Mormonism and violence

The history of the Latter Day Saint movement includes numerous instances of violence.^[1] Mormons faced significant persecution in the early 19th century, including instances of forced displacement and mob violence in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois.^[2][3] Notably, the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, was shot and killed alongside his brother, Hyrum Smith, in Carthage, Illinois in 1844, while Smith was in jail awaiting trial on charges of treason and inciting a riot.

Mormons have also been involved in acts of violence. The Danites, a vigilante group initially sanctioned by Mormon leaders, burned and looted Davies County and engaged in clashes with the Missouri state militia during the 1838 Mormon War. Mormons settlers in the western United States participated in various conflicts, including the Walker and Black Hawk wars, which involved clashes with Native American tribes. Additionally, there were incidents such as the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the Battle Creek Massacre, and the Circleville Massacre, in which Mormons committed acts of violence against non-Mormons.

The record of these incidences of violence have negatively affected both the history and the doctrines of the Latter Day Saint movement.^[4]

The following lists instances of anti-Mormon violence which took place in early Latter Day Saint history.

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 rapid growth of the Mormon population and their distinct religious beliefs created tension with existing non-Mormon residents. 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.^[5][6]

In July 1833, a group of vigilantes published a manifesto accusing the Mormons of having a "corrupting influence" on their slaves. They attacked the Mormon printing press, razed the building, and scattered the type on the street.^[7][8] They then targeted the homes of the Mormon leaders, dragged, tarred and feathered them, and issued an ultimatum demanding that all Mormons leave the county.^[9] The Mormons were given a short amount of time to comply; when they refused to leave, a violent expulsion occurred. The Mormons were forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in neighboring counties. The Missouri state government, rather than protecting the Mormons, largely turned a blind eye to the violence and displacement.^[10]

In 1836, the state congress established Caldwell County as a place for the Mormons to settle.^[11] The church relocated its main headquarters in January 1838 from Kirtland, Ohio to Far West in Caldwell County. Settlement in the area increased as thousands of Mormons poured into the new headquarters in Missouri from Kirtland and other areas. Mormons established new colonies outside of Caldwell County, including Adam-ondi-Ahman in Daviess County and De Witt in Carroll County. The Missourians saw expansion of Mormon communities outside of Caldwell County as a political and economic threat.^[12]

On August 6, 1838, in Daviess County, a brawl erupted between a group of Mormons and non-Mormon residents during election day. The perception that Mormons intended to vote as a bloc clashed with the opposition of non-Mormons who sought to prevent them from casting their ballots.^[13] 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. Outnumbered and fearing violence, the Mormons sent appeals for assistance to other Mormon communities in nearby counties. The siege ultimately ended when a state militia unit arrived, and the Mormons agreed to evacuate the town.^[14]

Hostilities culminated in 1838 when Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs issued an executive order, commonly known as the Mormon Extermination Order. This order declared that "the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State." Just three days later, a militia unit attacked a Mormon settlement at Haun's Mill, resulting in the death of 18 Mormons.

The conflict in Illinois was often rooted in the growing political and economic power of the Mormon community, concentrated in the city of Nauvoo. As the Mormon population expanded, non-Mormons in Hancock County, especially in the neighboring towns of Warsaw and Carthage, grew increasingly threatened by the Mormons' dominant position.^[14] Other sources of tension included Joseph Smith's practice of polygamy, Smith's opposition to slavery during his presidential campaign, and the doctrine of human deification.

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. In response, the Warsaw newspaper called for a "war of extermination" against the Mormons, to be made with "powder and ball".^[15][16] Amid the uproar, Smith was arrested and jailed in Carthage, where he and his brother Hyrum Smith were ultimately killed by a vigilante mob. 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.^[17] The Mormons eventually surrendered and were expelled from the city, crossing the Mississippi into Iowa.

In 2004, the Illinois House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution of regret for the forced expulsion of the Mormons from Nauvoo.^[18]

After Mormons established a community hundreds of miles away in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, anti-Mormon activists in the Utah Territory persuaded President Buchanan that the Mormons in the territory were rebelling against the United States under the direction of Brigham Young.^[19] In response, in 1857 Buchanan sent one-third of United States's standing army to Utah in what is known as the Utah War. During the Utah War, the Mountain Meadows massacre occurred.

