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There seem to be some rather serious POV problems with this section. I know this is a small page and not many people will find it, but we still have to uphold the NPOV policy here. I have a few problems:

First, why is there a comparision from Thomas Ford to Pontius Pilate? The Pilate from the Bible and Christian culture was not acting to preserve "standard" religion from an incresingly popular "Christianity". If this statement is to remain, I think it should be reworded as to both why the compairison is apt, and how such a comparison is NPOV. As it reads to me, it seems to be sublty making another comparison that I am uncomfortable with: the comparison of Joseph Smith, Jr., with Jesus. From the point of view of an article on Thomas Ford this is uneeded and wrong.

Secondly, and I say this being an active LDS, I'm a little troubled by the blatant use of the word "murder" in the death of Joseph Smith. This word carries ugly cultural connotations. I would propose that the word be changed to "assasinate", which is more of a political term; from the point of view of Gov. Ford, the death of Joseph Smith would have been a political problem, and not a religious one.

I do not know the best way to change this information. Also, while factual in many respects, the single source for much of this information is worrying. Does anyone have other sources that could be applied? NoCoolName_Tom | Talk 21:27, 19 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Four years later, the section seems to have changed very little. "One of the most controversial politicians in the nation's history" in the section above that one is another sign of POV problems. I'll tag the article. I am interested in improving this article; we'll see if I find time for a major rewrite. Fishal (talk) 16:34, 27 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've removed an old neutrality tag from this page that appears to have no active discussion per the instructions at Template:POV:

This template is not meant to be a permanent resident on any article. Remove this template whenever:

1. There is consensus on the talkpage or the NPOV Noticeboard that the issue has been resolved
2. It is not clear what the neutrality issue is, and no satisfactory explanation has been given
3. In the absence of any discussion, or if the discussion has become dormant.

Since there's no evidence of ongoing discussion, I'm removing the tag for now. If discussion is continuing and I've failed to see it, however, please feel free to restore the template and continue to address the issues. Thanks to everybody working on this one! -- Khazar2 (talk) 12:39, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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While I should have been taking care of my own family business this weekend, I cleaned up this article enough that the POV wasn't really offensive (especially in this, Illinois' bicentennial year). I removed some of the tags, although more work remains needed. However, I don't have time to download and read Ford's history (although I remember it from years ago as pretty reliable) nor the Mormon works cited (having long ago read these or others about the expulsion), nor track down Ford's sons.Jweaver28 (talk) 21:59, 23 September 2018 (UTC) For what its worth, I came across this article while trying to find a quick fix to the Slavery in Illinois article, having came across (then lost due to windows update reboot) an internet archive source that put Illinois' developing an anti-slavery jurisprudence to this decade (rather than much earlier as that basically citation free article claims). However, I don't have the time to fix that article, much less put the anti-Mormon mob violence into either a subset of anti-slavery violence or common mob violence in that era (even the initial launch of the Illinois and Michigan canal produced stone-throwing by Irish workers on the banks in Bridgeport, followed by some well-heeled passengers debarking to either beat them up or kill them). I don't know even when I'll have time to get the articles concerning the other justices of the era into shape.Jweaver28 (talk) 14:25, 24 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]