Mormon Quotes

Violence

Brigham Young
Is there war in our religion? No; neither war nor bloodshed. Yet our enemies cry out "bloodshed," and "oh, what dreadful men these Mormons are, and those Danites! how they slay and kill!" Such is all nonsense and folly in the extreme. The wicked slay the wicked, and they will lay it on the Saints.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 12:30
Brigham Young
Any of you who understand the principles of eternity — if you have sinned a sin requiring the shedding of blood, except the sin unto death — would not be satisfied or rest until your blood should be spilled, that you might gain the salvation you desire. This is the way to love mankind.
Brigham Young, Deseret News, April 16, 1856
Brigham Young
Kanosh the Pauvantee [Pauvant] Chief with Several of his band vis[i]ted me gave them some council & presints. A Spirit Seems to be takeing posses[s]ion of the Indians to assist Isreal. I can hardly restrain them from exterminating the "Americans".
Brigham Young, Diary of Brigham Young, page 71
Brigham Young
Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 10:110
Brigham Young
The time has been in Israel under the law of God, the celestial law, or that which pertains to the celestial law, for it is one of the laws of that kingdom where our Father dwells, that if a man was found guilty of adultery, he must have his blood shed, and that is near at hand.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 4:219
Brigham Young
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, Journal of Discourses 3:226
Brigham Young
The founders of that ancient empire were robbers and women stealers, and made laws favoring monogamy in consequence of the scarcity of women among them, and hence this monogamic system which now prevails throughout all Christendom, and which has been so fruitful a source of prostitution and whoredom throughout all the Christian monogamic cities of the Old and New World, until rottenness and decay are at the root of their institutions both national and religious.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 11:128
Brigham Young
I say, rather than that apostates should flourish here, I will unsheath [sic] my bowie knife, and conquer or die! [Great commotion in the congregation, and a simultaneous burst of feeling, assenting to the declaration] Now, you nasty apostates, clear out, or judgment will be put to the line, and righteousness to the plummet! [Voices, generally, 'go it, go it.'] If you say it is right, raise your hands! [All hands up.] Let us call upon the Lord to assist us in this, and every good work!
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 1:83
Brigham Young
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 of God?' and if you are not heartily on the Lord's side, you will be hewn down.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 3:226
Brigham Young
In 1857 it is estimated that eleven thousand troops were ordered here; some seven thousand started for this place, with several thousand hangers on. They came into this Territory when a company of emigrants were traveling on the south route to California. Nearly all of the Company were destroyed by the Indians. That unfortunate affair has been laid to the charge of the whites. A certain judge that was then in this Territory wanted the whole army to accompany him to Iron county to try the whites for the murder of that company of emigrants. I told Governor Cumming that if he would take an unprejudiced judge into the district where that horrid affair occurred, I would pledge myself that every man in the regions round about should be forthcoming when called for, to be condemned or acquitted as an impartial, unprejudiced judge and jury should decide; and I pledged him that the court should be protected from any violence or hindrance in the prosecution of the laws; and if any were guilty of the blood of those who suffered in the Mountain Meadow massacre, let them suffer the penalty of the law; but to this day they have not touched the matter, for fear the Mormons would be acquitted from the charge of having any hand in it, and our enemies would thus be deprived of a favorite topic to talk about, when urging hostility against us. "The Mountain Meadow massacre! Only think of the Mountain Meadow massacre!!" is their cry from one end of the land to the other.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 10:109‑110
Brigham Young
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? That is what Jesus Christ meant.
Brigham Young, Deseret News, April 16, 1856
Joseph Smith
Go tell your general for me that if he does not immediately withdraw his men, I will send them to hell!
Joseph Smith, The Life of John Taylor, p. 63-64; The Gospel Kingdom, p. 354-355
Joseph Smith
While discussing the petition to Congress, I prophesied, by virtue of the holy Priesthood vested in me, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that, if Congress will not hear our petition and grant us protection, they shall be broken up as a government, and god shall damn them. And there shall nothing be left of them ‑ not even a grease spot.
Joseph Smith, History of the Church, v.6 p. 116
Joseph Smith
I am prepared to say by the authority of Jesus Christ, that not many years shall pass away before the United States shall present such a scene of bloodshed as has not a parallel in the history of our nation.
Joseph Smith, letter to N.E. Seaton, January 4, 1833, in History of the Church, v. 1, p. 315
Joseph Smith
The day of your deliverance is not far distant for the judgments of the Lord are already abroad in the earth and the cold hand of death will soon pass through your neighborhood, and sweep away some of your most bitter enemies... The day is fast hastening on when the restoration of all things shall be fulfilled.