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".^[20] One example cited by historians is in March 1857 when an elderly church member of high standing William R. Parrish decided to leave Utah with his family when he "grew cold in the faith", but had his throat slit near his Springville, Utah home.^[21][22]

The widely publicized Mountain Meadows massacre occurred on September 11, 1857, during a period of escalating tensions between Mormons and the United States which Mormons viewed from an apocalyptic lens. It was a mass killing of about 130 emigrants, mostly from Arkansas, who were passing through the Utah territory on their way to California. The massacre was influenced, in part, by unfounded rumors that some of the emigrants had previously persecuted Mormons. Leading the massacre were William H. Dame, regional church president and colonel of the Mormon militia, and his battalion leaders Isaac C. Haight (also a regional church president), John D. Lee, and John H. Higbee. The militia surrounded the emigrants and laid siege, and after forcing them to surrender, the militia systematically executed all of them except the youngest children, who were taken and adopted by nearby residents. The militia covered up the massacre by blaming it on largely uninvolved Native American tribes. 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.

Brigham Young was accused of either directing the massacre or with complicity after the fact. When Young was interviewed on the matter and asked if it was related to his beliefs regarding blood atonement, he replied, "I do, and I believe that Lee has not half atoned for his great crime." He said "we believe that execution should be done by the shedding of blood instead of by hanging," but only "according to the laws of the land".^[23]

American troops who visited the site later constructed a cairn at the site, topped with a sign saying "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." 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.^[24]

This list of acts of violence includes some wars and massacres in the 1800s in which Mormons played a significant role on either side of the conflicts.

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

Religious justification for capital punishment is not unique to Mormons.^[54] 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. In 1843, he or his scribe commented that the common execution method in Christian nations was hanging, "instead of blood for blood according to the law of heaven."^[a] In a March 4, 1843, debate with church leader George A. Smith, who argued against capital punishment,^[b] Smith said that day if he ever had the opportunity to enact a death penalty law, he "was opposed to hanging" the convict; rather, he would "shoot him, or cut off his head, spill his blood on the ground, and let the smoke thereof ascend up to God."^[53][52] In the church's April 6, 1843, general conference, Smith said he would "wring a thief's neck off if I can find him. if I cannot bring him to justice any other way."^[59] 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."^[53][60] 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".^[61] Despite Smith's endorsements of capital punishment in March 1843, there is no evidence he ever authorized such punishment in Nauvoo, though his follower Robert D. Foster beheaded a man in near there in November 1843.^[53] In 1844 Smith was killed by a mob in a shootout, during which Smith wounded three with a six-shooter.^[53]

Brigham Young, Smith's successor in the LDS Church, initially held views on capital punishment that were similar to those of Smith. 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.^[61] 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".^[62]: 597 Later that year, Young gave orders that "when a man is found to be a thief, ... cut his throat & throw him in the River."^{[62]: 597 [63]} Young also stated that the decapitation of repeated sinners "is the law of God & it shall be executed."^[64][65][66]

In the Salt Lake Valley, Young acted as the executive authority while the Council of Fifty acted as a legislature. One of his main concerns in the early Mormon settlement was theft, and he swore that "a thief should not live in the Valley, for he would cut off their heads or be the means of haveing [sic] it done as the Lord lived."^[67] 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."^[68][69]

In the Utah Territory, there was a law from 1851 to 1888 that allowed persons who were convicted of murder to be executed by decapitation; during that time, no person was executed by that method.^[70]

"Blood atonement" is the controversial concept that there are certain sins to which the atonement of Jesus does not apply, and before a Mormon who has committed such sins can achieve the highest degree of salvation, he or she must personally atone for the sin by "hav[ing] their blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering for their sins".^[71] Blood atonement was supposed to be voluntarily practiced by the sinner, or it was contemplated as being mandatory in a theoretical theocracy which was planned for the Utah Territory, but it was supposed to be carried out with love and compassion for the sinner, not out of a desire for vengeance.^[72] 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. Even though there was discussion about implementing the doctrine, there is no direct evidence that it was ever practiced by the Mormon leadership in their capacity as the leaders of both church and state.^[73] There is inconclusive evidence, however, to suggest that the doctrine was independently enforced a few times by Mormon individuals.^[74] 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.^[75]

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). Although the LDS Church repudiated the teaching in 1978, it still has adherents within the LDS Church as well as adherents within Mormon fundamentalism, a schismatic branch of the Latter Day Saint movement whose adherents seek to follow early Mormon teachings to the letter. Despite its repudiation by the LDS Church, the concept also survives in Mormon culture, particularly with regard to capital crimes.^[76] In 1994, when the defense in the trial of James Edward Wood alleged that a local church leader had "talked to [Wood] about shedding his own blood," the LDS Church's First Presidency submitted a document to the court that denied the church's acceptance and practice of such a doctrine, and included the 1978 repudiation.^[76]

The Mormon temple endowment ceremony used to contain discussions of violence. Author and former Brigham Young University (BYU) professor^[77] Brian Evenson stated "any book that spoke in any detail about the relationship of Mormon culture to violence needed to acknowledge the connection of the temple ceremony to violence."^[78]: 99

In Mormonism, a penalty is a specified punishment for breaking an oath of secrecy after receiving the Nauvoo endowment ceremony. Adherents promised they would submit to execution in specific ways should they reveal certain contents of the ceremony. In the ceremony participants each symbolically enacted three of the methods of their execution: throat slitting, heart removal, and disembowelment. These penalties were first instituted by Joseph Smith in 1842, and further developed by Brigham Young after Smith's death.^[83] They were changed to a reference to "different ways in which life may be taken".^[83] The entire "penalty" portion of the ceremony was removed by the LDS Church in 1990.

