Reply #6: Protesting the Mormons is kind of a movement...

[BinkieGirl]

I’m originally from Nauvoo, Illinois (1000 people, 7 churches). It's the place they built up to a city that was (at the time) bigger than Chicago. They started the first University in Illinois, etc.

Then things got a little bit ugly. Depending on who you talk to they were either driven out of town because they were stealing and cheating or they were driven out because of religious persecution.

Onward to Utah they went. Nauvoo later became home to a short-lived communist group called the Icarians and then later just another town on the Mississippi.

About 40 years go the Mormons started coming back. There was a modest tourism business as I grew up there in the 80s but at this point it's become a big deal.

I call it Mormon Mecca.

In 2001 they rebuilt their first temple in the middle of town and Mormons are moving back in droves.

Interestingly, as the Mormon movement, has moved to the forefront, so has the anti-Mormon movement.

There is a Mormon visitor’s center, a Reorganized Mormon visitor's center and the "Christian" visitor's center. Housed in the old "Nauvoo Grapevine" building they plaster their windows with Anti-Mormon propaganda.

This contingent first appeared years ago at the yearly "City of Joseph" outdoor musical. They wander the crowd still as far as I know handing out anti-Mormon literature and trying to "save" people.

It's not a huge stretch to think they wouldn't go to Salt Lake as well. Letting them be there legally and controlling where they are will likely make them much easier to control. Know your enemy, as it were.

On the up side, my mom started selling real estate when the economy pooped out a few years ago (not much else to do there job wise unless you want to join the blossoming crystal meth industry….sad sad place to be) and she’s doing really well because of all the Mormon’s moving back. Silver lining!