Kirby: Facing the truth of Mountain Meadows
by Robert Kirby of the Salt Lake Tribune
"In 1874, Mormon pioneer relatives of mine lost three children in three days. Robert, Amelia and Thomas Kirby were all younger than 4 when diphtheria came calling.
"The level of faith in God required to endure such tragedy and continue on with the church was a testament to the devotion of my fathers. Down through the years, my family believed steadfastness like this solidly proved the truthfulness of Mormon doctrine.
"Not necessarily. People get tough for all sorts of reasons, including an utter lack of options. With three kids in the ground and more still to feed, it's not as if the Kirbys could go bowling. Putting their heads down and moving forward may have been the only alternative.
"I don't want to take anything away from my pioneer ancestors, but I don't want to give them more credit than they're due, either. Martyrdom, suffering, deprivation and unwavering devotion prove the intensity of belief, not the truthfulness or even common sense of it.
"My church raised me on the saintliness of my Mormon pioneer ancestors, an honest folk persecuted for no reason other than that we were God's favorites. Satan raged against us because we had The Truth.
"I heard all the faith-promoting stories about Haun's Mill, Carthage Jail and Nauvoo, Ill. We were whipped, burned out, murdered, robbed and stripped of our civil rights. The U.S. sent an army against us. All of this proved we had The Truth, right?
"Unfortunately, such a one-sided view of our history presented a problem when I finally learned that in 1857, Mormons (including my great-grandfather) slaughtered 120 defenseless men, women and children at Mountain Meadows.
"As unforgivable as that was, just as troubling to me were our subsequent efforts to dodge The Truth, to cover it up, to water it down, to pretend that it never happened or, worse, to blame it on others.
"I heard all the self-serving explanations for Mountain Meadows, ranging from the deliberately obfuscating to the patently ludicrous: "Indians did it." "The immigrants had it coming." "We only shot them a little."
Historians, notably the inestimable Juanita Brooks, who tried to bring the facts of the massacre to light, were ostracized by fellow Mormons and even threatened by church leaders. We couldn't, it seemed, handle The Truth about ourselves.
"Considering what we believed about ourselves, it's understandable that we didn't want to talk about it. After all, if enduring persecution is all the proof we need of having The Truth, what's proven when we're the ones causing it?
"Faith can be a tricky business. It's a valuable lesson we should have learned years ago. As we commemorate the 150th anniversary of Mountain Meadows next week, we can start by realizing that faith is something we owe God, not other human beings."
***MY Thoughts***
Looks like that makes TWO people who didn't know about the Mountain Meadows Massacre until this year, me AND Robert Kirby.
Does anyone out there still insist that this is "old news" and that the Anti's are just rehashing this for a new generation of Mormon-bashers?
Judging by the comments on the article, it looks like I'm not the only one who was "distressed and shocked upon learning about it". Link to article here.
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2 comments:
Here's an interesting article for you. It seems to me the current stories on the LDS Newsroom feed are trying to make the best of their current issues. Click Here.
Thanks for the link Joel. I was wondering, do you have any info on whether or not this will be televised and/or broadcast on the web? I want to hear for myself what Marlin K. Jensen has to say as an "official representative" of the leadership of the church.
I think the only way to make the best of their situation would be to admit that they tried their best not to bring it up in the first place in order to protect those with fragile testimonies. Oh, and Boyd K. Packer should be made to retract his stated opinion that "some things that are true are not very useful".
It's perfectly fine for Mormons to be treated as fallible humans, just like everyone else. But when they insist that their church is the only true church on the earth today, and that only their living prophet receives revelations direct from God, they had better be able to deal with the scrutiny and judgment that comes with that claim. They can't claim divine guidance in all things and then fall back on the 'human frailty' excuse when it all falls apart. Either God speaks to their prophets or he doesn't, and either the church is true in every respect or it is not true at all.
I think everyone knows what side I'm on.
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