Episode 40: When the Saints Fled America (Gerrit Dirkmaat)

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BYU Religious Education

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4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2021

⏱️ 59 minutes

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Summary

Although some Latter-day Saints fly American flags on July 24th to celebrate settling in the Rocky Mountains, the irony is that the pioneer Saints were desperately trying to flee the USA. After years of being persecuted, Church leaders concluded that the existing US government would not protect their civil and religious rights as a minority group, and the Saints decided to leave. In this fascinating episode, Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat shares his research on this history, along with lessons learned for today.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello my friends welcome to another fabulous episode of the Why Religion Podcast. I am Anthony
0:05.4	Sweat from the Department of Church History and Doctrine and you are in for a great episode
0:10.4	today. I am a Utah boy. I was raised in the Rocky Mountains and in the shadows of the everlasting
0:17.8	hills as my colleague Lloyd Newell famously says and ever since I was a little boy July 24
0:25.1	was a holiday where we celebrated the Latter-day Saint Pioneer companies that made this their
0:29.5	home and the headquarters of the church settling in these valleys. As a kid I couldn't quite tell the
0:36.3	difference between the 4th of July and the 24th of July if I'm being totally honest with you.
0:41.8	They were both days off with parades and fireworks and American flags when people gathered together
0:47.4	and had family barbecues. As I got a little bit older it became clear that the 4th of July was a
0:53.3	national holiday of independence and the 24th of July was a local holiday of pioneer independence.
1:01.0	Although many wave American flags on the 24th of July the utter irony about it is that the
1:07.4	pioneer saints were desperately trying to flee and become independent from the United States of
1:13.1	America. After years of being persecuted church leaders concluded that the existing US government
1:18.8	would not protect their civil and religious rights as a minority group and the saints simply
1:23.5	decided to flee the USA. The recently released Council of 50 minutes from the Joseph Smith
1:29.5	papers reveals that by the time Joseph Smith and the saints had settled in Navu some really strong
1:35.0	feelings toward the US government had developed due to the saints collective experiences over the
1:39.8	past decade. The suspicion and hostility was not toward the principles of freedom or the US
1:45.8	constitution that Joseph Smith's own revelations confirmed was inspired by God but it was
1:51.3	directed toward government officials and their ineptitude to uphold it. On March 11th of 1844 Joseph
1:58.7	Smith and several leading elders formally organized as a Council of 50 and as William Clayton recounted
2:05.4	their goal quote was to establish a theocracy end of quote somewhere in Western North America in
	...

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