Joseph Smith, letter to Colesville, New York LDS members, in Newel Knight Journal, pp. 132‑136; reprinted in Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, v. 1, p. 14
Joseph Smith
As the 'world is governed too much,' and there is not a nation or dynasty, now occupying the earth, which acknowledges Almighty God as their lawgiver, and as 'crowns won by blood, by blood must be maintained,' I go emphatically, virtuously, and humanely for a theo‑democracy, where God and the people hold the power to conduct the affairs of men in righteousness, and where liberty, free trade, and sailor's rights, and the protection of life and property shall be maintained inviolate for the benefit of ALL.
Joseph Smith, Jr. Daily Globe, April 14, 1844, also see Millennial Star, v. 23, June 22, 1861, p. 391. Deleted from the History of the Church, v. 6, pp. 340‑341
Joseph Smith
Kill me if you will, I am not afraid to die; and I have endured so much oppression that I am weary of life. But I am a strong man, and I could cast both of you down, if I would. If you have any legal process to serve, present it, for I am at all times subject to law and shall not offer resistance.
Joseph Smith, Life of Joseph Smith the Prophet, p.445
Joseph Smith
While in prison, Smith prophesied that his enemies would be taken "in their own craftiness" and that "not many years hence ... [his enemies] and their posterity shall be swept from under heaven, saith God, that not one of them is left to stand by the wall".
Joseph Smith, Doctrine and Covenants 121:11
Joseph Smith
I prophesy in the name of the Lord God of Israel, unless the United States redress the wrongs committed upon the Saints in the state of Missouri and punish the crimes committed by her officers that in a few years the government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much as a potsherd left for their wickedness.
Joseph Smith, History of the Church, v5, p 394
Joseph Smith
Brethren, if I were to tell you all I know of the kingdom of God, I do know that you would rise up and kill me.
Joseph Smith, Parley P. Pratt in MS 55 (September 4, 1893): 585
Wilford Woodruff
Then the subject was brought up concerning Adam being made of the dust of the earth, and Elder Orson Pratt pursued a course of stubbornness and unbelief in what President young said that will destroy him if he does not repent and turn from his evil ways.
Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Wilford Woodruff, March 11, 1856
Wilford Woodruff
And if any man mingle his seed with the seed of Cain the only way he could get rid of it or have Salvation would be to come forward and have his head cut off and spill his blood upon the ground ‑‑ it would also take the life of his children.
Wilford Woodruff, Wilford Woodruff's personal diary, 4:97
Wilford Woodruff
The American Nation will be broken in pieces.... you live in the day and hour of the judgments of God Almighty.... the hour of God's judgment is at the door.... I wish to warn all nations.... Thrones will be cast down, nations will be overturned, anarchy will reign, all legal barriers will be broken down, and the laws will be trampled in the dust. You are about to be visited with war, sword, famine, pestilence, plague, earthquakes, whirlwinds, tempests, and with the flame of devouring fire.... the slain of the Lord will be many.
Wilford Woodruff, Millennial Star, v. 41, p. 241
Ezra Taft Benson
As Americans ‑‑ as members of the worldwide Christian community ‑‑ we can defeat the godless, atheistic forces that threaten us. Yes, with the help of Almighty God we can ‑‑ we must ‑‑ win the war against the evil forces which seem almost to overwhelm us. The eternal verities revealed from God, through his inspired prophets, have not and will not change.
Ezra Taft Benson, Godless Forces Threaten Us (Ezra Taft Benson, 1969 Semi‑Annual General Conference, Improvement Era)
Gordon B. Hinckley
Gordon B. Hinckley, addressing a packed Burns Arena at Dixie State College, said the flooding in the area, the Asian tsunami and the earthquake in Iran were 'signs of the times' ‑‑ Biblical prophecies about natural disasters preceding Jesus Christ's return to Earth. He added that while southern Utah braces for more flooding as the mountain snow melts, the church would lend its support to the region.
Gordon B. Hinckley, KUTV News
Bruce R. McConkie
From the days of Joseph Smith to the present, wicked and evilly‑disposed persons have fabricated false and slanderous stories to the effect that the Church, in the early days of this dispensation, engaged in a practice of blood atonement whereunder the blood of apostates and others was shed by the Church as an atonement for their sins... there is not one historical instance of so‑called blood atonement in this dispensation, nor has there been one event or occurrence whatever, of any nature, from which the slightest inference arises that any such practice either existed or was taught.... But under certain circumstances there are some serious sins for which the cleansing of Christ does not operate, and the law of God is that men must then have their own blood shed to atone for their sins."
