Very interesting - thanks for posting this. Partly what she is calling "persecution" by the government, at least in the Utah Territory, is Reynolds v United States, 98 US 145, 1878

This, of course, was not persecution but a recognition that the laws of marriage at common law were subjective to Protestant Christian definitions and although the Mormons which held to heretical beliefs have the right to believe in polygamy as a religious tenet, they do not have the liberty under the "free exercise" clause to practice it as it is inconsistent with historic Protestant Christianity at English common law upon which the social order was built and was a criminal offense.

While this is a good decision by the court, it is important to understand that when carried to it's logical conclusion anything the State criminalizes means that you don't have that as a religious liberty. Today, to us, that can mean holding to the very historic Protestant Faith that this decision recognized as the foundation of the law, as it has now been perverted by subsequent decisions of the Courts (e.g., separation of Church & State, Sodomite marriage &c).

This was the first Free Exercise case of the United States Supreme Court, understanding this case is critical for Christians.

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Thomas Weddle
Member, Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church
Evansville, Indiana