Ping
CC, I know you’ve studied this issue extensively. Please ping those who you think would also be interested in this topic.
~
The issue of how main-stream Christians interacted with followers of Joseph Smith is a sad chapter in US history. But it is not all one sided. For example, only about 30 years ago did the State of Missouri repeal a law that excluded killing Mormons from the definition of murder.
Actually, it sounds pretty truthful.
Mormonism and Islam are very similar: syncretist theocratic cults based on the dream of a charismatic founder and having the goal of territorial and political domination. We’re just lucky that the Mormons, faced with growing opposition by other Americans and under pressure to renounce some of their more egregious practices in exchange for statehood, split into a more moderate group (the LDS church in SLC) and lots of smaller radical groups, most of whose members only commit personal crimes against other Mormons (the guy who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart was one of these cultists).
The mainstream LDS church is busy remaking itself as an evangelical Christian church, which is fine by me and a big relief to us all.
On the other hand, maybe the territorial claims of Mohammed’s followers and those of Joseph Smith’s followers would have come into conflict and the Muslim problem would have been solved once and for ever.
This hit piece shows the typical moral cowardice of the Left, focusing on incidents from the ancient history of their opponents and ignoring the bloody work of those they support and condone.
John D Lee claimed it was church leadership that ordered it, though.
The handcart expedition was leadership organized and ordered, too, and that was a dismal failure with hundreds dying.
The timing of this movie is the most important piece of the story. Hollywood is busy, busy, busy working for “their girl”, Hillary.
Yep, they are working for Hillary.
They shot the ring leader, fair trial, my Grand Father thought this was biggest slander on Mormonism in his life time, Hated Mark Twain.
“This hit piece shows the typical moral cowardice of the Left, focusing on incidents from the ancient history of their opponents and ignoring the bloody work of those they support and condone.”
Actually, it’s not really ancient history. History, yes. Ancient, no. And if it wasn’t for what Hollywood has done to the movie culture, I’d consider it a good premise for a movie.
Unfortunately, the average person has been trained to hold whatever opinion a movie presents: hate what the movie says is bad, love what it says is good. This means that the average idiot who watches the movie will immediately hate Mormons because they’re horrible, awful people. That’s the power of Hollywood today.
That’s the reason I wish this movie wasn’t being made. The majority of people cannot watch a movie like this and take away from it that it’s a historical event that they are learning about. Instead, they get a message that all Mormons are evil.
Is this a hit piece? That’s up for debate. Is it politically motivated? Possibly. Is the timing coincidental? Absolutely not. Will I watch it? Absolutely. And when I do, you can expect me to jump on here and rant about it, because that’s what I do.
It sure looks like it. { And no, I'm not Mormon or pro-Romney }
And you saved the best for last. This one three word phrase explains why you are so quick to pawn the Mountain Meadows Massacre off on "renegades". You sound exactly like the supposedly "peaceful Muslims".
Now - I don't know you, and you may very well be a very honorable, conservative, and honest upstanding person. I just suggest that a Mormon might not be the most reliable source for information on the MMM.
In all of the reading on the subject I have done, I have yet to find any source whatsoever (outside the Mormon Church itself) that completely exonerates Brigham Young and the church leaders at the time.
Jesus never told his followers to go out and physically expel people from a land and take it over, and he explicitly rejected an earthly kingdom.
Joseph Smith did believe in territorial domination and his kingdom was very earthly. And it got even more earthly when he had the “revelation” about polygamy.
In any case, I hope you’re not equating your “prophet,” Joseph Smith, with Jesus, the Son of God. Joseph Smith himself did, with his doctrine that he and all of us become gods. Well, actually, not all of us, only the white men. Although I believe that black men now get in on it, after the revelation of the head Mormon some years ago permitting black males to be considered priests.
I suspect you are probably one of the Mormons who is attempting to come back to a good evangelical-style Protestant Christianity, and I think this is a wonderful thing. I wish you all the best, but I think there needs to be some honesty about Mormon beliefs first, and then perhaps Mormons can be reconciled with Christianity.
An excellent book that I read some time ago was Krakauer’s Under the Skies of Heaven, about Mormon fundamentalists.
I have always been interested in this because about 30 years ago, purely by accident, I happened to camp at the place where the Mountain Meadows massacre occurred. I did a lot of reading about it at the time, and unfortunately for the good Mormons, I think this movie is pretty accurate.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.