Blood atonement

[citation needed][6] Though people in Utah were executed by firing squad for capital crimes under the assumption that this would aid their salvation, there is no clear evidence that Young or other top theocratic Mormon leaders enforced blood atonement for apostasy.

[12] In its early days, Mormonism was a Restorationist faith, and leaders of it such as Joseph Smith and Brigham Young frequently discussed efforts to re-introduce social, legal, and religious practices described in the Bible, such as temple building, polygamy, and a patriarchal, theocratic governing structure.

[16] For example, in 1 Corinthians 5:5, Paul discusses a man who copulated with his father's wife and commands church members to "deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

[36][37] Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, was a strong proponent of capital punishment, and favored execution methods that involved the shedding of blood as retribution for crimes of bloodshed.

"[42] Sidney Rigdon, Smith's counselor in the First Presidency, also supported capital punishment involving the spilling of blood, stating, "There are men standing in your midst that you can't do anything with them but cut their throat and bury them.

"[43] On the other hand, Smith was willing to tolerate the presence of men "as corrupt as the devil himself" in Nauvoo, Illinois, who "had been guilty of murder and robbery," in the chance that they might "come to the waters of baptism through repentance, and redeem a part of their allotted time.

[44] On the other hand, on February 25, 1846, after the Saints had left Nauvoo, Young threatened adherents who had stolen wagon cover strings and rail timber with having their throats cut "when they get out of the settlements where his orders could be executed.

This revelation stated that once a man and a woman enter the "New and Everlasting Covenant" (a celestial marriage), and it is "sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise" (which Smith later taught was accomplished through the second anointing ritual).

If a sealed person shed innocent blood, they would suffer the fate of David, who was redeemed, but fell short of his exaltation, and did not become a joint-heir with Christ (D&C 132:39), since a murderer is not forgiven in the sense that he will not enter the Celestial kingdom.

[50] Nonetheless, although his sins fall under the category of unpardonable, he is not considered a son of perdition because he sought repentance at the hand of God carefully with tears all his life afterward.

The subject of blood atonement remained largely dormant until the 1870s, when the issue was revived by the national media during the John D. Lee trials for his role in the Mountain Meadows massacre.

In the Salt Lake valley, Young maintained a Council of Fifty composed of religious leaders as a kind of legislature, but this body's power was limited (Quinn 1997, pp. 262–63).

[53] Later in 1851, the General Assembly of the State of Deseret, picked by the Council of Fifty, adopted a capital punishment provision allowing decapitation as a means of execution, which would remain in force until 1888 (Gardner 1979, p. 13).

He said that if a white Mormon "in an unguarded moment should commit such a transgression", decapitation "would do a great deal towards atoning for the sin...it would do them good that they might be saved with their Bre[theren]" (Young 1852).

Brigham Young, who was then a theocratic leader, began preparing church members for what they thought was the quickly approaching Second Coming, and a time of "Celestial law" in the Utah Territory.

He lamented on the difficulty in applying this in a secular democracy, stating, "I wish we were in a situation favorable to our doing that which is justifiable before God, without any contaminating influences of Gentile amalgamation, laws, and traditions."

5:5, calling on early Christians "[t]o deliver [an adulterer] unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus," as a Biblical justification for the blood atonement doctrine (Pratt 1855, p. 357).

Lee stated in his memoirs that he had heard of only one person who had properly received death by blood atonement - by willingly atoning for the crime: Rosmos Anderson was a Danish man who had come to Utah...He had married a widow lady...and she had a daughter that was fully grown at the time of the reformation... At one of the meetings during the reformation Anderson and his step-daughter confessed that they had committed adultery, believing when they did so that Brigham Young would allow them to marry when he learned the facts.

Klingensmith, James Haslem, Daniel McFarland and John M. Higbee dug a grave in the field near Cedar City, and that night, about 12 o'clock, went to Anderson's house and ordered him to make ready to obey the Council.

Philip Klingensmith, a Bishop in the church and a private in the militia and the only Mormon who admitted to obeying direct orders that commanded the murder of unarmed men, reported that he saw one man beg for life, saying, "'Higbee, I wouldn't do this you.'

Less than twelve hours after that, Judge Elias Smith, first cousin of Joseph Smith, appointed George Stringham (a Mormon ruffian and vigilante with ties to Porter Rockwell, Jason Luce, and William Hickman) as the foreman of the Coroner's Jury; they briefly met and summarily dismissed the case as a crime that was either committed by a person or persons who were unknown to the jury, abruptly ending all official enquiries into the bizarre murder.

This speculation was largely fueled by the fact that a notebook belonging to Hooper Young had been found at the scene of the crime, and "blood atonement" and supporting scriptural references was scrawled on one of the pages.

[72] Chief among the Latter-day Saint writers defending the doctrine in the late 19th century was Charles W. Penrose, editor of the church-owned Deseret News, who would later become a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the First Presidency.

LORENZO SNOW, FRANKLIN D. RICHARDS, BRIGHAM YOUNG, MOSES THATCHER, FRANCIS M. LYMAN, JOHN HENRY SMITH, GEORGE TEASDALE, HEBER J.

[86] In McConkie's letter, he suggested that the doctrine could, in fact, be valid, but only in a pure theocracy, although he also stated that "Brigham Young and the others were speaking of a theoretical principle that operated in ages past and not in either their or our day."

Since such a theocracy has not been operative in modern times, the practical effect of the idea was its use as a rhetorical device to heighten the awareness of Latter-day Saints of the seriousness of murder and other major sins.

[87] Joseph Fielding Smith stated: [T]he founders of Utah incorporated in the laws of the Territory provisions for the capital punishment of those who wil[l]fully shed the blood of their fellow men.

[2] In modern times, the concept of "blood atonement" has been used by a number of fundamentalist splinter groups as an excuse to justify the murder of those who disagree with their leaders or attempt to leave their churches.

Former FLDS member Robert Richter reported to the Phoenix New Times that in his sermons, Jeffs repeatedly alluded to blood atonement for serious sins such as murder and adultery.

[95] Ervil LeBaron, the leader and prophet of the Church of the Lamb of God, initiated a series of killings that ultimately resulted in his being sentenced to life in prison.