AboutCindy Beggs Expertise Although I am not a member of the LDS Church, I can answer most of your general questions re: the LDS faith. Please no LDS bashing. I have a love for the Church's history.
Experience Although I am not a member of the LDS faith, I have been facinated with the Church's history for over 30 years.
Organizations Mount St. Mary's Alumni
Publications Master's Thesis in Mount St. Mary's Library in Los Angeles, CA.
Education/Credentials Bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts. Minors: Religious Studies and psychology. Master's degree in the Humanities/Cultural Studies.
Question Did you have to pledge, promise, swear to do the things that are mentioned in the book "Mountain Meadow Massacre"?
Have the leaders mellowed over the years or are they just being political correct?
Answer Hello. Thank-you, for your question.
Have the leaders mellowed over the years? I believe that there is a desire within the Church to look as Christian as they can possibly look to outsiders - while still keeping their LDS values and religion as intact as it can be while doing so. You can see evidence of this in the interviews with the press by Gordon B. Hinckley that are readily available on the Internet. Are they trying to be politically correct? Yes, I believe in some ways they are trying to be as mainstream as they can be and still maintain most of their LDS values and beliefs.
The Oath of Vengeance, spoken about in the diary of Heber C. Kimball, in 1845, was a part of the LDS endowment ceremony. It basically stated that there is a "private and immediate duty" to avenge the blood of the prophets on this nation. Participants of the endowment ceremony were also commanded to "obey all orders of the priesthood, temporal and spiritual in matters of life and death." These oaths were removed from the endowment ceremony in the early 1900's.
Brigham Young believed in the doctrine of blood atonement, which meant that there were some sins a person could commit that the blood of Christ could not atone for and those who committed those sins could only achieve the highest heaven by spilling their blood upon the ground. A few LDS individuals practiced this individually. Some of these individuals could have been a part of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. In 1978, this doctrine was repudiated.
