Attack on LDS Church harkens back to its early history of religious persecution

By Eric Levenson, CNN

Grand Blanc Township, Michigan (CNN) — The early history of the LDS Church is one of persecution and violence.

Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), commonly known as the Mormons, was killed by a mob in 1844 in Illinois. Fearing continued persecution, Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, led church members on an exodus to Utah, at the time a territory outside the jurisdiction of the United States, to freely practice their religion.

For LDS Church members, that history is taught from a young age as part of their self-identity. And that history of persecution is newly relevant after the mass shooting and arson targeting an LDS church in Michigan last Sunday.

“The idea that Mormons were a persecuted group in the 1800s is deeply ingrained in the Mormon psyche,” said David Campbell, a University of Notre Dame professor and author of “Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics.”

“This incident now in the 21st century will be remembered as yet another example of the sort of persecution and marginalization that Mormons have experienced over their history.”

The attack on the LDS church in Grand Blanc, which left four dead and wounded others, is part of a series of violent episodes targeting so-called “soft targets,” including religious institutions and schools. In the wake of this latest attack, other religious and civil groups have reached out to the LDS Church and its members in a show of support and solidarity.

Still, to quickly group all those shootings together is to obscure how this particular shooting has affected this particular church with its particular past.

The 40-year-old military veteran suspect had expressed a hatred of the LDS Church, according to a family friend and a city council candidate in Michigan who met the suspect a week prior to the attack. The FBI is investigating reports he “hated people of Mormon faith,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Monday.

“My church has a heritage of having faced persecution in the past,” Mitt Romney, the LDS Church member and former Republican presidential candidate, told CNN’s Dana Bash. “And you wonder, well, are we in for another bout of this?”

‘Is there something connected here?’

When Brandt Malone visited the burnt aftermath of what had been his church, he was hit with a flood of memories. Of teenage dances, young romances, basketball tournaments – all turned to ash.

“Honestly it was a really hard flood of emotion,” he told CNN. “It’s really hard to look at it, realizing all those memories I had in that building are now gone.”

Like Romney, he noted the LDS Church’s history of persecution and voiced a concern there may be something deeper going on here.

“Because of that history, it does become top of mind for a lot of people to say, ‘Is there something connected here?’” Malone said.

Still, he said he has been heartened by the support the church has received from outside groups.

“It’s been so touching to see the Grand Blanc community come out and show their support for us, and most importantly, all the interreligious groups, whether they be Christian or non-Christian, whatever. The outpouring of support is great,” he said. “The fact that this really isn’t an anomaly, that this violence has happened at other church places, it really does feel like almost a sense of innocence has been ripped away from us.”

Jeffrey Schaub, the bishop of the Grand Blanc church, offered similar thoughts in a video posted to YouTube on Tuesday.

He said church members “are quite shaken in spirit and in body, and it hurts,” and he thanked those who offered spiritual support.

“It is the most significant time of my life where I have felt the love and prayer of other people,” he said. “It’s been very inspiring the amount of contact we’ve had with friends not of our faith. As I returned home late last night, we had dozens of notes and packages and meals and food and treats waiting for us.”

Elder David A. Bednar, an LDS Church leader, relayed the overarching views of his conversations with church members. “I’ve not detected any bitterness,” he said. “Certainly sorrow, but no bitterness, no resentments.”

Support from other religious groups

Much has changed since the LDS Church’s early days of persecution in the 19th century. The church is now a regular part of American religious life, perhaps best exemplified by Romney’s rise to the cusp of the presidency over a decade ago.

Still, there is a “latent feeling of anti-Mormonism” still present in society, said Campbell, the Notre Dame professor. Some evangelical Christians have questioned their legitimacy and even termed the church a cult, while secular skeptics have mocked church members’ distinct customs and beliefs as off-putting or alienating, he explained.

But the attack in Grand Blanc this week has only brought others closer to the church in sympathy and care.

Down the street from the LDS church in Grand Blanc, the members of the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church gathered the day after the attack for a vigil service in honor of their neighbors.

“We have very little in common doctrine-wise with the Latter-day Saints church,” the Rev. Samuel Hacker said, “but these are human beings, and our Lord has called us to love them, and so our hearts go out to them. It’s terrible, the loss of life, the injuries, the destruction of a place of worship.”

In the wake of the attack, the LDS Church increased security at its twice-annual general conference over the weekend. Days after the death of the church’s most recent president, Russell M. Nelson, leaders at the conference called for forgiveness, according to The Associated Press.

Dan Beazley arrived at the scene of the church attack Monday while wheeling in a more than 10-foot-long, 65-pound wooden cross. He said he has visited the sites of other mass shootings as well, including at a Catholic school in Minnesota.

“I go wherever people’s hearts are hurting the most,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter which church it is,” he added. “It’s the fact that these people were there worshiping God, and then they walk in and lose their lives while they’re doing that.”

For Campbell, the question going forward is how this shooting is remembered: An attack on one religion or an attack on all of them?

“Among Mormons what I have seen is this idea that once again Mormons are in the crosshairs, we are being singled out here,” he said. “We will have to see over time whether or not outside of Mormonism this is remembered as one of many attacks on religious groups, or Christian groups in particular, or whether it will be thought of as its own thing.”

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CNN’s Leigh Waldman, Maria Sole Campinoti and Sarah Boxer contributed to this report.