Because hostility does not stay harmless for long.
History shows that injustice rarely begins with violence. It begins with distortion. It begins when a people become a punchline, a suspicion, a stereotype, or a threat in the public imagination.
Latter-day Saints have lived this pattern before. Our history includes expulsion, mob violence, and even a state order declaring that Saints be “exterminated or driven” from Missouri. At Hawn’s Mill, men and boys were murdered and families were forced to flee.
Today, the danger often begins earlier. It begins in distortion, spectacle, conspiracy, and dehumanizing rhetoric. If we want to prevent tomorrow’s injustices, we have to address today’s misinformation.
The pattern is old. The medium is new.
Religious discrimination should never be dismissed as harmless. Turning a blind eye to abuses against any faith community can embolden hostility and lead to real harm.
Misinformation
Falsehoods, caricatures, and lazy storytelling begin to shape public perception.
Normalization
Mockery, suspicion, and conspiracy become socially acceptable forms of commentary.
Harm
Bias becomes exclusion, discrimination, harassment, and sometimes violence.
A serious public-interest initiative for truth, fairness, and religious dignity.
SAFE — Saints Advocating for Freedom & Equity — is a public-interest initiative of GoForth Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity. We work to protect the dignity, freedom, and fair treatment of Latter-day Saints through reporting, research, practical resources, historical education, and principled public response.
Monitor
Track patterns in media, public rhetoric, and online misinformation.
Educate
Teach the history of anti‑Latter-day Saint prejudice and why it still matters.
Equip
Provide rights toolkits, reporting pathways, and practical resources.
Respond
Offer principled, evidence-based public response when fairness breaks down.
This is not a new story.
The persecution of Latter-day Saints is not a metaphor. It is part of American history. From expulsion orders to massacres to forced migration, Saints have lived through the consequences of public fear and organized hostility.
Remembering that history is not about competing with anyone else’s suffering. It is about learning what happens when lies harden into license.
Where injustice shows up today.
Bias does not always arrive as violence. Sometimes it arrives as ridicule, exclusion, mislabeling, pressure, or fear.
Schools
Classroom bias, stereotype, social pressure, and student exclusion.
02Workplaces
Subtle lowering of credibility, accommodation denials, professional pressure.
03Media
Caricature, recycled controversy, and distortion by selective framing.
04Online
Conspiracy, algorithmic hostility, targeted mockery at scale.
Clarity matters.
Latter-day Saints should not have to live under recycled myths of secret control, sinister influence, or collective guilt by association.
SAFE exists to separate rumor from fact, institution from individual, and criticism from prejudice. Our approach is not outrage. It is evidence.
See the FactsIf you’ve experienced bias, you are not alone.
Whether you have faced discrimination at work, hostility at school, online harassment, or unfair treatment in public life, SAFE is building tools to help you document it, understand your options, and respond wisely.
Data, reporting, and public accountability.
We do not answer misinformation with outrage. We answer it with evidence.
The public picture, year over year.
An annual account of how Latter-day Saints are discussed in media and online — what shifted, what grew, what faded.
Learn moreFairness has a standard.
A transparent evaluation of accuracy, framing, and context in major coverage of Latter-day Saints.
Learn morePractical resources for real situations.
Know-your-rights guides for schools, workplaces, and public life.
Learn moreWhen distortion becomes precedent.
How individual media moments reshape public assumptions about an entire faith.
Learn moreReal people. Real costs. Real dignity.
Behind every stereotype is a student, a parent, a convert, a missionary, a coworker, or a family trying to live their faith in peace.
SAFE exists because these stories matter.
Read StoriesHelp build a future where Latter-day Saints do not carry misrepresentation alone.
Join us in protecting truth, dignity, and religious freedom — before misunderstanding becomes something worse.