Mormon Dilemma 607

Death to Thieves

Journal of Discourses 1:109; “If you want to know what to do with a thief that you may find stealing, I say kill him on the spot, and never suffer him to commit another iniquity.” – Brigham Young, Salt Lake City, May 8, 1853

Exodus 20:13; “Thou shalt not kill.”

Four years after the prophet Brigham Young made this statement he would order the wholesale slaughter of 120 Christian men, women and children because they were committing the horrible act of passing through Utah.

Mr. Young’s comment above gives me pause to wonder why their own rules don’t apply to themselves. In addition to killing the innocent caravan of Christian pioneers they also stole their clothing, wagons, horses, food and jewelry.

The picture to the right is Elizabeth Baker Terry. She was a child survivor of the Baker-Fancher Party who were victims of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.