Bruce R. McConkie, Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 92
Orson Pratt
The great, powerful and populous city of New York, that may be considered one of the greatest cities of the world, will in a few years become a mass of ruins. The people will wonder while gazing on the ruins that cost hundreds of millions to build, what has become of its inhabitants, Their houses will be there, but they will be left desolate. So saith the Lord God.
Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses 12:244
Orson Pratt
The people of Utah are the only ones in this nation who have taken effectual measures... to prevent adulteries and criminal connections between the sexes. The punishment, for these crimes is death to both male and female. And this law is written on the hearths and printed in the thoughts of the whole people.
Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 223
Orson Pratt
This great war [Civil War] is only a small degree of chastisement, just the beginning; nothing compared to that which God has spoken concerning this nation, if they will not repent.
Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses 12:244
Orson Pratt
New York ... will be only a sample of numerous other towns and cities on the face of this continent. Now I am aware that it is almost impossible for even some of the Latter‑day Saints to get that confidence and that strong faith in the events which God intends to accomplish on this land in the future to believe in such a thing ... But there are some in this congregation who will live, to behold the fulfillment of these other things, and will visit the ruins of mighty towns and cities scattered over the face of this land destitute and desolate of inhabitants.
Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses 12:244
Orson Pratt
The time is coming, when we will not be fettered by unjust laws that are imposed upon us. Why? Because the Lord intends, by his judgment, by wars among the nations that will not serve him, by famines, and pestilence, and by various judgments that will be sent forth, to waste away the nations of the earth.... we know their doom, and we know that it is very near at hand. It is not something to happen in a far distant period of the future, but it is right at the doors.... he will speedily fulfill the prophecy in relation to the overthrow of this nation, and their destruction.
Orson Pratt, Deseret Evening News, v. 8, no. 265; see also N.B. Lundwall, comp., Inspired Prophetic Warnings, 1940, p. 26
Orson Pratt
But who in this generation have authority to baptize? None but those who have received authority in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints: all other churches are entirely destitute of all authority from God; and any person who receives Baptism or the Lord's supper from their hands will highly offend God, for he looks upon them as the most corrupt of all people. Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the "whore of Babylon" whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. And any person who shall be so wicked as to receive a holy ordinance of the gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent of the unholy and impious act.
Orson Pratt, Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 255
Orson Pratt
For the Lord has said in this book, (the Book of Mormon) which has been published for thirty eight years, that if they will not repent He will throw down all [the United States] strongholds and cut off the cities of the land, and will execute vengeance and fury on the nation, even as upon the heathen, such as they have not heard. That He will send a desolating scourge on the land; that He will leave their cities desolate, without inhabitants.
Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses 12:244
George A. Smith
Under these circumstances, as big a coward as I am, I would say what I pleased; and for one thing I would say that every man that had anything to do with such a filthy, unconstitutional affair was a damned scoundrel. There is not a man, from the President of the United States to the Editors of their sanctorums, clear down to the low‑bred letter‑writers in this Territory, but would rob the coppers from a dead nigger's eyes, if they had a good opportunity. If I had the command of thunder and lightning, I would never let one of the damned scoundrels get here alive.
George A. Smith, Journal of Discourses 5:111
George A. Smith
The principle, the only one that beats and throbs through the heart of the entire inhabitants of this Territory, is simply this: The man who seduces his neighbors wife must die, and her nearest relative must kill him!
George A. Smith, Journal of Discourses 1:97
Boyd K. Packer
While I was in a mission on one occasion, a missionary said he had something to confess. ... 'I hit my companion,' [he said.] After learning [that his companion was gay], my response was 'Well, thanks. Somebody had to do it, and it wouldn't have been well for a General Authority to solve the problem that way.' I am not recommending that course to you, but I am not omitting it. You must protect yourself.
Boyd K. Packer, To Young Men Only, General Conference, Oct. 1976
Gerald N. Lund
There is another lesson that Mormon draws from the story of Korihor. After Korihor is confounded by Alma, he demands a sign before he will believe. Korihor receives his sign—he is struck dumb, and evidently deaf as well. (See Alma 30:51.) In that pitiable state, Korihor resorts to begging for his livelihood. He finally goes among a people called the Zoramites, and there he is "run upon and trodden down" until he dies. (Alma 30:59.)
