Posted by:
carameldreams
(
)
Date: April 09, 2018 01:35PM
Cheryl Wrote:
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> The church minimizes the event as
> much as possible but doesn't claim they had
> nothing to do with the atrocities.
Exactly!
From the dedication ceremony in 1999, President Gordie B. Hinkley:
"All who knew firsthand about what occurred here are long since gone. Let the book of the past be closed. Let peace come into our hearts," said President Gordon B. Hinckley, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as he dedicated a grave-site memorial at the site of the massacre, about 35 miles north of St. George."
"This is a solemn and significant occasion," said President Hinckley. "This is an emotional experience for me. I come as a peacemaker. This is not a time for recrimination or the assigning of blame. No one can explain what happened in these meadows 142 years ago. We may speculate, but we do not know. We do not understand it. We cannot comprehend it. We can only say that the past is long since gone. It cannot be recalled."
He came to the site again last year. "I was shocked by what I found. I must confess it. The wall of the cairn was beginning to slip in the direction of the small stream in the gully. The weeds were tall. There was an ugly barbed-wire fence around this site.
"I knew that the church owned this ground. I said to myself, 'You must do something to make this a more beautiful and attractive and lasting memorial.' "
"We intend to maintain this memorial and keep it attractive. I am an old man now, in my 90th year. I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to further this effort.
"I sit in the chair that Brigham Young occupied as president of the church at the time of the tragedy. I have read very much of the history of what occurred here. There is no question in my mind that he was opposed to what happened. Had there been a faster means of communication, it never would have happened and history would have been different. That which we have done here must never be construed as an acknowledgment of the part of the church of any complicity in the occurrences of that fateful day."
Why say, 'attractive' twice about a massacre memorial?
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/717482/Monument-instills-healing-at-Mountain-Meadows-site.html?pg=all