Do you know why LDS is so into food preservation? I didn't until a couple of summers ago when we accidentally drove into the town of Nauvoo Illinois http://www.historicnauvoo.net/ We've all heard about the "Trail of Tears", the massacre at Wounded Knee, but I never knew about the bloodshed at Nauvoo, have you? http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2009/09/what-happened-in-navuoo-part-1/
This is white-on-white massacre, akin to what was portrayed in "Defiance". Can it happen again? LDS prepares. I'm sure they are not the only ones that could be victims. No wonder they are the experts on this subject.
Nauvoo is only part of the troubles they had. The early members of the church were kicked out of Missouri in the dead of winter under the "extermination order" - any Mormons in Missouri could be killed (I don't think that expulsion was purely religious - there was a lot of anti-slavery northerners in that bunch, and we are talking 1830s, so it was pretty bloody in MO over that issue.) They went to Nauvoo, and were driven out a few years later.
They went to Utah - the most god-forsaken land anyone could imagine, and part of Mexico at the time. the only water being a SALT-water lake, and its few fresh water stream tributaries. just a few years after arriving and starting over AGAIN, President Buchanan sent an army to put down a non-existent rebellion. The saints were prepared to burn their own houses this time before letting anyone live in the fruits of their labors again.
But the main reason we prepare and are into preparedness is not our history. It is our future. We believe that God knows the End from the Beginning, and that He knows what is coming. We also believe, as is written in Amos 3:7 "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, abut he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." We believe that God has called prophets for our time, and the prophet hears the Word of the Lord and tells us. And the Lord has told us to have food storage, to plant gardens, to be out of debt BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHAT IS COMING. That is why we prepare. The Lord wants what is best for His children -
all of his children, which is why the church canneries are open to everyone. (btw, food storage has been a commandment for at least 70 years.)
**edited because I have a 1-yo assistant typist
