Two articles I wrote for the Tribunes Spiritual Life section on Saturday related to history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have generated lively comments and discussions by readers, some posted at the end of the stories online, and others in faxes and telephone voice mails. One article was about the opening next Friday of a film, September Dawn, which will tell about the Mountain Meadow Massacre near Cedar City, Utah, on Sept. 11, 1857. The other relates to a forthcoming documentary, A Mormon President, which draws parallels between church prophet, president and founder Joseph Smith and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romley and their separate bids (1844 and 2007 respectively) for president of the United States.Probably the most common observation came from Mormons who found it disingenuous for me to label the massacres of 120 settlers from Arkansas by a Mormon militia and Paiute Indians as the first known act of religious terrorism on U.S. soil. First, those are the words from the filmmakers in their promotional materials and not mine. Callers were swift to offer that the Mormons themselves were obvious targets of religious terrorism well before that. The accompanying article, A Mormon President, noted the 1838 Hauns Mill Massacre in Missouri where 17 Mormons were killed amid anti-Mormon hysteria. That point is well taken.You really, really call yourself an editor, and you publish an article like that? one caller ranted. I mean you dont think that first act of terrorism was when the Latter-day Saints were attacked by mobs driven from their homes time after time? He stressed how Missouri Gov. Boggs issued and extermination order, ordering the killing of any man, woman or child belonging to the LDS Church. Missouri State archives accounts of the Missouri Mormon War, in fact, noted, When the Mormons attacked a duly authorized militia under the belief it was an anti-Mormon mob, Missouris governor, Lilburn Boggs, ordered the Saints expelled from the state, or exterminated, if necessary. The conflicts viciousness escalated, however, even without official sanction, when, on October 30, 1838, an organized mob launched a surprise attack on the small Mormon community of Hauns Mill, massacring eighteen unsuspecting men and boys. Over the next year, around eight thousand church members, often ragged and deprived of their property, left Missouri for Illinois. The caller said he had children who are descendants of the only man that paid a price for the Mountain Meadow Massacre, John D. Lee, who was executed for his part in the attack on the Arkansas group. I have no reason to believe he was any more guilty or even guilty at all, the angry caller said. . Religious terrorism started long before the Mormon Church was restored.Another Mesa man said he descended from one of the Arkansas settlers who was killed in the massacre and said the article might have included an interesting sidelight, that the settlers were accompanied by a herd of Thoroughbred horses that were being taken to Nevada to be grazed and eventually into the Thoroughbred racing trade. He suggested the Mormons took ownership of those prized horses and reaped rich rewards from their quality bloodlines. Horses can be traced by DNA . Someone wanting to look into it can see whos got those horses and go to the Mountain Meadow Massacres for a match, he said.Another reader wrote a lengthy commentary regarding the article about the Romney and Smith candidacies for U.S. president. Americans need to learn about Mormonism so that Romney will not be elected, it said. The reader focused on the specific areas of religious doctrine that too sharply depart from orthodox Christian teachings. Mormonism is polytheistic, denies original sin, says God was married, baptize the dead, have levels of heaven and say men can become gods, it read. Their church has secret temple ceremonies that only approved Mormons can attend. They have secret names and rituals, wear undergarments and have codes and watchwords to the celestial kingdom.In opposing Romney, the writer cited Mormon leaders well-publicized and active opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment for women, which fell three states short of passage and was abandoned in 1982, Our country was founded on the truth that all men are created equal … and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights — life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, the writer insisted. Mitt Romneys Mormon beliefs will undermine the Christian beliefs this country was built on. He should never be elected president of the United States.Should we go on a witch hunt in the rest of the candidates backgrounds and find a reason for them not to run? asked Dave Davenport in an e-mail. Do we need to rewrite American history and say we were founded on religious freedom, as long as it followed a strict code of a few? He found fault at the mention that Joseph Smith had a gun inside the Carthage, Ill., jail, my inferring that he was, thus, fair game. He was outmanned 100 to one. The mob stormed the jail and he defended himself in a losing battle. No one was ever brought to justice for his and (his brother) Hyrum’s murder. But then why bring up both sides of the story when one side looks good just as it is? Davenport asked. That writer concluded, The bottom line is, the LDS church has grown to 13 million members in countries around the world. There are 124 temples around the world where the most sacred work on the Earth is performed. The church is covering the world and will continue to grow and prosper, whether Mitt Romney is elected president of not. The stone cut out of the mountain is rolling forth and will not be stopped. The prophecies in the Book of Revelations are taking place today. Open your eyes.

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