Talk Show Program Blog

In last week's discussion of the PBS film "The Mormons" a caller insisted that Brigham Young ordered the 1857 massacre of a wagon train passing through Utah as the Army sent by Pres. Buchanan was on its way to Great Salt Lake Valley. This has been alleged many times, most recently by Will Bagley in the PBS film. I believe evidence and reason do not support such a claim. The Mountain Meadows Massacre was a terrible incident where Mormons and Indians in the Cedar City, Utah area attacked a wagon train of about 150 immigrants on their way to California, killing about 120.

John D. Lee was the only one tried, convicted and, in 1877, executed for this mass murder.

I believe a most significant document is Wilford Woodruff's diary entry 29 September 1857 where he recorded John D. Lee's report of the massacre which occurred on 11 September 1857. Woodruff's magnificent diary, which he kept for some 60 years, is an important and reliable source of Mormon history. He was present when Lee reported to Brigham Young. This contemporary report is inconsistent with the claims that Brigham Young had ordered the massacre. It will be noted that Lee gave an account of the events leading to the massacre, but without any mention of his, or any other Mormons, involvement. Woodruff's diary entry reads:

29th We have another Express in this morning saying that the Armey are rapidly marching towards us. Will soon be at Bridger & they wish men immediately sent out.

Elder John D. Lee also arived from Harmony with an express and an awful tale of Blood. A Company of Calafornia Emigrants of about 150 men women & Children many of them belonged to the mob in Missouri & Illinois they had many Cattle & Horses with them. As they travelled along south they went damning Brigham Young Heber C. Kimball & the Heads of the Church saying that Joseph Smith ought to have been shot a long time before he was. They wanted to do all the evil they Could so they poisoned Beef & gave it to the Indians & several of them died. They poisioned the springs of water. Several of the saints died. The Indians became inraged at their Conduct & they surrounded them on a prairie & the Emigrants formed a Bulwark of ther waggons & dug an Entrenchment up to the Hubs of there waggons but the Indians fought them 5 days untill they killed all their men about 60 in Number. They then rushed into their Carrall & Cut the throats of their women & Children except some 8 or 10 Children which they brought & sold to the whites. They striped the men & women Naked & left them stinking in the boiling sun.

When Brother Lee found it out he took some men & went & buried their bodies. It was a horrid awful Job. The whole air was filled with an awful stench. Many of the men & women was ro[tten?] with the pox before they were hurt by the Indians. The Indians obtained all ther Cattle Horses & property guns &c.

Their was another large Company of Emigrants who had 1,000 head of Cattle who was also damning both Indians & Mormons. They were afraid of shareing the same fate. Brother Lee had to send interpeters with them to the Indians to try to save their lives while at the same time they are trying to kill us.

We spent most of the day in trying to get the Brethren ready to go to the mountains.

Brother Brigham when speaking of the cutting of the throats of women & children as the Indians done South Said that it was heart rending that Emigration must stop as he had before said. Brother Lee said that He did not think their was a drop of innocent Blood in their Camp for he had too of their Children in his house & he Could not get but one to kneel down in prayer time & the other would laugh at her for doing it & they would sware like pirats. The scene of Blood has Commenced & Joseph said we should see so much of it that it would make our hearts sick.

Following is a comment posted to my podcast episode "Anti-Mormon vs Mormon" with my response

Bob Aarness:

Bottom line on the Mormon issue is that, officially speaking, the LDS Church is a polytheistic religion while most, if not all, mainstream Western religions are decidedly monotheistic religions. This overiding difference will forever keep the Mormon Church a seperate entity when it comes to Bible believing religions.

Van Hale:

First, I do not recognize Bob Aarness as authorized to speak officially for the LDS Church, and "polytheistic" has never been used by LDS authorities to define the LDS view of God.

Further, most mainstream Western religions are trinitarian; that is, they are not monotheistic. "Trinitarian" comes from the Latin "trinitas" which means three and cannot be used in any way to define true monotheism. To say that the one God is three persons is not monotheism. To say that there is one lone being, essence, power or person who stands alone as God is monotheism. This is the view of modern Judaism, which declares trinitarianism as a heresy because it is not monotheism. Jews, religiously, are monotheists; Christian trinitarians are not.

And finally, widespread commentary by non-LDS scholars explains that the view of God in ancient Israel, and found in many Biblical passages, is not monotheistic. Rather, the God of Israel, as found in Psalms 82 and a number of other passages, stands as the Head of a "heavenly council of gods." He is the "God of gods," the "most high God," the "head of the gods," which is not monotheism. And nowhere in the Bible is there any statement that there is one God manifest in three persons. So, monotheism, mainstream Western religion and trinitarianism all diverge from views of God found in the Bible.