The Latter-day saints are not hurt by persecution. It is a great blessing for them.
Recent LDS Church President, Gordon B. Hinckley, stated at the beginning of this decade:
"....The battle with the evil one will go on and on and on. It will rise against this Church. It will rise against you individually. It will be felt in the future as it has been felt in the past."
(Gordon B. Hinkley, Church News, Jan. 29, 2000. p.5.)
We shall have persecution in our future, but it will be great for us. We can remember that Church President, Ezra Taft Benson, in his landmark "Cleansing the Inner Vessel" talk told us:
"As a people, it seems we can survive persecution easier and better than we can peace and prosperity." (Ezra Taft Benson, “Cleansing the Inner Vessel,” Ensign, May 1986, 4)
Brigham Young counseled against fearing persecution:
“You that have not passed thro’ the trials and persecutions, and drivings with this people from the beginning, but have only read them, or heard some of them related, may think how awful they were to endure, and wonder that the saints survived them at all.—The thought of it makes your heart sink within you, your brain reel, and your body tremble, and you are ready to exclaim, ‘I could not have endured it.’ I have been in the heat of it, and never felt better in all my life; I never felt the peace and power of the Almighty more copiously poured upon me than in the keenest part of our trials. They appeared nothing to me” (Deseret News Weekly, 24 Aug. 1854, 83). (L. Aldin Porter, “‘But We Heeded Them Not’,” Ensign, Aug 1998, 6)
Gordon B. Hinckley told us we did not need to fear persecution. In a 2007 address at BYU, Elder Tingey shared:
"Speaking of persecution, President Gordon B. Hinckley recently counseled General Authorities to not worry about being persecuted. He noted that it has been going on since the War in Heaven. He further counseled us that the Church is in good condition and that we should just work harder to move the work forward. He concluded by saying that he would worry more about us if people did not speak evil of us. This is good counsel from a prophet." (Earl C. Tingey, "The Watchman on the Tower," BYU devotional address, 5 June 2007.)
In Farr West Missouri, the saints, who were "persecuted" for the Lord's sake, were "filled with joy." The Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount are a process, the first point at which, the "poor in spirit" who are "bankrupt spiritually" and have no "account" from which to draw so to speak, are invited to "come unto Christ" and therein begins a grand process. I had a Stake President take a whole sacrament meeting for a Ward Conference and take the ward through that process. As we move through that process of the Beatitudes, we reach a point where we have become "peace makers" and are doing the Lord's work in great power, and at that point, Satan and his angels move to make us a target, and then we are "persecuted" for the Lord's sake. But what is the promise? "Ye shall be filled with Joy." Strange, is it not? How wonderful!
Now, militant homosexuals who seemingly hate the 1st Amendment's protection from Congress and judges ("Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or the free exercise thereof..."), and their organizations are out searching out campaign donors in support of Prop 8 from the LDS Church. Are any of you on the list? Heaven looks favorably upon you if you are. One of the greatest "ah hah" moments for me took place when I read "The Life of Heber C. Kimball" and read that in what would have been one of the most bleak situations possible, the saints at bayonette point being forced to sign over the deeds to their properties, were "filled with joy." Heber C. Kimball records that event:
"November 1st, the mob, professing to be the regular militia of the state of Missouri, numbering about 7,000, surrounded Far West, we were all taken prisoners and then marched a short distance into a hollow...and commanded by Col. Lucas to ground arms and deliver up our weapons of war, although they were our won private property...
"The mob then commenced plundering the citizens of their bedding, clothing, money, wearing apparel, and everything of value they could lay their hands upon; and also attempting to violate the chastity of the woman in sight of their husbands, pretending they were hunting for prisoners and fire-arms.
"The most of us had not had any food for twenty-four hours, not having time to go to our houses to get it. When these troops surrounded us, and we were brought into a hollow square, the first persons that I knew were men who had once professed to be beloved brethren, and they were the men who piloted these mobs into our city, namely William McLellin and Lyman E. Johnson, two of the twelve; John Whitmer and David Whitmer, two of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon; William W. Phelps and scores of others, hail fellows well met. A portion of the troops were painted like Indians, and looked horrible, let by Neil Gillium, who styled himself 'The Delaware Chief;' who, with many others cocked their guns upon us and swore they would blow our brains out, although we were disarmed and helpless.
