June 27th: A Day of Martyrs, Murders, and Memory

June 27th: A Day of Martyrs, Murders, and Memory

- June 27, 2025

🩸 June 27th: A Day of Martyrs, Murders, and Memory

June 27th, 2025.
181 years since the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.
One hundred eighty-one.
And I have to ask…

🔔 Have We Built Zion Yet?

Are we even close?
We’ve built a lot of things.
Beautiful buildings. Worldwide programs. Countless manuals and temples.
But is Zion here yet?
That city where no poor are left behind...
where all are one heart and one mind...
where Christ Himself walks among the people?
Sometimes I wonder if we’ve traded the blueprint for something safer—
something shinier, maybe.
But not holier.
And yet—there’s hope.
Something’s happening.
People are waking up.
Not everyone.
But enough to shake the ground.
As I wrote once in my journal:
Zion won’t be built from the top down.
It’ll rise from the humble... one awakened heart at a time.

🎬 The Chosen and the Women at the Table

Last night, I watched an episode of The Chosen—season 5, episode 4, I think.
The Savior was sitting at a table with a group of women.
His mother, Mary, was there.
He talked to each one of them with love, kindness, knowing.
Tears welled up in my eyes.
It was clear: these women already carried the priesthood.
Not because someone laid hands on their heads in a ceremony…
but because the Savior had already written His name on their hearts.
As the Nemenhah say:
“The priesthood was given unto all who came unto the Lord… and it was not withheld from the women, for they too ministered before Him and received of His Spirit.”

It was beautiful.
So gentle. So honoring.
That dinner scene felt like watching a glimpse of heaven.

🕊️ A Personal Savior

That’s the power of this series.
It’s not just acting—it’s inviting.
The Savior in The Chosen feels like someone I’ve walked with.
Talked to. Cried with.
He isn’t bound to an institution.
He doesn’t fill His ministry with professional administrators and lawyers.
He walks dusty roads, wipes away tears, and calls women “Daughter.”
He’s not locked away in a manual or a meeting—He’s personal. Present. Alive.
This walk I’m on with Him?
It’s wonderful.

💔 Then I Remembered What They Say About Joseph

The Church history books say Joseph Smith had a train of wives.
That he was sealing women left and right.
That Hyrum eventually caved and supported it.
But my heart says no.
Joseph had one wife—Emma.
Just like our Heavenly Parents have each other. One. Holy. Eternal.
And Hyrum?
He stood against polygamy.
He wouldn’t budge.
Isn’t it strange they both ended up dead,
shot down together…
on this day, June 27th?

🩸 Murder from Within

The Book of Mormon warns us:
“Yea, it shall come in a day when the power of God shall be denied… and they shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts... they shall be as salt that hath lost its savor…”
(3 Nephi 14)
And again:
“They have all gone out of the way; they have become corrupted… they rob the poor… and they do murder for gain.”
(2 Nephi 28:11–13)
“Murder for gain.”
That line stopped me.
Years ago, I believed that meant spiritual murder.
That our souls were being slowly strangled…
when institutions kept us away from the light of Christ
to preserve their own power, reputation, or control.
And yes—that’s part of it.
But maybe it’s more than metaphor.
Maybe it’s not just the murder of the soul—
Maybe it’s real blood,
real bodies,
real people silenced for standing in the way.
This gospel of peace has a long trail of casualties behind it—
some spiritual…
some literal.
And it’s time we stopped pretending otherwise.

🧨 Patterns of Betrayal

The Savior was betrayed by one of His own—Judas.
Joseph was betrayed too.
By men who said they loved him.
Men who stood beside him in Nauvoo.
Was Brigham behind it?
Was Hyrum silenced because he wouldn’t accept spiritual wifery?
Did the Saints start down a path of blood that day?

💀 More Murders, More Questions

Let’s talk plainly:
Mountain Meadows Massacre — 120 men, women, and children murdered. Who gave the nod?
The settlers were lied to, disarmed, and slaughtered by those they thought were saints.
Native tribes — How many were killed or displaced on Brigham’s command?
He preached they were Lamanites… but often treated them like enemies.
In the early 1850s, Brigham Young ordered brutal campaigns against the Timpanogos tribe in Utah Valley.
At Fort Utah, as many as 100 men were killed, with dozens decapitated and heads displayed.
Women and children were taken as domestic labor.
Earlier at Battle Creek, his militia attacked over alleged cattle theft.
These weren’t isolated events—they were part of a broader campaign of extermination and control.
The Black Hawk War and Circleville Massacre followed the same pattern:
take the land, remove the people.
I thought the Church was supposed to help the Remnant—not behead them.
Saints on the trail — Over 200 people perished in the Willie and Martin handcart companies—sent out late so Brigham could fund his projects, including his own mansion.
Cold bodies in shallow graves.
How do you call that the “gathering of Israel”?
Even Brigham’s own death — There are credible claims he was poisoned by one of his wives.
Historians still debate it. But it makes you wonder...
How did polygamy work out for you, Brigham?
The Parley P. Pratt incident — Stabbed to death in Arkansas by the legal husband of a woman he’d “sealed” to himself.
Let’s not sugarcoat it: he stole another man’s wife, and died for it.
The Idaho massacre — A wagon train ambushed while trying to leave Utah.
The pattern fits: disloyalty was treated as treason—and sometimes treason got you killed.
Quiet killings — Whispers, journals, and testimonies tell of others who tried to leave—and never made it.
The truth is trickling out.
But it’s there, if you’re willing to look.

🩸 Polygamy Didn’t Turn Out So Well After All

For a doctrine supposedly “from heaven,”
it left a trail of orphans, broken hearts, snow-covered graves, and sealed lies.
Blood in the snow.
Poison in the homes.
Power disguised as revelation.

⚖️ The Temple Lot Case and the Affidavits

When the Temple Lot case finally came to trial,
false affidavits flooded in to prove Joseph practiced polygamy.
But under cross-examination, most fell apart.
The judge ruled in favor of Joseph’s monogamy.
But the Church never taught that in Sunday School.
Too busy protecting Brigham.
Too busy building a kingdom with walls of silence.

🙏 My Testimony, On This Day

I believe Joseph was a prophet of the Lord.
Not because of what I read.
But because of what I’ve felt.
He was with the Savior at that heavenly meeting.
He was a seer.
He restored the truth.
And he died defending it.
And Hyrum?
He died with his boots on.
Refusing to bow to a doctrine of deception.

✍️ Final Thoughts from My Bed This Morning

This morning I sat in bed thinking:
June 27th.
Murder.
Martyrdom.
Memory.
And it hit me:
We keep defending the Church.
But maybe what we need to defend… is the Savior.
We’re too loyal to a structure.
Too afraid to question.
Too quiet when truth bleeds out on the jailhouse floor.
But Jesus is still walking.
Still calling.
Still asking…
“Will you walk with Me this day?”

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