Mormons Remember 11 September Tragedy
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74-79_news.qxd 10/9/02 10:33 AM Page 74 SUNSTONE UPDATE MORMONS REMEMBER PRESIDENT HINCKLEY VISITS UKRAINE, 11 SEPTEMBER TRAGEDY RUSSIA, AND ICELAND ON THE FIRST anniversary of the 11 September terrorist at- AS PRESIDENT GORDON B. tacks, LDS members and leaders participated in religious ser- Hinckley stepped off the vices and events of remembrance. plane in Kiev and in Moscow, In a Tabernacle filled to capacity, President James E. Faust he became the first LDS called the attacks “an evil conspiracy” that “caused a loss of our prophet to visit Ukraine and national innocence.” “Ours is the most favored nation ever es- Russia. Other stops in his six- tablished on this planet,” said day tour, completed 11 President Faust. “The motto September, included Ger- stamped on our coins ‘In God many, where he rededicated We Trust’ must also be stamped the Freiberg Temple; the President Hinckley greets in our hearts and minds.” Netherlands, where he dedi- Church members in Russia In the evening, representatives cated the Hague Temple; and of various wards, stakes, and in- Iceland, where he met with the head of state and local Church dependent Mormon organiza- members. tions, including Mormons for In Kiev, President Hinckley counseled some 3,200 mem- Equality and Social Justice bers and investigators gathered at the Palace Ukraine (MESJ) and a representative of Concert Hall. In Moscow, he addressed more than 2,000 the Utah North Area Presidency, Saints in the Cosmos Hotel, exclaiming, “I never dreamed I participated in a Walk and could come to Moscow, Russia, and see a congregation of Concert for Freedom, Diversity this kind!” and Remembrance, an event or- With the breakup of the Soviet Union, missionary work was President James E. Faust ganized by the National reopened in Ukraine and Russia, meaning converts from those addresses a capacity crowd Conference for Community and nations have been members of the Church for fewer than on 11 September. Justice. twelve years. THE LDS CHURCH AND RUSSIA: A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY • 1843: The Prophet Joseph Smith calls Orson Hyde and George J. Adams to serve “in the vast empire of Russia.” Their trip is never completed. • 1887: Leo Tolstoy, who had become acquainted with Mormonism in Western Europe, condemns “the [American] persecution of the Chinese and the Mormons.” He later corresponds with Brigham Young’s daughter, Susa Young Gates. • 1895: Elder August Joel Hoglund, from Sweden, arrives in St. Petersburg, where he baptizes the Lindelof family. • 1903: Elder Francis M. Lyman of the Quorum of the Twelve offers dedicatory prayers in St. Petersburg and in Moscow. • 1918: Bolshevik Revolution. The Lindelof family moves to Finland. • 1959: As U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson visits Russia and preaches in the Central Baptist Church in Moscow. • 1989: Missionary work reopens in Russia as part of the Finland Helsinki Mission; the Leningrad Branch is organized. • 1990: Anton Skripko becomes the first member baptized in Russia in over 70 years. One and a half years later, he receives a call to serve in the Ogden Utah Mission. • 1991: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg once more) and in Moscow. • 1992: The Russia St. Petersburg and the Russia Moscow missions are created. • 1996: Russia’s national security director Alexander Lebed tells a rally that Mormons are “mold and filth” and that the state should “outlaw them.” He later apologizes. • 1998: In March, two missionaries in central Russia are kidnapped for ransom and released unharmed after four days; their captors are apprehended. In May, a missionary is stabbed to death in western Russia and his companion wounded. Also in May, the Church receives formal status in Russia. • 1999: The LDS Church boasts more than 11,000 Russian members spread in 103 branches in eight missions. • 2002: President Gordon B. Hinckley becomes the first LDS prophet to visit the former Soviet Union. Sources: 2001–02 Church Almanac; Church News, Deseret News, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, The Salt Lake Tribune. PAGE 74 OCTOBER 2002 74-79_news.qxd 10/9/02 10:33 AM Page 75 SUNSTONE STAKE PRESIDENTS CRITICIZE GOVERNMENT OVER MARTIN’S COVE ACCORDING TO A report in the Salt Lake Tribune, Wyoming’s 18 stake presidents recently signed and delivered a letter criti- cizing the federal government’s management of Martin’s Cove, a Mormon historical site in central Wyoming that commemo- rates the trials of members of the Martin and Willie handcart companies who were stranded there by severe winter condi- tions. The letter, unusual because Church leaders typically be- come involved in political activism only when Church stances on moral issues are involved, comes to light as the matter of selling the site to the LDS Church has passed in the House of Representatives and heads to the U.S. Senate. “If the