18 Facts About Blood atonement

Blood atonement is a disputed doctrine in the history of Mormonism, under which the atonement of Jesus does not redeem an eternal sin.

Blood atonement doctrine was the impetus behind laws which allowed capital punishment by firing squad or decapitation in both the territory and the state of Utah.

Blood atonement remains an important doctrine within Mormon fundamentalism and is often referenced by alt-right Mormon groups.

LDS apostle Bruce R McConkie, speaking on behalf of church leadership, wrote in 1978 that while he still believed that certain sins are beyond the atoning power of the blood of Christ, the doctrine of blood atonement is only applicable in a theocracy, like that during the time of Moses.

Public talk of blood atonement diminished substantially by the end of the Mormon Reformation in 1858 when Young was replaced as territorial governor by Alfred Cumming.

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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.

Brigham Young's first recorded teachings on the blood atonement doctrine were in 1845, when Young had stepped into the shoes of Joseph Smith, the previous theocratic leader who had been killed in 1844.

Blood atonement told the legislature that miscegenation was a grave sin that would bring a curse upon a man and all of his children that were produced as a result of the union.

Blood atonement said, "It is the greatest blessing that could come to some men to shed their blood on the ground, and let it come up before the Lord as an atonement".

Blood atonement warned them that the time "is not far distant" when the LDS Church would enforce the law of blood atonement against covenant breakers.

Blood atonement as taught above was not to be used as a way to punish, but as a way for the sinner to make restitution for his sins.

Blood atonement's wife was ordered to prepare a suit of clean clothing, in which to have her husband buried, and was informed that he was to be killed for his sins, she being directed to tell those who should enquire after her husband that he had gone to California.

In 1902, the police and press initially speculated that blood atonement might have been a motive for the New York City "Pulitzer Murder" committed by William Hooper Young, a grandson of Brigham Young.

Hooper Young's case and contemporary blood atonement are discussed in detail in Brian Evenson's 2006 novel The Open Curtain.

You note that I and President Joseph Fielding Smith and some of our early church leaders have said and written about this doctrine and you asked if the doctrine of blood atonement is an official doctrine of the Church today.

Blood atonement felt that lawmakers had been trying to eliminate the firing squad in opposition to popular opinion in Utah because of concern over the state's image during the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Blood atonement stated that their names were “on the list to be atoned for” because her father believed that they were “traitors to God's cause.

Blood atonement has been a part of works such as Levi S Peterson's The Backslider and Richard Dutcher's "Expiation".