Mormonism and violence

Mormons faced significant persecution in the early 19th century, including instances of forced displacement and mob violence in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois.

Mormon settlers in the western United States participated in various conflicts, including the Walker and Black Hawk wars, which involved clashes with Native American tribes.

Shortly after the formal organization of the Church of Christ in upstate New York in 1830, Mormon missionaries conducted expeditions and began establishing permanent settlements in western Missouri, particularly in Jackson County, starting in 1831.

The Mormons' economic cohesion, marked by their collective land purchases and successful agricultural endeavors, and their proselytizing among Native Americans and African-Americans, heightened the fears and anxieties of the non-Mormon community.

[12] Meanwhile, the siege of DeWitt unfolded in Carroll County, where a large mob of vigilantes encircled the settlement, cutting off its supplies and demanding the Mormons' departure.

Tensions boiled in 1844 following the destruction of the anti-Mormon Nauvoo Expositor newspaper press, which was condemned as a "public nuisance" by Smith and the city council.

After Smith's assassination, tensions between the Mormons and their opponents in Illinois escalated, culminating in a mob of about 1000 armed vigilantes sieging Nauvoo in 1846.

Historian Wallace Stegner wrote “It would be bad history to pretend that there were no holy murders in Utah and ... no mysterious disappearances of apostates".

[22] The massacre in the southern Utah Territory at Mountain Meadows was considered the largest act of domestic terrorism in United States history prior to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Though Dame, Haight, and other leaders were indicted in the 1870s for their roles in the massacre, John D. Lee was the only participant who stood trial, where he was ultimately convicted and executed.

According to a Mormon present at the event, when Young visited the site sometime afterward, he remarked "Vengeance is mine, and I have taken a little"; his party proceeded to destroy the cairn and memorial.

This list includes modern instances of violence in which Mormons have played a significant role on either side of the conflicts.

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

"[63] 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 & bury them.

"[54][64] 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".

On January 27, 1845, he spoke approvingly of Smith's toleration of "corrupt men" in Nauvoo who were guilty of murder and robbery on the chance that they might repent and be baptized.

[65] 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".

"[71] A Mormon listening to one of Young's sermons in 1849 recorded that he said that "if any one was catched [sic] stealing[,] to shoot them dead on the spot and [the shooter] should not be hurt for it.

[76] The concept was first taught in the mid-1850s by the First Presidency of the LDS Church during the Mormon Reformation, when Brigham Young governed the Utah Territory as a near-theocracy.

[78] Scholars have also argued that the doctrine contributed to a culture of violence, which, combined with paranoia that resulted from the church's long history of being persecuted, incited over a hundred extrajudicial killings by Mormons, including the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

[79] LDS Church leaders taught the concept of blood atonement well into the 20th century within the context of government-sanctioned capital punishment, and it was responsible for laws in the state of Utah that allowed prisoners on death row to be executed by firing squad (Salt Lake Tribune, 11 May 1994, p. D1).

[88] Historian Juanita Brooks stated that violent enforcement of religious oaths was a "literal and terrible reality" advocated by Brigham Young "without compromise".

[102] On August 23, 2021, in a controversial address to faculty and staff at BYU, apostle Jeffrey R. Holland called for "a little more musket fire from this temple of learning" in "defending marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

[112] As well as the secession of a theocratic Mormon state, some DezNat commentators have suggested this should be a white ethnostate using both neo-Nazi and far-right accelerationist imagery.

[121] In Alma chapter 17, Ammon (a Nephite missionary) defends a Lamanite king's livestock by cutting off the arms of several thieves and killing several others with a sling.

[122] In chapter 9 of the Third Book of Nephi, Christ announces to ancient Americans that he has destroyed more than a dozen cities and their inhabitants due to their corruption.

He announces that he destroyed some cities by causing them "to be burned with fire because of their sins and their wickedness", while others were "sunk in the depths of the sea" or "covered with earth".

[123] The text reports that some of the victims mourned, "O that we had repented before this great and terrible day, and had not killed and stoned the prophets, and cast them out; then would our mothers and our fair daughters, and our children have been spared".