Video: Jon Voight in 'September Dawn'

I can not believe how a country founded on freedom of religion has let the persecution of mormons to continue and you don't see the aclu stepping in anywhere do you. This persecution is the reason I looked into the religion and a year later I was baptised a member of JESUS CHRIST of LATTER DAY SAINTS , with great pride I add my name to the list of ever growing LDS members word wide .T here is an average of 800 baptisms a day I what a wonderful thing .

"September Dawn" may not be the greatest film ever made and it may have a lot of people upset, but there are still current day issues connected to this that may eventually have to be addressed.

1.) Brigham Young denied any involvement the the attack, yet John D. Lee (the REAL Bishop of Cedar City who orchestrated the event) was like a son to him. Yet President Young turned him in as the only guilty party who was the only person convicted and executed for the massacre. There are some of Lee's descendents who have never gotten over this. If there's one thing the LDS Church is good at is teaching unquestioning obedience. It's just unbelievable that John D. Lee acted under his own authority and without Young's blessing.

2.) There are many relatives/descendents of the victims who to this day would like to exhume the remains of their dead and give them a decent burial. Yet the monument dedicated to the disaster by no accident sits on LDS Church property and covers the victim's remains. The LDS Church has not allowed anyone to remove the bones. There is some dispute as to exactly how many people were on that wagon train and how many were children. Only 17 children were retrieved by the U.S. Army. Some say there might have been as many as 20 that were adopted into LDS homes. Without retrieving the remains and DNA testing, those relatives will never know exactly what happened to all the young survivors. Don't you think they deserve an accounting? We put a lot more effort into accounting for the victims of the World Trade Center disaster (Where there was little hope of finding much) than we have in accounting for the victims of the MMM, even when we KNOW remains exist. Go Figure!!! Just what is being covered up? If we're going to compare one terrorist event with another, let's be even-handed about it.

3.) There is no evidence that the massacred wagon train did or said anything to provoke the attack. Their only crime may have been that they were from the same part of the world as some of the LDS persecutors. They were also known to be one of the wealthiest wagon trains of the era. Witnesses attest to people wearing the victim's clothes and jewelry around Salt Lake City. When we read of Joseph Smith telling his followers to gain their inheritance from the gentiles (all non-LDS) what are we to make of this? Does this reframe our understanding of the tense relations between the LDS and the non LDS?

4.) It's hard to believe that the release of this movie wasn't timed to coincide with Mitt Romney's candidacy. He's in a bind: To appear to be a good conservative Republican, he must profess strong religious belief; yet when questioned about his beliefs, he's evasive. Perhaps it's because of the secret nature of the LDS faith that he can't publicly divulge much. I feel sorry for him. It undermines his credibility.