"William E. McLellin wanted to know where Heber C. Kimball was. Some one pointed me out to him as I was sitting on the ground. He came up to me and said: 'Brother Heber, what do you think of the fallen prophet now? Has he not led you blindfolded long enough? Look and see yourself, poor, your family stripped and robbed, and your brethren in the same fix; are you satisfied with Joseph?' I replied, 'Yes, I am more satisfied with him a hundred fold than ever I was before, for I see you in the very position that he foretold you would be in; a Judas to betray your brethren, if you did not forsake your adultery, fornication, lying and abominations. Where are you? What are you about? You, and Hinckle, and scores of others; have you not betrayed Joseph and his brethren into the hands of the mob, as Judas did Jesus? Yes, verily , you have; I tell you Mormonism is true, and Joseph is a true prophet of the living God; and you with all others that turn therefrom will be damned and go to hell and Judas will rule over you.' ...
"We were brought up at the point of bayonet and compelled to sign a deed of trust, transferring all our property to defray the expenses of this war made on us by the State of Missouri. This was complied with, because we could not help ourselves. When we walked up to sign the deeds of trust to pay these assassins for murdering our brethren and sisters, and their children; ravishing some of our sisters to death; robbing us of our lands and possessions and all we had on earth, and other similar 'services,' they expected to see us cast down and sorrowful, but I testify as an eye witness that the brethren rejoiced and praised the Lord, for His sake taking joyfully the despoiling of their goods. Judges and magistrates, Methodist, Presbyterian, Campbellite and other sectarian priests stood by and saw all this going on, exulting over us, and it seemed to make them more angry that we bore our misfortunes so cheerfully. Judge Cameron said, with an oath, 'See them laugh and kick up their heels. They are whipped, but not conquered.'
"On the 6th, Gen. Clark delivered his noted extermination speech, and read over the names of the brethren who were made prisoners, to await a trial for something, they knew not what, and placed under a strong guard. in order that they tyrant may not be forgotten I insert a portion of his speech:
'Gentlemen, you whose names are not attached to this list of names, will now have the privilege of going to your fields and of providing corn, wood, etc., for your families. Those who are now taken will go from this to prison, be tried and receive the due demerit of their crimes. But you (excepting such as charges may be hereafter preferred against) are at liberty as soon as the troops are removed that now guard the place, which I shall cause to be done immediately. It now devolves up you to fulfill the treaty that you have entered into, the leading items of which I shall now lay before you.
'The first requires that your leading men be given up to be tried according to the law; this you have complied with.
'The second is that you deliver up your arms---this has also been attended to. The third stipulation is that you sign over your properties to defray the expenses that have been incurred on your account; this you have also done. Another article yet remains for you to comply with, and that is, that you leave the state forthwith; and whatever may be your feelings concerning this, or whatever your innocence is, it is nothing to me. General Lucas (whose military rank is equal to mine) has made this treaty with you, and I approve of it. I should have done the same had I been here, and am therefore determined to see it executed; and we deem it an act of justice t restore her character by every proper means.
'The order of the Governor to me was that you should be exterminated and not allowed to remain in the State. And had not your leaders been given up, and the terms of the treaty complied with before this time, your families would have been destroyed and your houses in ashes.
'There is a discretionary power bested in my hands, which, considering your circumstances I shall exercise for a season. You are indebted to me for this clemency. I do not say that you shall go now, but you must not think of staying here another season, or of putting in any crops; for the moment you do this the citizens will be upon you; and if I am called here again, in case of non-compliance with the treaty made, do not think I shall act as I have done now. You need not expect any mercy, but extermination, for I am determined the Governor's order shall be executed.
'As for your leaders, do not think, do not imagine for a moment, do not let it enter your minds that they will be delivered and restored to you again, for their fate is fixed the die is cast, their doom is sealed.
'I am sorry, gentlemen, to see so many apparently intelligent men found in the situation that you are; and of! if I could invoke that great Spirit of the unknown God to rest upon and deliver you from that awful chain of superstition, and liberate you from those fetters of fanaticism with which you are bound---that you no longer do homage to a man.
'I would advise you to scatter abroad and never again organize yourselves with Bishops, Priests, etc., lest you excite the jealousies of the people and subject yourselves to the same calamities that have now come upon you.
'You have always been the aggressors, you have brought upon yourselves these difficulties, but being disaffected, and not being subject to rule, and my advice is, that you become as other citizens, lest by a reoccurrence of these events you bring upon yourselves irretrievable ruin.
