In its beginnings, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) faced severe persecution and had an extermination order decreed against them by the state of Missouri by, then, governor Boggs.

The political pressure relented only when the leaders of the church began to make concession to government demands, one of which required them to abandon polygamy in the 1890s. Though this is not the first instance in political intrigue within or without the #mormon church, it signals the decline in its resolve to maintain the standards revealed to #JosephSmith at the outset of the religion.

There's much more that can be said on this point. Suffice it to say, that Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of the Church, commenced agreements with an elite power group in 1898. This group poisoned him thereafter.