Will "September Dawn" turn Republicans off of Mitt Romney?

[Ilsa]

http://www.septemberdawn.net/

September Dawn
A film by Christopher Cain

On September 11,1857
in an unspoiled valley of he Utah territory - and in the name of God - 120 men, women, and children were savagely murdered.

Who ordered the massacre, and why, has been hidden in a cloak of secrecy and conspiracy.

And the reputation of one of this nation's mightiest religious figures has been preserved and protected.

On Aug. 24 the truth will be revealed.


http://www.septemberdawn.net/Bilder/NewYorkTimes_SD.pdf
With Only God Left as a Witness
What led to an 1857 massacre in Utah is still in dispute,
and a new film seems to renew the controversy.

By JOHN ANDERSON
Published: January 22, 2006
LOS ANGELES

AS the new year dawned, Jon
Krakauer's "Under the Banner of
Heaven" - about a "divinely ordered"
double murder in 1984 by two
members of a breakaway Mormon
sect - was fresh off the best-seller list.
Warren Jeffs, the polygamist prophet
of this splinter group, the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints, was on F.B.I.
wanted lists. And the world's first-ever
"Mormonsploitation Retrospective"
("Passion! Polygamy! Pamphlets!") of
vintage fear-mongering anti-Mormon
movies had just finished at the fringy
Pioneer Theater in the East Village in
Manhattan. snip

[helderheid]

1. I don't think Romney was alive in 1857. ETA:

Neither was Reid nor was Matheson.

[aquart]

2. But has no one optioned "The Mormon Murders"?

Way more close to home.

[Ilsa]

5. Is that the one that Krakauer wrote, or the one with the document

fraud criminal from the 1980's?

[aquart]

11. Fraud criminal.

The Mormons are the victims, but they don't look a bit good. Really good read.

[Ilsa]

14. I think I read it back in 1987 or so. The leadership of the Temple was

buying these parchments that this guy had forged that refuted foundations of Mormon beliefs. They were more worried about their power positions than investigating the documents for the truth.

[MADem]

3. No, strapping his dog to the top of the car going 70MPH for 12 hours might be a problem, though. NT

[aquart]

12. And he still hasn't figured out it was wrong.

[RamboLiberal]

4. Looks like an interesting film

I don't think something that happened 150 years ago should be an indictment of being a Mormon now, but I do think this was very much hidden by the church. But there's a lot of religions who have a lot of dirty laundry that was never owned up to.

I've never understood how people can be in a religion and never question any of the history.

This massacre was something I just learned about a few years ago myself having seen a documentary on I believe the history channel. If Romney would end up being the nominee I would think we all ought to find out as much as we can about their history.

I normally wouldn't consider the religion of a candidate but after how the fundies have tried to control the Republican party the religion of their candidate IMHO does deserve scrutiny especially after how it has been used in the Bush Admin.

I'm looking forward to seeing this film, even if just for this little publicized massacre and how it's been covered up and how the founders of Mormanism were involved.

It will be interesting to watch the Fundies and how they react to Romney and his religion in the coming primaries. I do think they are nervous about endorsing a Mormon.

[Ilsa]

6. You may have seen a two part show on Mormonism on PBS.

Did they go inside the Salt Lake temple and show the rooms? Talk about families getting their pics taken wearing all white? Proxy baptisms?

"I normally wouldn't consider the religion of a candidate but after how the fundies have tried to control the Republican party the religion of their candidate IMHO does deserve scrutiny especially after how it has been used in the Bush Admin." --- This describes how I feel in many respects. As, whether people really look at the underbelly of their religious beliefs and own up to its past.

[RamboLiberal]

7. No it was definitely the History Channel

Found it on a Google Search. It showed in early 2005 in Investigating History series. Wonder if History Channel will repeat it with film coming out. Info on the documentary.

An isolated, sagebrush-covered landscape on the A Bar A Ranch near Encampment became the setting for a segment of "Investigating History" produced by Bill Kurtis Productions of Chicago. The show is expected to air on the History Channel on Dec. 15.

In September 1857, the Fancher emigrant wagon train en route to California from Arkansas with 16 wagons, 100 oxen, and 900 head of cattle was attacked in Southern Utah by Paiutes organized by Mormons. After a five-day siege, the Mormon Militia persuaded the emigrant party to surrender on Sept. 11. Then the militia and their allies killed all members of the party with the exception of 17 children under the age of six, who were adopted into Mormon families.

This is a dark story in American Western history, and one of the most violent incidents ever to occur on the overland route to California. Military Dragoons placed a cross at the site in 1859, but it was later torn down by Mormon Church President Brigham Young. In 1999, when a new monument was being installed at the site, bodies were inadvertently unearthed and studied for a brief time by forensic scientists, providing irrefutable proof of how some of the individuals had died -- many by gunshots and others by blows to the head. At that time, LDS Church President Gordon Hinckley acknowledged the Mormon actions of 1857, according to Historian Will Bagley, author of "Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Mountain Meadows Massacre."

The story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre for the forthcoming "Investigating History" program is written by University of New Mexico history professor Paul Andrew Hutton, who served with Jamie Schenck as a co-producer on the show. Bill Kurtis was on hand as executive producer and host of the show; he also ran a camera for the production. Bagley served as an historical consultant.

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/08/30/news/wyoming/736040367a8e80c287256f0000177fee.txt

[Ilsa]

8. Thanks for the info. I'll keep an eye open for it as well as the repeat of the PBS documentary. nt

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. I know for a fact that the proxy baptisms are done wholesale

and without permission of families or groups. The Mormon Church was baptising the Jews who died in the Holocost, but I think they were finally stopped from doing so. I know that LDS people haunt genealogy pages and grab information so they can baptize folk's ancestors without their permission. And since, in my case at least, NONE of the information came via LDS sources, I find this rude. To top this off, they even "baptized" my mother, who is very much alive and very much upset about it. I wrote the church about it and they said they didn't know anything about it, and yet the "sealing date" and other information is online, which bothers me to no end.

[aquart]

13. Yikes.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. Mountain Meadows Massacre

Is memorialized in a stone tablet on the grounds of the courthouse in Boone County AR. That is where the majority of people who were killed came from.

[JDPriestly]

15. No religious tests, please.

Romney is not responsible for the past history of the Mormon religion.

Romney does not seem to understand that some of his beliefs might be quite shocking to the fundamentalist Christians that make up the core of the Republican religious right. In my view, of course, Romney's beliefs are entitled to just as much (or as little) faith and credit as are those of the fundamentalists in other religions including the other Christian religions. It is going to be very interesting to watch how the religious right responds to Romney and his religion. I wonder whether they will learn a lesson in tolerance or reject him in a whisper campaign? He is a true believer, but, based on my experience, growing up in very religious middle America, his beliefs may turn out to be a serious problem for him in his own party. The odd thing is that he kind of flaunts his religiosity, seemingly unaware that, while sophisticated Yankees in Massachusetts might ignore the religious differences, people in some other areas of the country will be very susceptible to negative propaganda about Mormons.

[Ilsa]

16. No religious tests, but there are alot of people, likely to vote

Republican, that are not Fundies, and will be shocked to hear of the sordid tales of Mormonism from 150 years ago. I think some of them might reconsider support, or give it with little enthusiasm.