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This was an actual episode of 10 Things You Don’t Know About on the History Channel H2. I came across it in my channel surfing this evening and had to blog about it. The show does a nationwide poll and comes up with 10 random facts on historical figures that the textbooks left out.
Here are the 10 Things You Don’t Know About the Mormons.
How many of these do you know?
I love how in time portraits of Joseph Smith and Jesus keep getting more attractive. This is a gay blog so I chose the most attractive one ... and probably the more innacurate.
- Joseph Smith was a treasure hunter.
- The Book of Mormon says Indians were Jewish.
- Masonic rituals inspired Mormon rituals.
- Mormons were the victims of genocide.
- Joseph Smith’s wife threatened to take multiple husbands.
- Mormons agreed to leave the U.S.
- The U.S deployed troops to subdue the Mormons.
- Mormons massacred 120 innocent pioneers.
- Mormons owned brothels in Salt Lake City.
- Mormon banks financed mob-owned hotels and casinos in Las Vegas.
How many did you know?
There is only one fact that I didn’t know (#10) and two that I learned about just recently (#9 & #5). As a Mormon I only knew seven of the following. I’ve also added farther below the reported percent of the general public who didn’t know each fact.
Based on this, not a lot of people know very much about the Mormons. The one question (#2) that could be considered friendly or innocuous because it is taught by the missionaries was one of the questions at which the public fared the worst!
Scroll down for the answers and my guesses on how Mormons would fare on the poll…
- Joseph Smith was a treasure hunter. (78% didn’t know. I’m guessing about 60% of Mormons wouldn’t know.)
- The Book of Mormon says Indians were Jewish. (90% of the general public didn’t know. Only maybe 5% of Mormons wouldn’t know this one. It’s a basic tenet of the faith)
- Masonic rituals inspired Mormon rituals.(75% of the general public didn’t know. I’m guessing the the same number of Mormons wouldn’t know, or wouldn’t admit it.)
- Mormons are the victims of genocide. (85% of the general public didn’t know. Only maybe 5% of Mormons wouldn’t know. They are very conscious of their victim-hood)
- Joseph Smith’s wife threatened to take multiple husbands (the program actually never gave this result. but I’m guessing 90% of the public or Mormons wouldn’t know this fact. I didn’t know this until a few months ago)
- Mormons agreed to leave the U.S (95% didn’t know. Probably 50% of Mormons wouldn’t know)
- The U.S deployed troops to subdue the Mormons. (82% of the general public didn’t know. Maybe 30% of the Mormons wouldn’t know and those would be the ones outside Utah)
- Mormons massacred 120 innocent pioneers. (81% of the general public didn’t know and I’m guessing the same number of Mormons wouldn’t know)
- Mormons owned brothels in Salt Lake City. (81% of the general public didn’t know. I’d bet 90% of the Mormons wouldn’t own up to knowing.)
- Mormon banks financed mob-owned hotels and casinos in Las Vegas (85% of the general public didn’t know and I’d bet the same number of Mormons wouldn’t know. This was the only one I didn’t know)
BONUS!
One more fact you probably didn’t know
Followers of the Mormon religion pride themselves on being kind, friendly and trustworthy. But did you know that wealthy recluse Howard Hughes believed that the Mormons were the only people he could trust? In fact, toward the end of his life, he took residence in Las Vegas and surrounded himself with an entourage of Mormons nicknamed the “Mormon Mafia“.
See also:
Dad's Primal Scream 
I was with the Mormon church for over 20 years but had left there, not because of non belief but because of financial reasons as I went back to my old line of work due to a recession and my business folded an I had to make a living. The only thing that bothers me now is when Mitt Romney ran for president and was campaigning,he lied and continued to lie, he was even caught with in a secret recording lying. He is a priest in the organization and takes the covenant of monthly sacraments. Did the church leaders know about his continued lying on TV and that hurt the church as he was a leader and a priest. I don’t know how he was able to maintain is position while doing this. That is a deliberately sinful act which I learned would lose ones place doing this.
Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting. Yeah the whole Romney candidacy was a paradox wasn’t it. Perhaps it was glossed over because the church and its members have a history of excusing lying when one of them do it.
Didn’t know #10. Hadn’t thought about #9, but would have assumed it to be true. (Not LDS, just fascinated by it, especially early mid-19th Century Mormonism and current-day Mormon culture.)
I would like to see a legitimate primary source that says Emma threatened to take multiple husbands. Not saying it’s not true, just know that the History Channel tends to favor sensationalism over respectable scholarship. That being said, Grant Palmer is pretty respectable. Guess I’ll have to get my hands on a copy of An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins and check out the sources.
And thanks for the interesting posts.
Some fascinating stuff, Smorg! And whoever taught the history first has the advantage over followers regardless of the amount of actual truth. My Japanese students were very skeptical of my version of Pearl Harbor.
Where & when did you teach English in Japan?
In 90 & 91 in Kakegawa-shi Shizuoka-Ken. I attended the Hamamatsu ward
I didn’t know #5, 9, 10 and the Howard Hugh one. Guess I’m doing pretty well for a nevermo! ;D I’m lucky, tho. I spent a significant amount of my childhood years in an Asian country that had (or perhaps ‘has’) the same attitude the Mormons do about ‘history’… When I came back here and went to college I got to re-learn a bit of the same ‘history’ from a completely different angle, and suddenly I knew what it must have been like for the Soviets who escaped from the Iron Curtain and discovered news sources other than Pravda. 😛 I never trusted anyone who insist on having the only truth ever since. 🙂
Hope you’re still hanging on okay!
I had a very similar experience when I was teaching English in Japan. A student innocently asked what had prompted the US to bomb Hiroshima. I mentioned the start of it at Pearl Harbor and I was shocked to find out that they’d never heard of it. I’ve been suspicious of propaganda ever since.
Wow. That’s a pretty big omission of that part of history by the Japanese school. 😛 One of the eye-opener ‘history versions’ for me when I got back was the story of the Cuban missile crisis. In Thailand (I went to grade school there) they started that episode talking about how the US kept the Jupiter missiles in Turkey pointed toward Moscow, which made the Soviets pretty anxious, so they tried to even the board by sneaking nukes into Cuba. When I got back here, the US school version of the crisis started with our spy planes detecting the nukes that sneaky Kruschev was installing on the island.
On the other hand, the Thai school made no mention of the Thai government declaring for the Axis during WW II when they covered that history… They made it sound like the Thais were with the Allies all along. 😛 (Granted that the declaration was never delivered to the White House because the Thai ambassador refused to obey the order, but it should have been mentioned all the same).
I guess the hard part is in recognizing a propaganda when we hear one. Some of them are better at disguising themselves than the others. Not long ago I had a chat with an exchange student from Turkey and we got talking about geography. I mentioned that one of my great internet friend is in Cyprus. The Turkish boy immediately tried to convince me that Cyprus has always been Turkish (my Cypriot Greek friend would have had a fit had he been there to hear it live. He actually fought in the war against the Turkish invaders and was wounded just north of Nicosia). Apparently the Turkish government have been teaching heavily revised history in its state schools. 😛 I couldn’t blame the boy for not knowing the actual history, tho I did tell him he should hit the internet and read about Turkey and Cyprus from as different sources as possible before repeating that to anyone else.
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Reblogged this on miguelinbelgium.eu.
Priceless!
THANKS
I knew most of those even as a member… My big question for myself is, “Why didn’t it bother me?”
I also just recently discovered #5, maybe from the same source as you?
“Why didn’t it bother me?”
Indeed. THAT is the question