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Of violence and a violent storm

Of violence and a violent storm

Last updated on: June 22, 2026 at 8:24 pm by Dan Peterson

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Of violence and a violent storm 2026-06-22T20:24:21-06:00 Dan Peterson

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“Zion’s Camp at Fishing River” (Judith Mehr; LDS.org)

The latest installment of the Interpreter Foundation’s series of mini-documentary videos has now appeared: Becoming Brigham Episode 22: “Out of the Storm”:

How did God dramatically protect Zion’s Camp from a violent mob?

Why did the Lord call Zion’s Camp a success even though they didn’t redeem Zion or fight any battles?

How did the hardships of Zion’s Camp transform Brigham Young and prepare him to lead the Saints westward?

This episode concludes the story of Zion’s Camp, the 2,000-mile journey undertaken by Brigham Young, Joseph Smith, and roughly 200 others to aid the persecuted Saints in Missouri. Upon arrival, the group faced disappointment when Governor Dunklin refused to help restore their lands. As tensions rose and mobs threatened to attack, a sudden, violent storm with hail and flooding miraculously protected the camp. Despite the hardships and apparent failure to redeem Zion, the Lord revealed in Doctrine and Covenants Section 105 that their sacrifices were accepted. The episode explores the deeper spiritual purpose of the journey: it served as a refining experience and training ground for future Church leadership.

Most people are aware of Brigham Young as a pivotal figure in American religious and frontier history. But Brigham is also often misunderstood, seen as a larger-than-life caricature rather than as a man. Becoming Brigham, a weekly video web series from The Interpreter Foundation, debunks fictions as well as providing sometimes surprising new insights into the real Brigham Young. In producing this series, we are working closely with a wide variety of scholars and historians. Drawing from a list of almost 80 topics, many more episodes are planned as we explore the life and times of Brigham Young. This series is designed to help increase faith and build testimonies of modern prophets and the restored Church.

Working closely with the Church History Department, this series includes interviews with the following historians (and many others): Thomas G. Alexander, James B. Allen, Susan Easton Black, LaJean Carruth, Gerrit Dirkmaat, Ron Esplin, Matt Godfrey, Casey Griffiths, Brittany Nash, Reid Neilson, Brent Rogers, and Lisa Tait. Each episode features hosts John Wilson (Brigham Young in Six Days in August) and Camrey Fox (Emma Smith in Witnesses and Six Days in August), along with the President of the Interpreter Foundation, Daniel Peterson.

To see all of the published Becoming Brigham episodes, go to the Becoming Brigham YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@becomingbrigham.

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel at https://youtube.interpreterfoundation.org/ and our other social media channels on Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok.

The Provo Pioneer Museum, a facility of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers in North Park in Provo, Utah. It stands directly adjacent to the Provo Pioneer Village, an open-air museum that is run by the Sons of Utah Pioneers.

Well, I’m off on yet another of my exotic luxury vacation tours, ostensibly devoted to work on the Interpreter Foundation’s mini-documentary series, Becoming Brigham. We spent the morning filming a conversation in the Provo Pioneer Museum, a satellite museum of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Having finished our work there, and after a lunch that included both tasty solid food and drinkable liquids — both of which are pretty obvious specimens of epicurean self-indulgence for those with the will to see them so — we drove on down to Cedar City. I rode with my friends from RedBrick Filmworks — Mark Goodman, James Jordan, and Russ Richins — in a lavishly-appointed sports utility vehicle that is equipped with actually functional air conditioning, partially so that we could discuss potential future filming locations for our Becoming Brigham project. Will our efforts eventually take us to Tahiti? To Monaco? To the French Alps? Inquiring minds want to know! Indeed, they demand an answer. And, given my notorious cruelty and my perpetually incandescent rage, will our treatment of the Mountain Meadows Massacre be celebratory? Will the background music be festive? Wait and see!

The Cedar City Utah Temple, shown near sunset. (LDS Media Library) It was dedicated in December 2017.

“Dan Ellworth’s Response to Jim Bennett” went up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: For Brother Ellsworth’s initial blog entry, see here. For Brother Bennett’s reply, see here. And these are the first two paragraphs, now, of Brother Ellsworth’s response to Brother Bennett’s reply:

“I am glad that Jim Bennett took the time to respond to my Interpreter blog post on Jeff Strong’s book Torn. Whenever believing-and-sustaining Latter-day Saints like myself voice concerns over projects like Jeff Strong’s, we run the risk of being painted into a false dichotomy: either we uncritically accept the new project, in which case we are on the side of listening, empathy, and recognition of real problems; or, we are in the opposing camp where “all is well in Zion” and all genuine concerns of church members are to be dismissed.

“I suggest that we avoid both of these mental shortcuts. Contrary to Bennett’s impressions of my context, I began personal ministry to people in faith transition about a decade ago, and that informed my second Interpreter article, a review of David Ostler’s book Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question. I wrote that review not long after one of my personal ministering visits, where I wept with a family in their home in the neighboring state of North Carolina after they had left the church. With lessons learned in many such personal conversations, I have not undertaken a single project to recommend church-wide reform, though my writings and YouTube presentations are designed to nudge church members cognitively in ways that I have found, in myself and others, to be helpful for maintaining faith in light of challenges. . . . “

Kolob Canyon, Zion National Park, between St. George and Cedar City, Utah
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo by G. M. Hatfield)

Finally, this revealing story, which is to be found in the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™, offers a potent example of how theism can ruin an otherwise decent person and blight an otherwise good life: “Shirley Kimball’s path to discipleship and 30-year service at the Baltimore Stake Clothing Center: That path started with a failed baptism in another faith and quitting smoking and took Kimball to being seen as a service ‘pioneer’”

Posted from Cedar City, Utah

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June 24, 2026 On the Massacre at Mountain Meadows

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