“The women and children fled to the woods, the men and boys to a Smith log block store. The thugs immediately surrounded them and massacred twenty of them in a few minutes,” Smith wrote desperately in a letter to the governor of Missouri (Smith). Thefts, assaults and vandalism all take place because of a person's religious belief. The Bill of Rights speaks of religious equality; Regardless, persecution and discrimination are the result of religions choosing to express their beliefs that go against common Christianity. Receiving only persecution and no support, the Mormon Church fights for religious freedoms and equality as citizens and is denied these rights by the government. From the beginning, when Joseph Smith first recounted his visions, people discriminated against him and his new deep faith. Smith proves his belief by continuing to have faith in his belief and religion. Smith took his faith to Ohio where he suffered persecution and assault, persecution caused by the peaceful living of their faith. No law gives individuals the right to discriminate and abuse religion based on their beliefs. Likewise, the Mormon Church was continually discriminated against when it moved to Missouri. As crimes against the Mormon Church increased and other attacks took place, the government stood idly by (Bushman 21). These continued attacks in all parts of the Midwest show the lack of equality among all religions. The founding idea of ​​the United States, "that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, which include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," set forth in the United States Declaration of independence, was adopted. been ignored. The government owns...... middle of paper ......ssouri State Archives.Sekulow, Jay Alan. “The Mormon Controversy.” Witness their faith, religious influence on the Supreme Court Justices and their opinions. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006. 87-121. Print. Bushman, Claudia L. and Richard L. Bushman. Building the Kingdom: A History of Mormons in America. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print. Harmer-Dionne, Elizabeth. “Once a Peculiar People: Cognitive Dissonance and the Suppression of Mormon Polygamy as a Case Study Negating the Belief-Action Distinction.” »JSTOR. JSTOR. Internet. October 19, 2010. Gilford, James W. “The Case of Senator Smoot and the Mormon Church.” JSTOR. JSTOR. Internet. October 19, 2010.1886, par. "The Ending of Polygamy in Historical Mormonism | Mormon Polygamy." Mormon polygamy. Internet. October 21. 2010. .