http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=13151035

>Ehat told investigators he broke into both churches through windows and set the fires intentionally and he did so because he, a member of the LDS Church, believed that the LDS Church had lied to him.

It will likely be in the news from time to time over the next couple of years.

Those buildings are chicken feed to the church and they can easily replace them. It's like burning down two McDonald's thinking it's going to send a message to the corporate headquarters. It gets attention but it's soon forgotten as you spend several years of your live in prison.

I don't think it was worth it.

If everybody who was lied to by the church burned one down...

mick Wrote:
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> If everybody who was lied to by the church burned
> one down...

A fireman/woman might die in the blaze.

The fire also could spread to people's homes next to the church and it costs the city tax money to fight the blaze. The building isn't the church, it only exists because the people who go to it enable it to exist and until they wake up, the church goes on.

It seems to me that there are all sorts of signs that many of the faithful are not only questioning TSCC but are starting to take action. Burning down a couple of churches is extreme, but it seems a day of reconnoitering is coming for TSCC. If the leadership are at all aware, they should start to make changes now or face increasing opposition manifested in many forms, some healthy some not so healthy.

How much do you think Tithing income is down?

Might be time for a revelation on increasing the number of Temples in areas without easy internet access...

Poor Ehat threw his life away. The church could care less about 2 buildings - monetarily, it's pocket change to rebuild/repair them.
They will do what they've always done: change the story with time. In 10 years, this story will be re-told as a faith-affirming talk in General Conference about how the saints were being bitterly persecuted by evil neighbors but they perservered and conquered Satan.
Reminds me of how the stories of the pioneer's persecution made them look like innocent do-gooders who only wanted to bake their neighbors some bread - golly geez! The stories I heard growing up do not match reality, which is: disenchanted members wreaked most of the havoc and it was a tit-for-tat scenario. The mormons were aggressive and NOT neighborly. Much like today.

(he said sarcastically)

will find a way to blow this off. After all, it's part of the culture that if someone is mad at the Mormon church it's because the person is an evil sinner, not that the church did anything wrong. So my guess is the broadcasters' attitude will be something like "This guy burned the church down because he's so insane he actually thinks the church lied to him." They could actually do this spin entirely with their tone of voice. Because it wouldn't take much to get the members to agree that anyone who thought the church lied was nuts.

So unless this happened a lot, and always by members who said the church lied, it probably will be stuffed fairly quickly.

Sad for him that he couldn't find a more constructive outlet for his frustration. It will eventually be spun as an exmo who left the church but couldn't leave it alone.

From what I've seen in online LDS discussions, the cause of "mental illness" has been proffered, as well as the expected "persecution of mormons" explanation.

http://www.examiner.com/lds-church-in-national/church-burnings-and-other-anti-mormon-incidents
The above link discusses the "hate crimes" aspect and offers info on the "Society for the Prevention of Anti-Mormonism."

And here's an LDS discussion thread that focuses on the mental illness aspect:
http://www.lds.net/forums/general-discussion/35342-what-heck-these-kids-vandalized-their-own-ward.html

I agree, maria, my first thought was "WTH" in reference to the "Society for the Prevention of Anti-Mormonism" -- but they seem to be serious. Of course, it could be just one guy calling himself a "society", but the posted article is reasonably well-written.

Excerpts:
"The Society for the Prevention of Anti-Mormonism tracks instances of vandalism, violence, and persecution against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members. Few people outside the Church have any appreciation of the level of hostility that is leveled at the Church. Mormons seek to be good neighbors and good citizens. They seek to raise up righteous families that contribute to the welfare of their communities.

"Latter-day saints have always experienced some persecution. We regard it as part of the deal. Jesus said that persecution would follow his followers. He told them to bear it with patience. We are always peaceful. We don't retaliate. However, we should make sure the world knows that the persecution is taking place.

"The Church is maturing. It is rising into its rightful place as a major world religion. (There are now as many Mormons as there are Jews in the world.) That elevated profile brings more scrutiny. Perhaps for that reason, there has been a measurable increase in anti-Mormon activity since 2007.

Last year, a hateful anti-Mormon sent me an e-mail. In it he said:

"'When people start burning your temples or your prophet in effigy... in a violent, aggressive manner that is meant to induce more violence and aggression, then you can make comparisons like that without coming off as a guy with a martyr complex!'

"Well, they are burning our churches now. There have been two buildings destroyed by arson since 2007, and incidents of arson at several other of our buildings. There have been terrorist-style "white powder" attacks at our temples. The homes and cars of individual members have been damaged. A Mormon bishop was killed in August by a bitter former member who turned into an anti-Mormon...."

Link:
http://www.examiner.com/lds-church-in-national/church-burnings-and-other-anti-mormon-incidents

From the comments below the article (comments by the author):
"Since several critics made a fuss, I went back and replaced the bad links (which were pointing to the old S.P.A.M. site) with the original links.

"I didn't know it would be so important to my gentle readers, so I apologize for inconveniencing you. I also added an explanatory update at the end of the article."
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"In 2009, the Society for the Prevention of Anti-Mormonism documented a curious phenomenon. There was a ministry in India that publicizes the very real and unfortunate persecution of Christians in that country.

"The ironic thing was that we discovered that this particular ministry had an anti-Mormon arm that published false and libelous information about latter-day saints..."

Mormons aren't as bad as scientology, or jehovah's wintesses, but, yeah. Scary.

It was us who burned them down.

He has done them a great service in helping demonize everyone who leaves.

These people thrive on persecution and they can't get enough of it.

Stupid man.

This young man is going to spend a lot of time in jail over a decision that could have killed people.

I'm an apostate.
My wife, dad, grandpa, of imminent concern to me, are still TBM. Every day I must balance my opinions and theirs, as carefully as I know how.
But you take a torch to their church- I'm on their side to the death! I'll burn in there with them before I condone this atrociously criminal attack.