Journal of Discourses 3:226; “The time is coming when justice will be laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet; when we shall take the old broad sword and ask, “”Are you for God?” and if you are not heartily on the Lord’s side, you will be hewn down.” – Brigham Young, Salt Lake City, March 2, 1856
Deuteronomy 32:35; “To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.”
Vengeance belongs to the Lord which means that if you’re so angry you want to take it out on others you might want to hit your knees and repent.
I was like that much of the time when I was Mormon. Empathy was not my strong suit, nor was mercy or patience. I imputed judgment on others based on my sliding scale of justice which never solved anything and in fact only made me and those in my path more miserable.
Many attribute this statement by Young as the bugle call for the Mountain Meadows Massacre. I can’t say either way because I’m not Brigham (PTL!), but what is interesting is the date he delivered this sermon. MMM took place September 11, 1857 and Brigham’s speech was about 1.5 yrs beforehand. While it seems it could’ve been code talk for attacking the Fancher-Baker party at MMM it seems a bit early to pin that one sermon on the entire event.
I’m of the opinion the attack was acted upon from a culmination of Brigham’s behavioral problem along with the mouth of Joseph Smith’s brother. George Smith was notorious for shooting off his mouth at the most inappropriate times and shortly before the attack he traveled to numerous communities in that area to incite anger and hatred towards the Christians amongst the locals.
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