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Criticism of Mormonism/Online documents/For my Wife and Children (Letter to my Wife)/Chapter 9
Response to "For my Wife and Children" ("Letter to my Wife"): Chapter 9 - Blood Atonement
| Chapter 8 - Blacks and the Church | A FAIR Analysis of: For my Wife and Children (Letter to my Wife), a work by author: Anonymous
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Chapter 10 - Prophesies |
Response to claims made in "For my Wife and Children" ("Letter to my Wife"): Chapter 9 - Blood Atonement
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- Response to claim: "Brigham inspired his followers to murder in God’s name, both Mormons and non-Mormons alike"
- Response to claim: "President Young acknowledges that elders in the church have murdered, in the name of God, those assumed to have sinned"
- Response to claim: "Many terrorist organizations around the world commit terrible acts in the name of God. Should they get a free pass for their actions? Should our Church?"
Response to claim: "Brigham inspired his followers to murder in God’s name, both Mormons and non-Mormons alike"
The author(s) of "For my Wife and Children" ("Letter to my Wife") make(s) the following claim:
Brigham inspired his followers to murder in God’s name, both Mormons and non-Mormons alike....
Brigham Young: “All mankind love themselves, and let these principles be known by an individual, and he would be glad to have his blood shed. That would be loving themselves, even unto an eternal exaltation. Will you love your brothers and sisters likewise, when they have committed a sin that cannot be atoned for without the shedding of their blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood? I could refer you to plenty of instances where men have been righteously slain, in order to atone for their sins.” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, pp.219-20) Take special note of the underlined.
Author's sources:
- President Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1954, vol. 1, pp. 135-136.
- Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 1:108-109.
- Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 4:219-220.
- Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 4:53.
- Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 4:220.
FAIR's Response
Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources
Response to claim: "President Young acknowledges that elders in the church have murdered, in the name of God, those assumed to have sinned"
The author(s) of "For my Wife and Children" ("Letter to my Wife") make(s) the following claim:
President Young acknowledges that elders in the church have murdered, in the name of God, those assumed to have sinned.
FAIR's Response
Fact checking results: This claim is false
No, he didn't. Brigham's statement, "I could refer you to plenty of instances where men have been righteously slain, in order to atone for their sins" says nothing at all about the "elders in the church" having "murdered, in the name of God, those assumed to have sinned."
Response to claim: "Many terrorist organizations around the world commit terrible acts in the name of God. Should they get a free pass for their actions? Should our Church?"
The author(s) of "For my Wife and Children" ("Letter to my Wife") make(s) the following claim:
Many terrorist organizations around the world commit terrible acts in the name of God. Should they get a free pass for their actions? Should our Church?
Author's sources:
- Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 4:375.
- Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 6:125-126.
- Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 7:20.
- Jedediah M. Grant, Journal of Discourses 4:49-51.
- Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1954, vol.1, pp.135-136
FAIR's Response
Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader
The author quotes Heber C. Kimball, Jedediah M. Grant and Joseph Fielding Smith speaking on the subject of "blood atonement," and yet ignores Brigham's statement that "The wickedness and ignorance of the nations forbid this principle's being in full force." The author offers no evidence that such a practice was actually ever implemented. Instead, he simply compares the Church with "terrorist organizations around the world" whose "terrible acts" are visible for all to see and relies on the emotional response of such a comparison to prove his point.
Notes