JS had it comin', no doubt about it. He deserved to be T&F'd, he brought in on himself. It's pure ignorance on the part of TBM's that it was satan's agenda. If the church were truly persecuted I doubt that Utah would have been granted statehood when it did. They managed to compromise but it was based on the lies and deceit of TSCC, so basically the church was making a mockery of the US government. They didn't give up polygamy as they promised they would. Finally when push came to shove and they abandoned it, they just went and exed everyone that wouldn't comply. This is speculation but at the time what else were the polygamists to do. Do you think the offshoot FLDS church was formed with the blessing of TSCC? A way for the mainstream church to maintain legitimacy and allow polygamy practising people to not have to divorce their wives?