Church sources discussing issues with violence and conflict

FAIR Answers—back to home page

Church sources discussing issues with Violence and conflict

The Danites

The fact: A group Church members called the Danites attacked non-Mormons
Where it can be found: The Friend, the New Era, the Ensign

The Friend

• July 1993 Friend: One Mormon, Sampson Avard, formed a group, called the Danites, to seek revenge on the Missourians. But when the Danites attacked the nonmembers, it only gave them more reason to distrust the Saints.
  —Sherrie Johnson, “Persecutions in Missouri,” Friend, Jul 1993, 47 off-site

The New Era

• March 1972 New Era: Zane Grey, Robert Louis Stevenson, Joaquin Miller, and a host of lesser-known writers have used the Danites, but perhaps the most well-known treatment is that of A. Conan Doyle in A Study of Scarlet...
  —Neal E. Lambert and Richard H. Cracroft, “Through Gentile Eyes: A Hundred Years of the Mormon in Fiction,” New Era, Mar 1972, 14 off-site

The Ensign

• April 1979 Ensign: Sampson Avard, an elder in Far West, may have taken license from the address to organize a covert society called the Danites which engaged in activities that did much damage to the Church’s reputation.
  —Max H Parkin, “Missouri’s Impact on the Church,” Ensign, Apr 1979, 57 off-site

Other Church magazines

• March 1979 Tambuli: Exaggerated reports of this confrontation reached Governor Boggs. He was told that the Saints were burning towns, driving established settlers from their homes and undermining civil authority through the activities of a group known as the “Danites”—a band of avengers. Joseph Smith was charged with being the prime instigator but had nothing to do with it and exposed the participants when he became aware of it.
  —Glen M. Leonard, “Triumph and Tragedy,” Tambuli, Mar 1979, 34 off-site

Mountain Meadows Massacre

The fact: Members of the Church perpetrated the massacre of a wagon train in 1857
Where it can be found: The Ensign

The Ensign

• September 2007 Ensign: For a century and a half the Mountain Meadows Massacre has shocked and distressed those who have learned of it. The tragedy has deeply grieved the victims’ relatives, burdened the perpetrators’ descendants and Church members generally with sorrow and feelings of collective guilt, unleashed criticism on the Church, and raised painful, difficult questions. How could this have happened? How could members of the Church have participated in such a crime?
  —Richard E. Turley Jr., “The Mountain Meadows Massacre,” Ensign, Sep 2007, 14–21 off-site

Notes