"He also said: 'You must not be seen as many as five together, if you are, the citizens will be upon you and destroy you, but you should flee immediately out of the state. there is no alternative for you but to flee, you need not expect any redress; there is none for you.'
"I was present," continues Heber, "when that speech was delivered, and I can truly say 'he is a liar and the truth is not in him,' for not one of us had made any such agreement with Lucas, or any other person; what we did was by compulsion in every sense of the word, and as for Gen. Clark and his 'unknown God,' they had nothing to do with our deliverance, but it was our Father in Heaven, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, in whom we trust, who liveth and dwelleth in the heavens and the day will come when our God will hold him in derision with all his coadjutors."
"Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Hyrum Smith, Parley P. Pratt, Lyman Wight, Amasa Lyman and George W. Robinson were marched off for Independence, Jackson County. It was rumored that all of the men who were in the Crooked River battle would be taken prisoners, therefore many of them fled to the north, before the guards were placed around the city."
Gay folk are misinformed, their "movement" being hijacked by the devel in hell, who certainly is its founder, who twists their sentiments in a way as to gain sympathy of those seeking to be "fair" minded, and thus they uphold, some of them ignorantly, the very removal of protection of the 1st Amendment.
Still Confused? It's about the 1st Amendment, Keeping Judges from "Making Law" upon Religion, or "the free exercise thereof..."
To one posting at KSL.com on the story that leads this page, here was our response:
William Tyndale was burned alive in the 16th century for printing the English Bible. This was the "tolerance" for religion in England that pushed boatload after boatload of Englishman to the eastern seaboard of the United States, seeking freedom.
Jefferson swore eternal hostility toward any form of tyranny upon the mind of man:
"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
Religious Liberty was of the highest order and concern to these colonists, and the very first of their spelled out "Bill of Rights" reads:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
So, the First Amendment was to keep the damned hand of government tyranny off of religion, for "Congress shall make no law" concerning religion, and neither shall the damned Soviet Courts in the United States today. Prop 8 was not an "anti-gay" measure, but a 1st Amendment measure to protect religion from the wicked courts who are hostile and seek an inroad at slaughtering the First Amendment. Judges the ilk of Governor Lilburn W. Boggs of Missouri with his infamous "extermination order" against the Mormon's are ready and anxious to criminalize religion if they can do so.
An example of these most wicked courts. Recently, the Soviet US District Court in San Francisco ruled that "parental rights are severed" when a child crosses the threshold of the school. Where did this Stalin/Mao/Hitlarian ruling come from? Straight from a tyrannical hell, a US Court that is as un-American as anything you hear of today. People 30 years ago would have laughed you to scorn if you would have predicted a court ruling could take place in America that followed the Marxist ideology of the USSR. But, here we are. Such Soviet rulings have been made and will continue to be made. That ruling enforced a plank of the Communist Manifesto.
Respecting religion and the "free exercise thereof," churches absolutely must defend against these damned, wicked courts who now "make law" which the 1st Amendment prohibits Congress from doing, regarding religion.
I hope, in a nutshell, this explains the real issue. What a damned lie to say this is "hate filled" by churches. Churches did not start this battle, but they shall be destroyed if they don't stand up and defend the 1st Amendment. It is their defense against hate filled judges who will begin criminalizing churches as soon as they can get an inroad to do so. Marriage as defined as a "man and a woman" is a buffer against such tyranny upon the 1st Amendment. Gay people can have every right and do so under the law. The only difference is their "domestic unions" are not given the legal definition to be a "marriage" which protects churches from a ruthless tyrannical government hell bent upon legislating it into oblivion by the Secularist High Priests of the State Religion of Secularism---the Judges.
Mormon's, more than any other people on earth today, perhaps, ought to know what governments can do, for in the 19th Century, the US Federal government sought to "destroy the LDS Church as an institution" as Gordon B. Hinckley expressed a while back. It is true, murder of leadership, their imprisonment, lootings, rape, robbings, plunder, seizure of assets, burning of temples, shutting down of temples, "extermination orders," it's all been had before, and is prophesied to transpire again. We're fools to let it come about easily by not seeking to ensure the 1st Amendment is of force, keeping judges damned hands from "making law" against religion and "the free exercise thereof." Thus, those crying that this is an unfair fight at "denying rights" from gay couples are liars, and the best line sophistry sold in the 2008 election year.
Recounting of some of the Sorrows of LDS from Persecutors
Jefferson swore eternal hostility toward any form of tyranny upon the mind of man: