I recently learned that the Mormons settled and resettled in several states before finally staying in Utah. It’s quite an interesting story, especially given that most religions are so ancient that it’s very hard to track their origins today.
Johnny Harris has great videos about it, this one for instance.
Yeah, they kept getting kicked out. Mostly for being bad neighbors - or at least not being able to read the room.
Seriously, American Puritans. They’d move en masse to an area, try to impose their religion on everyone, piss everyone off, get driven out, then cry about it.
My history teach said the multiple wives thing displeased their non-Mormon neighbors.
That was one thing. They tried to keep that hidden.
In Ohio, the local Mormon-run bank went under - so did a lot of others at the time but they were being just as greedy and stupid as everyone else.
In Missouri, they were actually on the moral high ground but walking in new to town and telling your new neighbors that they’re going to hell for slavery isn’t a good idea. Also, they tried to buy up all the land and move enough people in to take over the elected positions.
In Illinois, one of the final straws was when Joseph Smith, as mayor of Nauvoo, declared a rival newspaper a public menace and had their press destroyed. Legal at the time but, again, great way to piss off your neighbors.
The history of the church is basically a string of grifts, arrogance, misogyny, and racism. Right up to today but now you can add homophobia and transphobia.
The cherry on top is BYU telling its incoming freshmen that they have to study an infamous speech from “Apostle” Jeffrey R Holland, who used a bunch of dog whistles to call for violence under the guise of “religious freedom.”
