My Thoughts on September Dawn

I made a special trip to see it at it's first showing in a town 50+ miles away. So did 4 other people, from parts unknown. It was 11:20 am and I got my pick of the plush velvet seats that recline back and have plenty of elbow and leg room. I also had a cup of freshly brewed Earl Gray tea by my side. There was no hint of protests as I entered the theater and I only had to suffer through 8 previews before the movie started.

I couldn't really tell by looking at the others in attendance what their motivations could possibly be for seeing this movie. One was an elderly lady, alone, about 68 or so. The others were men: a farmer type, a clean cut young yuppie type, and a white t-shirted man who smelled of oil changes. I couldn't even guess what their backgrounds were, but one thing was probably certain, they aren't Mormons. No garment lines, no nervous looks about the shoulder. I was probably the only one there who knew anything beforehand of the history surrounding this event. I wanted to see how it could possibly be turned about as "lies, and vicious attacks against a peaceful Mormon religion".

My Opinion: 90% correct.

I have read enough historical accounts and participated in enough temple rituals to testify that the anointings and washings were depicted correctly (for 1857 time period) that the words of the temple oath were correct, and not out of context (again for the 1857 time period) and that Brigham Young's speeches were correctly quoted, word for word, right out of the Journal of Discourses. The only argument that can be made against this is that the Journal of Discourses is a book of recorded sayings made by Brigham Young, not actual writings of Brigham Young. But the same can be said for the Bible, since Jesus was never proven to have written a gospel either. Or the Book of Mormon for that matter, Joseph claimed to have translated Reformed Egyptian text written on gold plates, but there is no evidence other than his own claim of ability. There is ample evidence to show that he mistranslated other documents, but I digress. Anyway the point I'm trying to make here is that I can mostly agree with the culture and the climate of fear that was cultivated by Brigham Young's words and the strict obedience of each apostle and bishop on down the chain of command. Loyalty was the same as worshiping and honoring their God.

Understandably, Mormons do not want their prophet to be depicted in this manner. If they have to admit that Brigham Young was not a 'divinely inspired leader', then they cannot claim to have the correct version of 'restored truth'. Their whole religion traces back from prophet to prophet in an unbroken line of priesthood authority since the claim of Joseph Smith to have been hand picked by God himself, and having received the priesthood keys directly from Peter, James and John. In this manner, Mormons holding priesthood authority from their church, have been given this authority (even if indirectly) from Jesus and his apostles. A break in the chain means authority has been lost. If Brigham didn't have it, or had it and lost it due to sin, then nobody after him can claim authority of the priesthood. The whole structure of the Mormon church depends upon Brigham Young more than it does Joseph Smith. There were many different breaks off of Joseph's original church after he died, and most of it was due to arguing amongst the apostles over which of them had the right to carry on the church. The RLDS is NOT the only break-away sect of the original Mormon church.

Getting back to the movie...

Much of the movie is based on actual events. Thus, it cannot be called 'a complete fabrication designed to hurt and destroy the Mormon church'. Just like the Titanic movie, with the love story of Rose and Jack, this movie weaves a possible love story between two worlds, Mormon and Gentile, in the characters of Emily and Jonathan. The fact that Mormon critics would rather focus on this subplot as if it were the real story, or pick apart the cinematography or the dialogue as if it negates the actual event, goes to show what lengths the church and it's members will go through to obfuscate and blur the actual message of the movie. Does Jack and Rose's love story have to be proven plausible in order to prove that the Titanic sank? Of course not. And do we really have to spend time trying to demonstrate how unlikely it was that Emily and Jonathan were ever real people and could have fallen in love in 10 days and vowed to be together no matter what? Does that make the ENTIRE MOVIE false? No!!! Mountain Meadows was the site of a massacre, a fact that laid hidden for over a hundred and thirty years till someone accidentally uncovered the bones with a backhoe. Ever since then the church has done nothing to try to solve the unanswered questions, get to the truth, admit fault, or even widely discuss it among the members. And in 1999 when the current prophet had his chance to do so when dedicating a monument to those innocents slaughtered, he explicity told the crowd gathered, "that which we do here must never be construed as an admission of fault or complicity in the events that ocurred here". Wow, what a guy.

