Are You Still Mormon? If So, Go Fuck Yourself

Tuckerfan · Dec 7, 2021

Town historian stumbles across references to a Mormon school for Native Americans, thinks there might be some bodies in unmarked graves and is told to STFU about it.

Researcher who uncovered Indigenous school’s history in Panguitch leaves job after being told to stop work

Steven Lee, former event and marketing coordinator for the city of Panguitch, thumbs through copies of documents regarding the Panguitch Indian Boarding School from the state archives and the J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections from the late 1800's and early 1900's, Aug. 12, 2021 in the council's chamber. Earlier this month, after a year of research, Lee provided a report to the Paiute Indian Tribal Council about the Panguitch Indian Boarding School's history.

Steven Lee, the researcher who determined that 12 bodies of children are likely buried at the site of a former Indigenous boarding school in Panguitch, has resigned from his position of event and marketing coordinator with the city.

Although it was an unofficial title, Lee also worked as the town’s historian, a function that led him to the grisly findings at the school that operated in Panguitch from 1904 to 1909.

The mayor and city manager prohibited him from working on further research about the school after it became public in August, which, according to Lee, was a major reason for stepping down from his formal position.

Panguitch Mayor Kim Soper and City Manager Lori Talbot declined to comment for this story.

“I’m not at the city anymore,” said Lee, who is now unemployed and looking for full-time work. “But I am still working on the project and with the [Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah] there’s still a lot more to be done with the project.”

Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah Chairwoman Corrina Bow also declined to comment on Lee’s resignation and future work with the tribe.

In the farming and ranching town, the public news of the former boarding school was not well received by many, according to Lee. Local ranchers shared their concerns with the mayor about having members of the Shivwits Band of Paiutes and Kaibab Paiute Tribe on the land where they grow hay and graze cattle.

After learning about the story, tribal leaders from both the Shivwits Band of Paiutes and Kaibab Paiute Tribe held a private gathering to acknowledge the children who attended the school. During the same visit, a local restaurant complained that Lee and the tribal elders had filled their dining room for a meeting during the establishment’s peak lunch hours, according to Lee.

Other complaints were made in calls to the mayor’s office, he says.

The Salt Lake Tribune requested all correspondence to the mayor’s office in a record request pertaining to complaints or concerns about the boarding school and Lee. The office said there were none.

Lee was hired in December 2019 by the city right before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to help with community events in the small town. He started to research the town’s historical record of the Spanish Flu of 1918 to search for clues for stopping COVID-19′s spread.

“I really thought, by researching the history of the flu, where so many people had died, which is such a perfect parallel to the situation now, I thought, maybe we can learn lessons from it and be wiser, you know,” Lee said. “That was the hope. We ended up having [outbreaks] anyway.”

Going through old documents, Lee eventually came across the news clipping of the death of Mary Lila Jenks, a former schoolteacher at the Indigenous boarding school who died of an opium overdose in 1905.

Indigenous boarding schools like the one in Panguitch were established in the late 1800s and early 1900s to assimilate Indigenous students to be American. Children as young as six years old were shipped off to school, had their hair cut against their will, and were subject to abuse. Some died on the grounds of the schools they attended.

Lee dug deeper into the historical records of the Panguitch boarding school and found reference to an “Indian School Cemetery” in Panguitch on Jenks’ death certificate. Lee now believes there are 12 bodies on the grounds.

Living and growing up in Panguitch, Lee said he had never learned of the school. Lee recently found his pioneer ancestors among the names of those who worked for the school. He says it has been a struggle to reconcile his pioneer history because of how his family contributed to the painful boarding school legacy in Panguitch.

If he was not the city’s event planner, Lee said he would have probably never made these findings. And, now that he has stepped down, he hopes to continue that work, assisting the Paiute Indian Tribe or any other tribe with reclaiming their histories.
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Bickendan · Dec 7, 2021

This is my lack of surprise:

Fuck Joe Smith, fuck Brigham Young.

