My observation is that inside Utah, Mormons have a huge persecution complex. In a popular youth activity, the LDS kids here reenact handcart treks every summer. It is important to remind the children that their ancestors lost life and limb due to the horrible persecutions suffered at the hands of the Missourians.
After all, this persecution is the very heritage of the people of Utah. And the young people here are taught to make it their cultural identity. The persecution complex is what binds the chosen people of this great state together as members of an holy and peculiar culture. The persecution complex just may be what has made the Mormons of Utah who they are today.
Utah history is taught in fourth, seventh, and tenth grades according to Utah state mandated curriculum. So in spring of 1990, the fourth grade students from all three classrooms at my child's elementary school were led in another role-playing reenactment. In the name of social studies, approximately one hundred children were carefully taught what fleeing Missouri for the refuge of Utah must have been like.
Mr. Applegate divided the nine and ten-year-old students into two groups. The "ones" were to play ravenously mad Missouri mob members and thirst after Mormon blood. The "twos" were to take the role of the poor persecuted LDS victims and re-experience the horrors of their forbears. One student was chosen to role play the part of Satan himself: The honorable governor Lilburn Boggs. Then Mr. Applegate let the kids go at it in a pretend bloodbath which only ended when the sound of the school bell signaled class dismissed.
When my child came home and told me about the rampage the students had participated in at school that day, I was outraged. But when I spoke in protest to family members, they suddenly saw me as persecutor and closed ranks in defense of the poor persecuted victim church called LDS. So I would say the Mormon persecution complex is not only alive and well, but actively nurtured, here in Utah. |
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