ST. GEORGE, Utah -- Mormon Church President Gordon B. Hinckley said he came "as a peacemaker" to speak at a ceremony Saturday dedicating a monument at the site of the Mountain Meadows massacre.
Settlers from Arkansas, bound for California, were killed after a five-day siege by Mormon Militia members and their Paiute allies on Sept. 11, 1857.
After being offered a truce, all the members of the wagon train, except those younger than 8 years old, were killed.
Many had hoped Hinckley's attendance would help close the chasm that has existed between descendants of those in the Fancher Party and The Church of Jesus Christ of batter-day Saints.
Hinckley said no one can fully understand what happened. (Does he
mean those gentiles just dropped dead out in the meadow?)
"I come as a peacemaker. This is not a time for recrimination or the assigning of blame," he said at the ceremony that was broadcast to LDS Church buildings in Utah and Arkansas. (It's a lot of work covering all of this stuff up! They have the
spinmiesters working full time!!)
"No one can explain what happened in these meadows 142 years ago. We may speculate, but we do not know," Hinckley said. "We do not understand it. We cannot comprehend it. We can only say that the past is long since gone." (This way we can let everyone think the Indians did it and we can keep Brigham Young out of this mess!)
Mormon Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, has since assumed
room temperature and we now have a new CEO/President/Prophet. What is his line going to be?
Thomas S. Monson is the new CEO/President/Prophet and his line on the Mountain Meadows Massacre apparently has not changed from the previous "I Don't Know Prophet" except that they now have what appears to be, an apparent church operative working in one of descendant's groups. No changes have been made to Church Doctrine since the Massacre, yet the Book of Mormon has been revised 3000+ times. Mormon Ethics
The bones of more than 30 victims were unearthed last month as crews prepared the new monument.
The state and descendants of the victims and their assailants installed a plaque Thursday at the site in the Dixie National Forest about 25 miles north of St. George.
The bones were put into a burial vault at the same location in a private service conducted by a Baptist minister from Arkansas who is married to a victim's relative.
Hinckley said the church was not involved in the killings, and, "That which we have done here must never be construed as an acknowledgment on the part of the church of any complicity in the occurrences of that fateful and tragic day." *NOTE:The red lettering denotes this web sites opinions and is not the commentary of the IDAHO STATESMAN. LDS Lawyer Defends the Massacre