Gerald N. Lund, Ensign, Countering Korihor's Philosophy, July 1992
Heber C. Kimball
I have not a doubt but there will be hundreds who will leave us and go away to our enemies. I wish they would go this fall: it might relieve us from much trouble; for if men turn traitors to God and His Servants, their blood will surely be shed, or else they will be damned, and that too according to their covenants.
Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 4:375
Heber C. Kimball
Will the President [James Buchanan] that sits in the chair of state be tipped from his seat? Yes, he will die an untimely death, and God Almighty will curse him; and He will also curse his successor, if he takes the same anti‑Mormon stand.
Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 5:133
Sidney Rigdon
It was the imperative duty of the Church to obey the word of Joseph Smith, or the presidency, without question or inquiry, and that if there were any that would not, they should have their throats cut from ear [to] ear.
Sidney Rigdon, Sidney Rigdon letter to Apostle Orson Hyde, October 21, 1844, in Nauvoo Neighbor, December 4, 1844; see also Quinn, Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, p. 94
William Marks
Joseph suffered himself to be ordained a King, to reign over the house of Israel forever.
William Marks, Beloved Brethren, Zion's Harbinger and Baneemy's Organ, v. 3, July 1853, p. 53
John D. Lee
Punishment by death is the penalty for refusing to obey the orders of the Priesthood. I knew of many men being killed in Nauvoo by the Danites. It was then the rule that all enemies of the Prophet Joseph should be killed, and I knew of many a man who was quietly put out of the way by the orders of Joseph and his apostles while the church was there.
John D. Lee, John D. Lee Diaries
John D. Lee
I knew of many men being killed in Nauvoo by the Danites. It was then the rule that all the enemies of the Prophet Joseph should be killed, and I know of many a man who was quietly put out of the way by the orders of Joseph and his apostles while the Church was there. It has always been a well understood doctrine of the Church that it is right and praiseworthy to kill every person who speaks evil of the Prophet. This doctrine was strictly lived up to in Utah...
John D. Lee, John D. Lee Diaries
Orson Hyde
I would have a tendency to place terror on those who leave these parts [Utah], that may prove their salvation when they see the heads of thieves taken off, or shot down before the public... I believe it would be pleasing in the sight of heaven to sanctify ourselves and put these things out of our midst.
Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses 1:73
Jedediah M. Grant
I say, there are men and women that I would advise to go to the Presidency immediately, and ask him to appoint a committee to attend to their care; and then let a place be selected, and let that committee shed their blood. We have amongst us that are full of all manner of abominations, those who need to have their blood shed, for water will not do, their sins are too deep a dye... I believe that there are a great many; and if they are covenant breakers we need a place designated, where we can shed their blood... Brethren and sisters, we want you to repent and forsake your sins. And you who have committed sins that cannot be forgiven through baptism, let your blood be shed, and let the smoke ascend, that the incense thereof may come up before God as an atonement for your sins, and that the sinners in Zion may be afraid.
Jedediah M. Grant, Journal of Discourses 4:49
Jedediah M. Grant
We would not kill a man, of course, unless we killed him to save him...
Jedediah M. Grant, Deseret News, July 27, 1854
William Smith
[My life was in danger] if I remained there, because of my protest against the doctrine of Blood Atonement and other new doctrines that were brought into the Church.
William Smith, Temple Lot Case, p. 98
D. Michael Quinn
Just last month, attorneys for condemned child‑killer James Edward Wood in Pocatello, Idaho, argued that his defense was undermined by a visit from local [Mormon] church leaders who talked to him about shedding his own blood.... His [Wood's] attorneys contend Wood is a victim of a Mormon belief in 'blood atonement.' ... Judge Lynn Winmill... heard hours of testimony during the past week about Mormon doctrine on apostasy and forgiveness of sin. Wood's lawyers even asked the bishop who presided over the church court that excommunicated Wood about secret temple rituals involving symbolic throat and slashing or disembowelment, but Winmill did not require him to respond.
D. Michael Quinn, Salt Lake Tribune, Nov. 5, 1994
D. Michael Quinn
In the past decade, potential jurors in every Utah capital homicide were asked whether they believed in the Mormon concept of 'blood atonement.'
