TENTATIVE SITE, 608 Vine, Chillicothe, Missouri 64601

Dedicated to all those who seek peace, mercy, or understanding, for any reason. In general, this is to be a beautiful yet quiet place for people to find within themselves the ability to forgive others, and let go of hate, animosity, or anger of any type.

In memory also, of those who participated in, were effected by, and/or died in, the Haun’s Mill Massacre, October 30,1838. Because of the involvement of our early Chillicothe City Fathers, this site is to be dedicated in hope that peace, healing, and reconciliation will grace our area in honor of the memory of the lives affected from this tragic episode in our early American history. May all sides be understood fairly and honestly so that no act or life may be seen to have been in vain, merely understood and learned by. This area is to be set aside solely for the purpose of quiet meditation and serious reflection.

Site to be maintained by a blind Trust.

“When it comes to the subject of Jeff’s’ piece above, I recall one Sunday morning when I attended the Mormon Church in Chillicothe, as the guest of Jeff and his family. I expected to hear the routine sermons but was literally shocked and deeply offended when the sermon consisted of using the pulpit to preach war; to encourage killing men and to pat the backs of our Soldiers who did the same.

Whatever your views are about our current war, I personally do not believe it is appropriate to use the House of the Lord to actively preach violence and death against other human beings regardless what religious faith a person claims. The House of the Lord is supposed to be a place to worship God; to rejoice in his word, his love and his gift of eternal life. Its’ supposed to be a place to learn about ourselves and how to be better, do better and have better by and through the word and love of our Lord. But on that black Sunday morning, the pulpit was used to preach hate; encourage death and rejoice in the misery of others.”

Having attended that Branch for the last eight years, I have never heard what Christopher said he heard. I know that if some one is assigned to speak, he or she is given the topic to speak on and that those topics come from the most recent talks given by General Authorities of the Church in the latest General Conference. Any deviation from doctrine is stopped and the speaker asked to end his talk by the Bishop/Branch President. There are no political announcements made from the pulpit other than if there is an election coming up, encouragement to get out and vote on the appropriate day. That and only that. I don’t know what Jeff is referring to with his statement,

“Can you imagine the Mormons getting up at the pulpit and threatening thier members if they were to vote or support certian candidates or issues? They do not do this openly, but they do this exact thing in cliendestine meetings behind closed doors.”

As a member of the Chillicothe Branch which has about 140 members on record and having been in several leadership positions in the Branch and other Wards and Branches around the country, I have never been involved in or heard of any “cliendestine meetings behind closed doors” involving members in good standing and not on the “fringe” of the Church. In fact, the First Presidency advises it’s member to not take part in any of these types of meetings. If anyone really wants to know what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints preaches and believe, go to this link. http://lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,23-1-851,00.html

I have always believed, If you want to know about Coke, don’t ask a Pepsi drinker.

Probably because of the Romney controversy, on February 4, 2008, Thomas S. Monson said to Peggy Stack, reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune, that the church does not get involved in political matters. If this is true, then why, when I was Mayor of Chillicothe Missouri, was I was threatened with excommunication if I did not rescind a piece of Legislation that I sent to the Missouri State Legislature. It is supposedly against Fereral Law (Title 26, Section 501) for a church to influence legislation, but in 2003, the late Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley and his councilors thought it appropriate and acceptable to threaten my membership in the church when I was Mayor of Chillicothe in Northwest Missouri, regarding a political matter.

On Feb. 17, 2007, the Church will hold a disciplinary Council (church court) on me because I let the public know of these acts via the internet, and I finally filed charges with the local Sheriff, the ACLU, the IRS, and others because of the continual manipulation and abuse of Mormon leaders. I tried for several years to quietly and internally settling these issues, but they would have none of it. They view my exposure and revealing of thier actions as my attempt to disparage and criticize leaders (evil speaking of the Lords anointed). They state, “those who reject Christ’s servants, reject him”. Why does leadership demand no accountability in Chuches for innapropritae actions of leaders?

Do we think Brigham Young would have personally sought out those accountable for the senseless murder of 120 men, women, and children on SEPTEMBER 11, 1857, without pressure from the Federal Government? Who will protect us? Where are the checks and balances for questioning potential religious abuses? Most of the Mormon people are good, honest individuals, but the people of Missouri will not put up with this type of stronghanded influence. So as the Mormon Migration to Missouri continues, I hope the Mormon people will open their minds and become more careful and considerate of the people they meet. Most have no idea of what really happened in Missouri over 170 years ago, because the whole story was never fully told.

Sincerely,
Jeff Foli
Former Mayor of Chillicothe, Missouri

The issue you discuss and for, which is the focus or apart of your suit, is not one of solely attempting to use the pulpit to coerce legislation, in and of itself, but also that of attempting to influence the actions of an elected official while in office, by use of extortion tactics, as a means and way to threaten, intimidate or coerce an elected official to do what the Church wants, rather than what the elected official believes or purports to believe is in the best interest of the people, and seeks to use his or her public office to try and accomplish by legislative processes.

When George W. Bush signed the Faith Base legislation into law, making it legal for the federal government to fund churches and other faith based organizations, with public tax revenue, Pandora’s box was opened wide.

Unfortunately since that time, the saying of “give an inch but take a mile” has been a substantially dominating factor in our collective U.S. society, as more and more religious leaders use their pulpits to preach and / or substantially influence politics among their congregation. To-wit, a great deal of this is directly traceable to the evangelical television shows that use their media outlets to preach that any action taken, other than what is being preached, is an immediate abomination of God.

We saw the aforesaid come true when the issue of same sex marriages existed and the propaganda plastered on such television and cable religious programming, on the erroneous predication that, despite the high divorcé rates, the high number of dead beat dad’s, the high rate of domestic violence, and the fact that 96% of child molestations are committed by men identifying themselves as heterosexuals, it is gays, bisexuals and lesbians who are the immoral degenerates simply and only because they seek to have [equal] legal rights as heterosexual have by and through marriage.

We have also seen the aforesaid come true when religious leaders use their pulpit to gain federal funding to help homeless people, all the while paying high dividends to executive officers of the Church while doing extremely poor jobs in actually helping homeless people get find suitable housing and jobs, in order to maintain or increase their profit margins which are based upon statisical numbers of homeless people served being reported to the federal government.

The point that I am making here is simple enough: Selective enforcement of biblical scriptures for the benefit of a privileged few is by no means new in our society and it is most assuredly consistent with the manner that we have long since selectively enforced, or permited others to selectively enforce the laws, Corporate policies and the purported “moral” conduct that makes us a so-called “civilized society.”

As I told you, when you and I first discussed what happened to you several years ago, the Church is clearly in the wrong for what they did to you, and the Church officials involved, need to be held accountable in lawful ways. But we must be mindful that the greater source of the problems existing is our tolerant society that prefers to have blind eyes on the basis that unless and until a person suffers adverse actions themselves, then they have no duty, as a citizen of the U.S. to take any action against such. Or, in the words of Chief Justice Earl Warren, in “A Republic, If You Can Keep It”, p. 48:

“The only protection of every citizen from such deprivation of rights is a strict
adherence to the Bill of Rights by everyone - for everyone. This should be self-
evident but the danger of erosion of rights stems largely from the fact that so
many citizens of the majority, who have never been deprived of any of these
rights, find it difficult to understand what the deprivation of them means in the
lives of others.”