Wouldn't you just love to go back and slap some sense into them and aks them why they were such losers that they had to hitch there wagon to such an obvious fraud???
I am not sure why my ancestors chose Mormonism, but they were good and intelligent people.I don't think we can assume they were all stupid or misfits. In my case, that doesn't fly. Yes, I wish they had chosen something else providing it wouldn't interfere with my existence. I am assuming if my ancestors hadn't chosen to immiugrate to Utah, that I wouldn't be here,so I guess wishing they hadn't joined is an exercise in self annihilation.
...to thank for the grief of the generational trauma that has befallen us since that person(s) decided to sign up with the fraud of JS and his Moronism.
And yes indeed though, in deference to your own relatives...I will still maintain that they were NOT the sharpest tools in the shed at the time...for what is it that kept countless others from rejecting the Moronism movement???
And you think they weren't lied to? The LDS church has been about lying ever since it began. Many people who joined didn't know the truth about things like polygamy until they got to Utah.
My boyfriend's great grandfather was a danite. When he found out the truth after coming from Wales to Utah, he had to rob a bank to get some money to move away from Utah. Many people were trapped once they got here.
I read the book "Devil's Gate" (that I believe SL Cabbie suggested) and many people had NO CLUE what they were getting into.
I don't know if they were lied to about polygamy, but my ancestors were not polygamous and remained faithful to the church despite the handcart disaster. They were in the Martin Company. They also saw to it that their kids got a good education so they obviously were not stupid.Most of their grandkids had degrees and became professionals in their fields. They were poor and came from England.I think perhaps the promise of a better life in America miught have been a draw. BTW, I blame BY for the handcart disaster, but they didn't. I doubt they had access to the facts that we have today.I would like to discuss the issue with them, but I would not call them stupid and I am glad they came because if they hadn't, my mother's family would be in England and I wouldn't have been born.It would be interesting to ask them why they came, what their impressions were, whether they were surprised by polygmay etc.
cl2 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I was talking to the person who started the > thread. > > I had relatives in the Martin handcart company, > too. I am very proud of my relatives. They were > far from stupid.
cl2 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I was talking to the person who started the > thread. > > I had relatives in the Martin handcart company, > too. I am very proud of my relatives. They were > far from stupid.
Thanks for clarifying. It is very true that if they didn't like it here, they were pretty much stuck.It would be really interesting to know their feelings.
I could tell by your reply that you thought I was responding to you. I hold no grudge against my ancestors for following the mormons.
It is of note that my boyfriend is not mormon and in his immediate family back to this ggrandfather who was a danite, none are mormons. He does have relatives who are mormons. The story is (and it is documented) that his ggrandfather robbed a bank in Tooele while Porter Rockwell was at the bank. He took his immediate family and went back to Pennsylvania. He saved his children and grandchildren from mormonism. BUT had he not robbed a bank, he had no way out of Utah. Many were very much stuck once they got here. It sounds to me like it was run more like a Jim Jones thing than a nice little free society.
...and I spent my entire life telling him he got to make his choice for himself and I am just doing the same....why am I being denied what he got to have? The free choice of what religion to join.
He was raised Lutheran, left his church, family and friends (literally) and joined the mormon church during WW2.
He didn't care what he did to others by joining the church and he hurt some people in the process....dumped my mother, his fiance at the time, only to realize his mistake and go back to her after a while. She ended up joining and it was all set for us kiddies being born into the family.
Funny thing with me though, I was the only one openly rebelling against being forced to be mormon and I wasn't even baptized yet. I knew it was made up and forced right from the start....now I know the reasons why, back then....IT JUST FELT WRONG!!! Even to a child.
My relatives were sent by BY to California to settle. It was a terrible trek. Later when BY told the colony to return to Utah, my people refused. A hundred years later the oldest family male told me, "We didn't leave the church, it left us." They all became Protestants during that century (yes!).
They would be my great-great-great gullible grandpas John Nye, Joseph Day, and Samuel Handy; my great-great gullible grandpas Eric G.M. Hogan and Daniel Wood; and my great-great gullible grandma Francis Jemima Sweatt Ferrell.
I have yet to pinpoint the offending gullible Garrett and/or Ashdown.
Only my nice grandma's Swedish immigrant parents didn't fall for Mormonism, but some of their relatives did.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2010 11:32PM by munchybotaz.
In my case, it was an uncle. He emigrated from Norway to Canada, met and married a Mormon woman, and got converted, He then came back to try to convert his family and old neighbors. My mother was the only taker, and moved us to Zion. We grew up there, married, and had our own children. I often think about how many lives he influenced, and how many generations have been/will be affected by him. Myself, I'm returning to Norway for my retirement - trying to correct (in my own little way) - a little bit of what my uncle had done.
and they were very nice people. Grandparents don't seem that far removed, but I am originally from Brasil, so to have your grandparents in the church that would make me 3rd generation, practically mormom royalty down there. Did I mention my grandma had 16 children? Boy, did the mishies hit the jackpot there. This year my grandma celebrated her 99 birthday, and there were well over 800 people from our family (children/spouses, grandchildren/spouses, and great-grandkids).
Unfortunately, most of my mom's side of the family is very devout mormoms, with very few black sheeps.
What I am most ashamed though, is the fact that I hold the honour of having been the first person ever to be baptized in the Amazon (by my father). We moved lot's when I was a kid, and when I was 8 we lived in Manaus, Amazon. We held meetings in our living room with our family and 4 other people. I was the first baptized in 1976 in the amazon river, then my sister. To my ultimate horror, the church is now huge there, and my mom's family, who mostly still never found out I ever left, when they hear that I have left, they are in shock! And they always throw it in my face: How could you ever leave? You came from a family that started a legacy in the Amazon? How could you betray the gospel in such a way?
Give me a break... I was 8! I did what was expected of me. Still, it is a shame to see how many people have been deluded into the 'only true church' since our family was there.