Dr. Krieg · Dec 7, 2021

Religion is for the weak.

shootER · Dec 7, 2021

Utah Makes Welfare So Hard to Get, Some Feel They Must Join the LDS Church to Get Aid

Shirogayne · Dec 8, 2021

"might be" bodies?

There certainly are. We just did much more thorough job of exterminating our Indigenous tribes than Canada did so there's fewer people left to push for investigations.

Tererune · Dec 8, 2021

shootER said: ↑

Utah Makes Welfare So Hard to Get, Some Feel They Must Join the LDS Church to Get Aid
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This is a huge part of the problem when we allow religion to get into certain things. It is not just in things like welfare, but also adoption, medicine, and education. One of the reasons the salvation army wants to control charity handouts is because it forces the poor and needy to be advertised to, and worse to follow the rules of their church.

Don't get me wrong some of those rules might be great. Don't steal and kill and we will give you stuff might not trip any of our charity restrictions. Then you get into requirements of worship jesus, don't be gay/trans, don't use birth control, and other things the salvation army pushes you might want to give your money to someone else.

Supposedly charitable people might want their money kept out of the hands of certain types of people, where the state may need to take care of people in a non-discriminatory manny which is why you cannot count religious charities as state distributors.

14thDoctor · Dec 8, 2021

Secret mass graves for aboriginals, you say?Huh. Maybe Mormonism is a legitimate religion after all.

Tuckerfan · Dec 22, 2021

Billionaire tells Mormon Church to get fucked.

Utah billionaire leaves Mormon church, donates $600,000 to LGBTQ group

Jeff Green, a billionaire thought to be the richest person from Utah, resigned from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, writing in a letter to the church's president that he believes the institution has "hindered global progress in women’s rights, civil rights and racial equality, and LGBTQ+ rights," according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

Green, the chairman and CEO of The Trade Desk, a technology marketing company, informally left the Mormon church, as the LDS church is commonly called, a decade ago. But in a letter Monday to church President Russell Nelson, he officially resigned and requested the removal of his records, The Tribune reported.

Neither Green nor the church have responded to requests for comment about the letter.

Green said in his letter that most of the church's members are "good people trying to do right" but that he believes "the church is actively and currently doing harm in the world."

“The church leadership is not honest about its history, its finances, and its advocacy,” he wrote, according to The Tribune.

Green wrote that he will donate $600,000 to the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Utah as the first major donation from his family foundation's giving arm, Dataphilanthropy. According to The Tribune, he added that almost half of the money will go to a new scholarship program for LGBTQ students in Utah, including those who "may need or want to leave" his alma mater, Brigham Young University, which is sponsored by the church.

“We made this investment sizable and publicly to send a message that Equality Utah isn’t going anywhere,” Green wrote, adding that he hopes the donation is the first of many.

A spokesperson for Brigham Young University has not responded to a request for comment.

Executive Director Troy Williams said Equality Utah is "incredibly grateful for Jeff’s generosity and support."

"In Utah, we have made enormous strides forward toward LGBTQ equality," he said in an email. "The two most important elements of our success has been the support of allies and the willingness of state and religious leaders to engage with us. We don’t always agree, but great things happen when we seek common ground. Jeff’s financial support will ensure that we will remain a prominent force in Utah politics for years to come."

The group has celebrated a number of notable achievements in recent years despite the state's conservatism. About 62 percent of Utah residents and about 86 percent of the state's lawmakers are members of the LDS church, which opposes same-sex marriage and, more recently, the Equality Act, a federal bill that would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in housing, employment and jury service, among other areas of life.

Despite those conflicts, Equality Utah has managed to work alongside church leaders and the Republican-controlled Legislature to pass historic legislation.

In 2015, the state passed a bill that prohibits employment and housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity while providing protection for religious institutions that say such prohibitions would violate their beliefs. In 2017, the governor repealed a law prohibiting discussions of homosexuality in public schools.

Then, in 2019, the state joined 21 others by passing an LGBTQ-inclusive hate crime law. Last year, it banned licensed therapists from practicing conversion therapy, a discredited practice that seeks to change someone's sexual orientation or gender identity, on children.

