Mizzou / BYU game: Much more at stake for the Mormons than a mere game

Regarding the BYU vs. Mizzou football game at Arrowhead Stadium, please click on the links below to read about the 1838 Missouri Mormon War which resulted in the expulsion of Mormons from Missouri. I've also written a brief summary about the Missouri Mormon War, the Illinois Mormon War, and the forced Mormon Exodus to what is now Utah. Trust me when I say unto thee...the Mormons are coming to Arrowhead to play for much more than a mere football victory. The Mormons are coming to Arrowhead as a pilgrimage to visit their "New Jerusalem" to pay homage to their ancestors who fought and died for Zion:

Here is a very detailed account of the Missouri Mormon War complete with battle plans and maps:
Missouri Mormon War of 1838

Here is a very detailed account of the Morman Exodus from Missouri to Nauvoo, Illinois which eventually led to the Illinois Mormon War:
Illinois Mormon War of 1844

Detailed account of Mormon Zion (ie. Independence, MO near Arrowhead Stadium):
Independence, MO (Arrowhead Stadium) is New Jerusalem...or rather Zion


First...let's start with Zion.

According to Mormons, Zion refers to a specific location to which members of the millennial church are to be gathered together to live. Stipulated by what is believed by the Latter-day Saints to be the revelation of Joseph Smith, Zion is said to be located in Jackson County, Missouri and its county seat, the city of Independence, MO. The region of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area remains important today in LDS Church and Community of Christ doctrine, as well as many smaller branches and offshoots of the Restoration movement, who view it as having a crucial role to play in their Christian Millenialists theology. In October 2008, for example, LDS leadership announced the construction of the Kansas City Missouri Temple.

Joseph Smith wrote of Zion even before the organization of the Latter Day Saint church. In April 1829, he dictated a revelation which urged him and his scribe, Oliver Cowdery, to "seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion." The attempt to reach that goal became a driving force in early Latter Day Saint history, and remains a powerful influence among Latter Day Saints today.

Soon after the founding of the Latter Day Saint church in April 1830, Smith designated a physical location for the Saints to start to build Zion, which he taught would be the future New Jerusalem. On July 20, 1831, Smith stated that he had received a revelation that designated Missouri as the "land which I have appointed and consecrated for the gathering of the saints." The revelation further stated, "Behold, the place which is now called Independence is the center place; and the spot for the temple is lying westward…" Smith later envisioned the temple as being the starting point for the creation of a New Jerusalem: "Verily this is the word of the Lord, that the city New Jerusalem shall be built by the gathering of the saints, beginning at this place, even the place of the temple, which temple shall be reared in this generation."

However, mob violence forced the Latter Day Saints from the environs of Missouri by the end of 1833. The local Missourians objected to the Saints' political views (including Mormon support of abolition), their religious beliefs, and their growing population which would soon wrest political power in Jackson County from the "old settlers'" hands.

The Latter Day Saints were finally driven from Missouri in 1838 as a consequence of the Mormon War and Governor Lilburn Boggs' Extermination Order.

When the Mormons were exiled from Missouri, they briefly sought refuge in western Illinois where they established a settlement named Commerce, IL which was later named Nauvoo, Illinois. In Nauvoo, IL, the Latter Day Saints built a huge Mormon temple while awaiting the return of Joseph Smith (the original Mormon prophet and creator of The Latter Day Saints) who was still imprisoned in Missouri due to the Missouri Mormon War of 1838. Nauvoo was to serve as a safe zone while the Latter Day Saints planned their return to "Zion" (ie. Independence, Missouri) - the location where Christ will return to Earth during the Second Coming.

The Missouri Mormon War of 1838, the expulsion of all Mormons from Missouri in 1839, and the establishment of Nauvoo, IL in 1839 made non-Mormons uneasy about the influx of Mormons into Illinois. Like in Missouri, the hostility of non-Mormons toward Mormons was mostly based on politics. Non-Mormons were fearful that Mormons were becoming a powerful voting bloc that would ultimately not serve the best interests of non-Mormon residents. In fact, in 1844, Joseph Smith actually ran for President of the United States and advocated for a theodemocracy. He wrote: "I go emphatically, virtuously, and humanely, for a Theodemocracy, where God and the people hold the power to conduct the affairs of men in righteousness." 1844 would also be the last year of Smith's life. Smith and his brother Hyrum were assassinated when a vigilante mob lynched the two Mormon leaders in Carthage, IL.

After Smith's assassination, the agitation against Mormons continued. The conflict escalated into what has sometimes been called the "Mormon War in Illinois." Opponents of the Mormons in Warsaw and Carthage began to agitate for the expulsion from Illinois of the Latter Day Saints. In October 1844, a great gathering was announced in Warsaw. Although it was purported to be a "wolf hunt," it was known that the "wolves" to be hunted were the Mormons. When Governor Thomas Ford became aware of it, he sent militia troops to disperse the gathering. However, as he later recalled:

"The malcontents abandoned their design, and all the leaders of it fled to Missouri. The Carthage Greys fled almost in a body, carrying their arms along with them. During our stay in the county the anti-Mormons thronged into the camp and conversed freely with the men, who were fast infected with their prejudices, and it was impossible to get any of the officers to aid in expelling them".

Vigilante bands continued to roam the county, forcing Latter Day Saints in outlying areas to abandon their homes and gather in Nauvoo for protection.

Nauvoo's population peaked at about this time in 1845; it may have had as many as 12,000 inhabitants (and several nearly as large suburbs) — rivaling Chicago, whose 1845 population was about 15,000. By the end of 1845 it became clear that no peace was possible between LDS church members and antagonized locals. Mormon leaders negotiated a truce so that the Latter Day Saints could prepare to abandon the city. The winter of 1845-46 saw the enormous preparations for the Mormon Exodus to what is now Utah via the Mormon Trail. In early 1846, the majority of the Latter Day Saints left the city.

After the departure of the Mormons, the temple stood until destroyed by arsonists on November 19, 1848.

159 years later, on April 1, 2004, the Illinois House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution of regret for the forced expulsion of the Mormons from Nauvoo in 1846.

Today, Latter Day Saints are still counseled by their leaders to build up the cause of Zion,[5] and prepare themselves to be worthy of such a society.