site is truly nationally significant then why did the government do so little over so many decades to bring this his- tory forward?” asks the letter. The document states that the site’s “history relates solely to the [LDS] church” and accuses the Wyoming Bureau of Land Management of misleading the Church during past land-swap negotiations. The Church has been attempting to obtain the site since 1998, but the sale is controversial for the precedent it will help set regarding federal land sales to religious organizations (see SUNSTONE, July 2002, p. 63). Wyoming’s entire congressional delegation opposes the sale. Elder M. Russell Ballard speaks at the dedication of a new gravesite MORMON SCHOLAR TESTIFIES monument (bottom) for Mormon pioneer Elijah Abel (top right) FOR DEATH ROW CONVICT MORMON THEOLOGY, BLOOD atone- MORMONS HONOR BLACK ment, and the language of the temple en- PIONEER ELIJAH ABEL dowment were discussed 30 August IN A CEREMONY attended by Apostle M. Russell Ballard and during a Utah hearing for Leroy Tillman, representatives of several LDS and independent organizations, who in 1983 was convicted of murder and a monument was unveiled on 28 September honoring the life sentenced to death. of early black Mormon pioneer Elijah Abel. The event, which Playwright and former BYU professor took place at Abel’s gravesite in the Salt Lake City Cemetery, Tim Slover testified that by using four was attended by some 200 people, including several of Abel’s times the expression “God shall not be descendants. mocked” in the closing arguments of the Slover testified that Funded by private donations, the monument project was co- 1983 trial, prosecutor Michael Christensen coded messages were sent to LDS sponsored by the Genesis Group, an organization for Mormons sent “coded messages that created a closed jury members of African descent (See SUNSTONE, Jan. 2002, p. 76). During community between the LDS jury and the the service, the Genesis Choir sang traditional spirituals. LDS attorney.” Noting the presence of black pioneers in early Utah history, Slover also discussed how, with different nuances, the no- Genesis Group President Darius Gray spoke of a Mormon pio- tion that murderers must be executed has been taught by many neer legacy that transcends racial barriers. “We [blacks and 19th-century LDS leaders, including Brigham Young, Jedediah whites] traveled the trails together, suffered the hardships to- M. Grant, Heber C. Kimball, and Wilford Woodruff. Although gether, and had the joys together,” said Gray. “And ultimately, current Church leaders refuse to call this notion, “blood atone- we are buried together in the same ground.” ment,” many Latter-day Saints still believe that only by death Elijah Abel was one of a few black men to receive the priest- can murderers pay for their sins (See Dialogue 12:1, 9–26). hood before Brigham Young established a policy banning Third District Judge Leslie Lewis called Slover’s testimony blacks from ordination. Abel’s priesthood had been conferred “enlightening” but “irrelevant” because the issue of religious by Joseph Smith, and Abel served three missions and re- bias had already been unsuccessfully raised in previous ap- mained faithful to the Church until his death in 1884. The peals. However, the judge did rule that Tillman deserves a new policy preventing those of African descent from receiving the hearing because prosecutors withheld documents from de- priesthood was rescinded in 1978. fense attorneys during the 1983 trial. OCTOBER 2002 PAGE 75 74-79_news.qxd 10/9/02 10:33 AM Page 76 SUNSTONE Martha Coolidge. “The DGA will ag- People gressively pursue these claims.” Clean Flicks, which has 36 stores DIED: With the death of Rulon T. in Utah and 65 nationwide in other Jeffs, the largest fundamentalist religion-soaked regions, is one of Mormon group is left without a several companies dedicated to CleanFlicks is in court leader, and some observers predict a selling and renting altered versions fighting to be able to of videos and DVD’S. The original sell its edited versions succession crisis. According to a of Hollywood movies story in the Salt Lake Tribune, ap- method of editing a scene by simply proximately half the members of the slicing and splicing the videotape has now been replaced by Fundamentalist Church of Jesus digital technology that allows the editors to manipulate either Christ of Latter-day Saints are loyal just the sound or both the sound and the images. to Jeffs’s son Warren while the other half favors long-time patriarch Fred M. Jessop as successor. MORMON CINEMA EXPLODES WITH Most of the 6,000 to 8,000 members of the FLDS church A PARADE OF NEW FILMS live in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, TWO YEARS AFTER the release of Richard Dutcher’s ground- Arizona, on the Utah-Arizona border. According to church breaking film, God’s Army, more feature films than ever are tar- spokesperson and Colorado City Mayor, Dan Barlow, the geting the LDS audiences.