...in the 50s for going on a mission. The anti-church sentiment has been there for decades just like it has with the Trib for well over a century. I'm sure if you checked the Trib payroll in the 80s most would be LDS. But they've been antagonistic to the church since the days of Brother Brigham.

So 5,000 does sound like a lot. But 1 in 5 being anti the church sounds about right to me from my experience growing up in Salt Lake. My street growing up was probably 60% Utes and 40% Cougs. Of the 60% Utes more than half were not members and were fairly anti (Cottonwood Heights).

All this said, I really don't care. Nothing surprises me about them and I really don't think or worry about them much at all. Just speculating on a message board. For all I know the event of the OP never happened. But I did watch a high percentage of them disrupt a prayer at LES so it isn't an unbelievable story.