Million of Jews and Sixty Mormons

In a rather perplexing and appalling letter to the editor that ran this week in USA Today, a Mormon man called America’s reaction to Mel Gibson’s anti-semitic rant “hypocritical.”

Why, you might ask?

Apparently, because NOBODY gets up in arms when people protest against the Mormons.

In Jeff Byrd’s world view, Mormons are as picked on as Jews. In fact, Jeff Byrd compares early Mormons to the millions of Jews killed in the Holocaust.

They might be exercising their right to free speech, but their goal is to deny us our freedom to practice our religion. Shouldn’t all Americans be as outraged over anti-Mormonism as over anti-Semitism?

Have the Jews been persecuted even to the point of attempted extermination? Yes, they have.

Have the Mormons been persecuted to the point of death? Yes, we have. Even the governor of Missouri in 1838 signed our “extermination” order.

I did a little research, and discovered that about sixty Mormons were killed after the extermination order of Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs, issued in 1838.

I can certainly see why Jeff would compare those Mormons to the Holocaust. NOT.

Look, I’m not discounting the fact that Mormons were wrongfully murdered. But the difference between millions and sixty is pretty damn stark. The time frame is also different. No one has been killing Mormons since the mid-1800s. There are still people alive that remember the Nazi concentration camps. There are still people alive that LIVED in those camps and miraculously did not die.

I understand that a loss of life is a loss of life, and persecution is persecution, but if Mr. Byrd is upset about the 60 or so Mormons that were killed, should he not also be required to bring in the innocent men, women and children–82 of them–that were killed in the Mountain Meadows Massacre? There is reliable evidence that Brigham Young was the instigator in this attack, and you can give me every reason in the book for that, or even deny there is any proof, but in this context, let’s just take the facts. Who takes responsibility for that crime? And if you are pissed off about the Mormon extermination order, should you not be equally pissed off about those people?

But let’s get back to the first claim made by Mr. Byrd. To say that no one should be upset by Gibson’s comments because no one gets upset by anti-Mormon comments is ludicrous at best.

If, say, Gibson riffed first on the Jews, and then moved on to the Mormons, perhaps the comparison would gel a bit more. Maybe we could understand Mr. Byrd’s point. But he’s trying to make SOMEONE else’s victimization his OWN. That makes no sense. Apparently, you can’t get upset about Gibson’s racial slurs unless you are also angry at the people protesting outside the latest LDS Temple.

Now, I’ve posted before about the idiots who stand outside Temple Square and taunt Mormons, screaming at them about going to hell, and waving the sacred garments at that. These people are bullies, and seriously whacked. Of course, some Mormons have tried to compare ME to them. Wrongo. I don’t go to their space, but as we have proved time and time again, they come to mine, and then send me hate mail. Only their stance is valid. I should just shut up.

Here’s the problem, Jeff. You have a religion that claims to be the ONLY TRUE RELIGION in the world. Most of us don’t buy that, but that’s okay. The problem comes because YOU are determined to convince EVERYONE ELSE in the world that you have the ONLY TRUE RELIGION. By saying this, you are telling the world, “We are right, and you are wrong.”

This is not respecting someone else’s religion.

And you send out MISSIONARIES that go door to door and try to convince people from EVERY OTHER RELIGION that you are right, and they are wrong. Basically, you just stand there screaming your superiority, and then can’t understand why people get a little peeved about it.

Even more, as long as Mormons are going door to door, and telling the world THEY ARE RIGHT and everyone else is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, why can Mormons not understand that those of us who disagree have JUST as much right to say it’s NOT true, as you have to say it is.

The day Mormons stop telling the world they have the ONLY TRUE RELIGION is the day that they should expect others to NOT show up and protest at their church events. Respect is a two-way street. You have to EARN it, and you have to give it back. Until that time, you have no right to expect anything. And it has NOTHING to do with Mel Gibson, or the Jews, or even the victims of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

The saddest part of all of this, is that perhaps Jeff does not realize his huge misstep here. The Mormons, in one of the most arrogant and callous moves I’ve seen, are STILL regularly baptizing the Jewish Holocaust victims posthumously, and they refuse to be sensitive about or understand why the JEWS find this offensive and arrogant. By trying to align your 60 victims with the millions of Jewish Holocaust victims, you are showing that arrogance once again.

Yes, I agree that those 60 Mormons should not have been killed. I also agree that you have the right to practice your religion as you see fit. However, your religion as you see fit involves TELLING THE WORLD you have the only truth, and also BAPTIZING EVERYONE into your religion without their consent.

You must stop these practices in order to get the respect you seem to feel you have the right to demand.