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Although the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints still wishes to deny the complicity of Brigham Young and other key Mormon leaders in the events of that day, there seems no doubt that rank-and-file Mormons had every reason to despise such settlers as the Mountain Meadows party. Latter-day Saints had been mistreated—and some killed—by the "gentiles" from the surrounding area for years before the massacre. It seems clear that this had created a thirst for vengeance.

But according to the ex-Mormon Will Bagley, author of the 2002 book Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, the massacre was not just about vengeance. It was about doctrine—the very will of God.

On October 5, 2002, Bagley spoke to an audience at the 8th Annual Ex-Mormon Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Echoing Sayers's sentiment quoted at the head of this article, Bagley said,

I'm astonished that I still have people who I would consider friends who argue that this was done because these people basically behaved badly, and made people in southern Utah mad at them, so they just went out and killed them all.

Never in the entire fury and blood of the Civil War did members of one side or another kill children of seven years old. It never happened. These were not crimes of anger. These were crimes of ideology.

But was Brigham Young himself responsible for the Mountain Meadow massacre? Bagley reveals chilling details, including quotations from Young, of the "blood atonement revivals of 1856," during which Mormon leaders taught the doctrine "that the Saints had a right to kill a sinner to save him, when he commits those crimes that can only be atoned for by the shedding of blood."

Of course, this still does not mean that Young directly ordered the murders. In February 2002, a lead sheet was discovered, inscribed with what appeared to be a confession from John D. Lee, the one Mormon executed for leading the killers. In the confession, Lee writes that he acted on Brigham Young's explicit orders. Since that time, however, forensic experts have formally declared the scroll a fake, suggesting that it was the work of notorious anti-Mormon forger and convicted murderer Mark Hofmann.

Does that exonerate Young? Hardly.

When religious groups-even those connecting themselves to the name of Jesus-find themselves beleaguered, words can become heated and ideas violent-even on the lips of those who have no intention of shedding blood. So it was with the radical theological idea of "blood atonement" that apparently helped motivate the Mountain Meadows massacre. And so it is today with other radical teachings of fundamentalist group.

It is the responsibility of those doing the teaching-whether in Iraq or in America, whether Muslim or Christian-to understand that there will always be the John D. Lees and the Paul Hills who will put action to words in the most horrific ways.

In such cases—and we have not seen the last of them in our country—God's verdict is clear: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18:6, NKJV).

Chris Armstrong is managing editor of Christian History magazine. More Christian History, including a list of events that occurred this week in the church's past, is available at ChristianHistory.net. Subscriptions to the quarterly print magazine are also available.

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September (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47