I have a degree in history, with emphasis in early American history. Imagine the shock to find out from my child's fourth grade play that Joseph smith played a huge role in settling the west in the mid 1840's. I asked the mother responsible for the production (TBM) how that JS could have done this when the farthest he ever made it west was Illinois. Oh, everyone knows the Mormons were key to opening the west. Really....I walked away shaking my head.

Well, when you kept making war on and scamming your neighbors and were booted from three states, at the time, there was no place else to go but west. I wonder where autocrat Young was planning on taking my starving ancestors in 1858 during the Utah War when he threatened to burn down Salt Lake City. I believe that his plan was to head north. That would have be nice. Imagine Utah without the Mormons. Canada could have had them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/2013 05:04PM by No Mo.

Smith really did have plans to capture Mexico north of the
Rio Grande for the Mormons. His secret political government,
the Council of Fifty, was busy negotiating with the Republic
of Texas, when he was assassinated in 1844.

The Council of Fifty had plans to expand Mormon control west
from Nauvoo and were organizing exploring parties and studying
reports from that region before the Mexican War broke out.

Had Smith not crossed the Mississippi, back over to Nauvoo,
in June of 1844, he would have likely remained in Iowa, or
have ventured even farther west. In 1869, Joseph F. Smith
claimed that his uncle, the Prophet, was on his way to the
Rocky Mountains, when Emma's pleas brought him back to Illinois.

Did Joseph Smith really have a wonderful vision, of the
Mormons expanding westward, to become a mighty people in
the Rocky Mountains? If so, he must have failed to notice
that his own wife, children, mother, brother and sisters
had no intention of ever joining in such a migration.

UD

They DID settle Las Vegas, didn't they?

Cha-ching!

As soon as western civilization reaches Utah, I will agree that they played a key role in settling the west.

I'll grant you Brigham Young had a huge role in settling the actual West. By then Joseph Smith was dead.

What a stupid woman (and what teacher allowed this to happen?) I assume you are in Utard. I'd complain to the principal.

Stuff like this makes me so mad. These are PUBLIC schools for crying out loud! Your state is not a damned theocracy.

;o)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2013 08:26AM by Brother Of Jerry.

The reason this post gets me all fired up is because my MIL is a retired History teacher from an uber-TBM county outside SLC. (As RS Prez, she's the one who took me on a giant neighborhood garment check during Pioneer Days one weekend when I was visiting from out of state).

When she taught Utah State history to middle-schoolers, she regularly proselytized to the kids in her classroom. Keep in mind, a huge student population in that school came from families at a nearby military base. I always felt sorry for those kids from other parts of the U.S. who, because of MIL, may have grown up actually believing that Brigham Young was on a mission from Gawd and was an actual prophet.

Anyway, after god-knows-how-long, some parent finally reported her and sh!t hit the fan. Her smiling school picture teacher face ended up on the front page of the local newspaper. She was sanctioned by the school district but did not lose her teaching license. I'm sure she never felt she did anything wrong, and I doubt she ever really stopped preaching. She probably just got sneakier about it.

I would never, ever, ever, ever send my kids to public school in Utah! 'Nuff said.

;o)