Writer J. Aaron Sanders stated that the temple penalties were a form of blood atonement.^{[78]: 94, 99} Author Peter Levenda linked Smith's introduction of the Masonic blood oaths into the temple endowment as a step towards later threats of blood atonement for other perceived crimes in Utah territory.^[84] Historian Juanita Brooks stated that violent enforcement of religious oaths was a "literal and terrible reality" advocated by Brigham Young "without compromise".^[85]

After the death of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young added an oath of vengeance to the Nauvoo endowment ritual. Participants in the ritual made an oath to pray that God would "avenge the blood of the prophets on this nation".^[86] "The prophets" were Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and "this nation" was the United States.^[86] The oath was removed from the ceremony during the 1920s.^[87]

In 1877, Young stated what he viewed as a similarity between Smith's death and the blood atonement doctrine in that "whether we believe in blood atonement or not," Smith and other prophets "sealed their testimony with their blood."^[88][89]

In October 1976, LDS Church apostle Boyd K. Packer gave a sermon, "To Young Men Only," in which he said a missionary had told him of his companion enticing the other missionary to "join [him] in immoral acts". The missionary punched his companion so hard he fell to the floor, to which Packer responded resulting in audience laughter, "thanks. Somebody had to do it".^{[90]: 382–384 [91][92]} The sermon was later published as a pamphlet and was widely circulated to LDS young men.^[93][94] Historian D. Michael Quinn criticized Packer's comments, saying they constituted an endorsement of gay bashing; he also argued that the church endorses such behavior by continuing to publish Packer's speech.^[93][95] Others criticized the pamphlet as well.^[96][97]

On July 5, 2015, the LDS Church issued an official statement in response to the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. The statement said that proponents of same-sex marriage should be treated with civility and not disrespectfully.^[98]

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."^[99][100]

DezNat (Deseret Nationalism) is a concept introduced in 2018, following the Unite the Right rally, by Logan Smith, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), who is known as "JP Bellum" on Twitter. Initially a Twitter hashtag, DezNat has accumulated over 114,000 posts and represents a loosely affiliated group of LDS Church members sharing common ideals and values, despite the Church's negative stance on the concept. The group's influence is evident in the actions and behaviors of its followers within their communities. DezNat has been criticized for promoting bigotry and harassment against various groups, including the LGBT community, non-Mormons, ex-Mormons, feminists, abortion advocates, and pornographic film actors. Members use bowie knife imagery in homage to Brigham Young and, controversially, some advocate for violent actions under the pretext of blood atonement for certain sins—a practice disavowed by LDS Church leadership. Feminist writer Mary Ann Clements notes that DezNat proponents view their actions as aligned with former church presidents, using historical references to bolster their stance.

War is a central, cyclical theme in the Book of Mormon. There are many wars mentioned in the Book of Mormon, depicted as the consequence of prideful or sinful behavior. Battles often occur between two peoples called the Nephites and Lamanites, but other groups attacked or drawn into battle include "secret combinations" (i.e., organized criminals), factions among the Jaredites.

The Book of Mormon concludes with a cataclysmic war between the Nephites and Lamanites. The final prophet of the Book of Mormon, a Nephite named Moroni, laments that his people have participated in sexual violence, torture, and cannibalism:

And notwithstanding this great abomination of the Lamanites, it doth not exceed that of our people in Moriantum. For behold, many of the daughters of the Lamanites have they taken prisoners; and after depriving them of that which was most dear and precious above all things, which is chastity and virtue—And after they had done this thing, they did murder them in a most cruel manner, torturing their bodies even unto death; and after they have done this, they devour their flesh like unto wild beasts, because of the hardness of their hearts; and they do it for a token of bravery.^[101]

Several decapitations and dismemberments are also described in the Book of Mormon. In chapter 4 of the First Book of Nephi, the prophet Nephi is commanded by the Spirit to kill a man named Laban, whom he decapitates.^[102] In Ether chapter 15, the warrior Coriantumr, who is the last survivor of the Jaredites, decapitates Shiz.^[103] 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.^[104]

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".^[105] 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".^[106]

• "Peace and Violence among 19th-Century Latter-day Saints". LDS Church.
• Stack, Peggy Fletcher (May 13, 2014). "lds.org essay explores violent acts by and against Mormons". The Salt Lake Tribune.