DEATH AND ATONEMENT, part 4 of Chapter 7 of Blood Atonement by OGDEN KRAUT

DEATH AND ATONEMENT, part 4 of Chapter 7 of Blood Atonement by OGDEN KRAUT

[89]         It is inconceivable that anyone could believe that these laws governing society were righteous under Moses, but considered evil or done away by Christ. Tolerance or intolerance of sin indicates the measure of a person’s righteousness or unrighteousness.

(4) Thievery and Robbery

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…. if I caught a man stealing on my premises I should be very apt to send him straight home, and that is what I wish every man to do, to put a stop to that abominable practice in the midst of this people.

I know this appears hard, and throws a cold chill over our revered traditions received by early education. I had a great many such feelings to contend with myself, and was as much of a sectarian in my notions as any other man, and as mild, perhaps, in my natural disposition, but I have trained myself to measure things by the line of justice, to estimate them by the rule of equity and truth, and not by the false tradition of the fathers, or the sympathies of the natural mind. If you will cause all those whom you know to be thieves, to be placed in a line before the mouth of one of our largest cannon, well loaded with chain shot, I will prove by my works whether I can mete out justice to such persons, or not. I would consider it just as much my duty to do that, as to baptize a man for the remission of his sins. That is a short discourse on thieves, I acknowledge, but I tell you the truth as it is in my heart. (Brigham Young, J.D. 1:108-109)