Here we are now about 8 years later, and members are STILL just now learning about this dark day in Mormonism's past. How many Catholics have been raised in their faith completely unaware of the crusades? How many protestants have never heard of the Salem Witch trials? Yet thousands of Mormons are still completely ignorant of this historical holocaust right here in the U.S. and why is that? Because it not only makes the church look bad, it makes them look human and fallible, and UNINSPIRED. Never again will anyone see Brigham Young as a humble decent servant of God, like they view Gordon Hinckley. After seeing him portrayed in this light, they will be hard pressed to excuse his fanatical, paranoid views and refer to him as a prophet of God. How could they possibly spin this to make Brigham Young look like the victim of twisted words? They are HIS words!!! Not out of context in any respect. He actually said these things about non-Mormons and how to 'help people obtain celestial glory by killing them.' Does that sound a little reminiscent of Islamic fundamentalism?

I hope that this movie does what it should: scares the piss out of you. To think that we all have the potential to become right-wing nutjobs and force our views upon one another in the name of God is scary shit. We see it overseas and pat ourselves on the back thinking, that would never be us, because we have democracy. Mormons don't operate on that scale, they have leaders and priesthood authority to guide them. Their only duty is to harken to the counsel of the bretheren, and if they have a problem doing that, they are chastised, made examples of, released from callings, denied temple access, disfellowshipped from the church and denied the rights of speaking, praying or taking the sacrament, and in harsher cases fully ex-communicated for failure to adapt themselves fully to the lifestyle of the church. Had some coffee or alcohol over the weekend? Loose your speaking and teaching privileges. Struggling with paying a full tithe? Loose your temple recommend. Question doctrine and tell others about your doubts? Look forward to disfelloshipment. Write an article in a widely distributed magazine that talks about your own views? You can be excommunicated. Every one of these scenarios have happened, even to people I know personally. And loosing your right to attend the temple, especially at critical times like an upcoming wedding for a neice, or chaparoning a youth group is like living along side the Mormons in a ghost world. They see you, but won't acknowledge you. They know you're there, but wish you weren't.

This movie brought out all the vileness of cult-think mentality. I saw a scene where a man was caught with a woman in bed, and his punishment was immediate castration, with his nuts nailed to the doorway as a warning to others. There is an actual historical account of this within the journals of the old saints, newspaper articles and letters to loved ones. This is where the real history is, not in the whitewashed manuals the church prints out. I saw a scene where a wife was killed for attempting to return to her first husband and her children, after being forced to become the wife of another man. This happened MANY times in Brigham Young's church. You know how I know this? Because it is STILL happening in the lives of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ, et al, located in Hilldale, UT and Colorado City, AZ. They still adhere to polygamy, blood atonement, the trading of wives to those higher up on the 'God ladder', and the taking on of young teenage girls as new breeding wives for the old apostles, sometimes men 30-40 years older. Why do you think Warren Jeffs is in jail, stealing art?

I saw scenes of mass murder on the prairie, the men separated from their wives, shot point blank by their Mormon 'protectors'. I saw scenes of women and children being chased about, bludgeoned, shot, stabbed and throats slit, and do you know how I know that's true? Because when the bones where disturbed, actual forensic scientists and archeologists described the many ways in which all of these people were brutally killed. Who squashed that as fast as they possibly could? The church of course, with it's 70% population, it's not hard to find members in every level of government willing to squash the investigation and put these bones back into the ground as quickly as possible EVEN IF IT'S AGAINST THE LAW. And they thought they would make nice with a little dedication ceremony 9 years later. To this day, the church still owns all of that land, the spot where 120 men, women and children were killed in innocent blood, and they adamantly refuse to hand over the site to federal stewardship because it's not in the interest of the church. Damn straight it isn't. Those bones could be dug up all over again and some real answers could be found, or at least all of the evidence could be weighed, like the ratio of arrows to bullets for example. No, it's much better for the church to keep it all buried, wait about 50 years for everyone who ever heard of it to die off, and then walk about as if it never happened like they did for 100 years before.

The U.S. Government held a trial, all the testimony is documented, most everything you would ever want to know about the Mountain Meadows Massacre is in books or online. And the church should be worried. All I can say is that it won't be comfortable calling yourself a Mormon for quite a while. Is that something to be worried about?