The Opinion Journal’s newsletter is a good source of information, but they don’t always come down on the side of liberty. Recently they have been discussing the case of Tom Green of Utah, arrested for having a family with multiple wives. Today’s email newsletter states:
His “head wife,” Linda Kunz Green, implied that the Greens are Mormons. We heard from more than 100 readers, Mormon and non-Mormon alike, who pointed out that although some early Mormons practiced polygamy, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (as it is formally known) renounced polygamy in 1890, and anyone practicing “plural marriage” is subject to excommunication from the church. Although some breakaway groups in Utah and nearby states still practice polygamy, they are not, properly speaking, Mormons.
What the Opinion Journal neglects to mention is why the tenets of the Mormon religion were changed in 1890.
Many would know Brigham Young led his people to Utah after years of persecution in the east. Few are aware of the continous battle fought by he and his people to be left alone. The difficulty was that polygamy was a tenet of those beliefs and was anathema to the majority religion of the populous eastern states.
The first round in the running battle between freedom of religion and the Feds came with the 1858 Utah War sometimes known as ‘the Mormon War’. It was not exactly a shooting war as they were not a terribly violent people and had no particular desire to face off with the Federal troops that were sent in to put them in their place.
Because of this experience, the Mormons later fought the Blackhawk War on their own for nearly 8 years to avoid more unwanted ‘assistance’ from Washington. Nonetheless, Federal Troops intervened in 1872.
The final act came between 1887 and 1890:
The U. S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the 1887 Edmunds-Tucker Act, denying that its assault on Mormon institutions constitutes a violation of Mormon religious freedom. At the same time, Congress debates the even more punitive Cullom-Strubble Bill, designed to deny all Mormons the right to vote. In response, Wilford Woodruff, leader of the Mormon Church, issues the “Manifesto,” a revelation urging all members of the church to comply with the laws of the land regarding marriage..
So there we have it. The Green family is being persecuted for following the original tenets of their religion, tenets that their Church was forceably coerced into changing.
The Waco massacre was nothing new. Freedom of Religion in the US has always existed on the sufference of the majority religion. As the Buffalo Springfield song said: “You step outta line, the man come and take you away”