D. Michael Quinn, Salt Lake Tribune, Nov. 5, 1994, p. D1
Martin Harris
Within four years from September 1832, there will not be one wicked person left in the United States; that the righteous will be gathered to Zion (Missouri,) and that there will be no President over these United States at that time.... I do hereby assert and declare that in four years from the date thereof [1832], every sectarian and religious denomination in the United States, shall be broken down, and every Christian shall be gathered unto the Mormonites, and the rest of the human race shall perish.
Martin Harris, Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 1834, p. 14
David Olson
Spencer W. Kimball for his incorrect press release concerning the police involvement combined with the LDS church's efforts to restrict Douglas A. Wallace from the temple grounds, specifically the Tabernacle, on April 3, 1977. His denial of these actions is wrong. Any man who can take such actions and still call himself a prophet deserves more than I to be confined to this wheelchair.
David Olson, Salt Lake Tribune, Jan. 18, 1978
Bill Hickman
It was one of the hot‑beds of fanaticism, and I expect that more men were killed there, in proportion to population, than in any other part of Utah. In that settlement it was certain death to say a word against the authorities, high or low.
Bill Hickman, Brigham Young's Destroying Angel, 1964, p. 284
Gustive O. Larson
To whatever extent the preaching on blood atonement may have influenced action, it would have been in relation to Mormon disciplinary action among its own members. In point would be a verbally reported case of a Mr. Johnson in Cedar City who was found guilty of adultery with his step‑daughter by a bishop's court and sentenced to death for atonement of his sin. According to the report of reputable eyewitnesses, judgment was executed with consent of the offender who went to his unconsecrated grave in full confidence of salvation through the shedding of his blood. Such a case, however primitive, is understandable within the means of this doctrine and the emotional extremes of the [Mormon] reformation.
Gustive O. Larson, Dr. Gustive O. Larson, BYU Professor, Utah Historical Quarterly, Jan. 1958, p. 62, note 39
Miss Bullock
I married Jesse Hartly, knowing he was a 'Gentile' in fact, but he passed for a Mormon, but that made no difference with me, although I was a Mormon, because he was a noble man, and sought only the right. By being my husband, he was brought into closer contact with the members of the Church, and was thus soon enabled to learn many things about us, and about the Heads of the Church, that he did not approve, and of which I was ignorant, although I had been brought up among the Saints; and which, if known among the Gentiles, would have greatly damaged us. I do not understand all he discovered, or all he did; but they found he had written against the Church, and he was cut off, and the Prophet required as an atonement for his sins, that he should lay down his life. That he should be sacrificed in the endowment rooms; where human sacrifices are sometimes made in this way. This I never knew until my husband told me, but it is true. They kill those there who have committed sins too great to be atoned for in any other way. The Prophet says, if they submit to this he can save them; otherwise they are lost. Oh! that is horrible. But my husband refused to be sacrificed, and so set out alone for the United States: thinking there might be at least a hope of success. I told him when he left me, and left his child, that he would be killed, and so he was. William Hickman and another Danite, shot him in the canyons; and I have often since been obliged to cook for this man, when he passed this way, knowing all the while, he had killed my husband. My child soon followed after its father, and I hope to die also; for why should I live? They have brought me here, where I wish to remain, rather than to return to Salt Lake where the murderers of my husband curse the earth, and roll in affluence unpunished.
Miss Bullock, "Mormonism: its rise, progress, and present condition," 1870, p. 273
R. N. Baskin
In the excavations made within the limits of Salt Lake City during the time I have resided there, many human skeletons have been exhumed in various parts of the city.... I have never heard that it was ever the custom to bury the dead promiscuously throughout the city; and as no coffins were ever found in connection with any of these skeletons, it is evident that the death of the persons to whom they once belonged did not result from natural causes, but from the use of criminal means.
R. N. Baskin, Reminiscences of Early Utah, 1914, pp. 154‑155
Keith Norman
Well, if I understand Elder McConkie, he was saying that, although earlier Church leader's never believed, preached, or practiced blood atonement, we actually do believe in it and would practice it if we had the legal and political power to do so. (Even thought we didn't when Brigham Young presided over the theocratic territory of Deseret.)
Keith Norman, Sunstone, Aug. 1990, p. 11
Mark A. Taylor
According to that state's Department of Vital Statistics, it ranks 13th nationally in child abuse, but comparing Utah statistics with those compiled by the National Association for the Protection of Children, the incidence of reported child abuse is six times higher in Utah. The incidence of sexual abuse — including rape, incest and intercourse — is 33% more than the national average, and the child‑murder rate is five times higher.
Mark A. Taylor, Affirmation: Sin & Death in Mormon Country: A Latter‑day Tragedy
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