But advocates say there is still work to do. For example, in October, Brigham Young University, which Green mentioned in his letter, was named one of the worst colleges and universities for LGBTQ students by Campus Pride, a nonprofit organization that advocates for LGBTQ inclusivity and safety at U.S. colleges and universities.

The university forbids same-sex dating and doesn't officially recognize or support BYU Pride, the student-run LGBTQ group.

The university was named in a class-action lawsuit against the Education Department in March alleging that a Title IX exemption allows religiously affiliated schools that receive federal funds to discriminate against LGBTQ students and that the exemption is unconstitutional. At the time, a spokesperson for the university said BYU was "aware of the lawsuit" and was reviewing it.

"Our goal is that all our students be treated with respect, dignity and love," the statement read. "We are concerned when any of our students do not feel this way and greatly value the contributions our students make to BYU." The university has not replied to a request for additional comment.

In addition to potentially making more donations to Equality Utah, Green — whose net worth is estimated at $5 billion — wrote in a giving pledge that his goal is to give away more than 90 percent of his wealth "through data-driven philanthropy before or at my death."

"But I will also give of my time, my most precious commodity, to allocate those funds deliberately, and to be personally engaged," he wrote.
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Tuckerfan · Sep 12, 2023

Boy Scout whistleblower: Mormon church swayed abuse policy

Tuckerfan · Oct 15, 2023

https://www.propublica.org/article/utah-lds-church-therapy-inappropriate-touching

Zor Prime · Oct 15, 2023

I’ll take Mormons over Evangelicals/Southern Baptists any day.

At least they are polite and not openly racist.

steve2^4 · Oct 15, 2023

Um. Try naive and openly racist.

Diacanu · Oct 15, 2023

Yeah, really, racism is right in the Book Of Mormon.
Black people are bad white people who got cursed.
And if black people are really, really, really, good, they get to be white in Heaven.
That's fucked up.
That's some Uncle Ruckus shit.
Modern Mormons reeeaaallly hope you never poke around in the book and find that.

Mormons put blatant racism in their book; it's the financial crookery and sex abuse they're sneaky about.

Now, on the other side of the coin, Randroids sing the praises of exploitation and crookery, and advocate swinger orgies, but dog whistle the racism.
The swinger orgies sounds advanced, but in practice, you had to fuck Ayn Rand, and if you had a side-piece, she had a conniption.
So, it was just female David Koresh shit.

Mormons are reverse-Randroids, and vice-versa.
It's all the same shit.
God or no God.

Tuckerfan · Dec 5, 2023

After shopping spree, Mormon church is Nebraska’s top land purchaser

Tererune · Dec 5, 2023

Tuckerfan said: ↑

After shopping spree, Mormon church is Nebraska’s top land purchaser
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There are indirect problems here, but they are paying land taxes and business taxes, what exactly is the horrible problem with the mormon's owning this land? If they are doing other things that are illegal or a problem then go after those things, but this all seems to be legal.

I am not getting it.

Tuckerfan · Mar 20, 2024

https://apnews.com/article/samuel-b...rges-arizona-6cc702229fc3e6e735991e0ac86c5214

Tererune · Mar 20, 2024

So this was obviously the drag queen sect of mormonism?

Oh wait, still not any fucking drag queens. Why doesn't the news article say that when the mormon religion says that it is the gender nonconformists who do this shit, and we should leave their cult alone.

Bailey · Mar 20, 2024

Tererune said: ↑

Tuckerfan said: ↑

After shopping spree, Mormon church is Nebraska’s top land purchaser
Click to expand...

There are indirect problems here, but they are paying land taxes and business taxes, what exactly is the horrible problem with the mormon's owning this land? If they are doing other things that are illegal or a problem then go after those things, but this all seems to be legal.

I am not getting it.
Click to expand...

Not Mormons, the Mormon Church. They are well known for doing shit like investing in property with collections they say are for charity.

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