Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner, and Blood Atonement

Recently, an article by Peggy Fletcher Stack of The Salt Lake Tribune was picked up by The Huffington Post. Stack’s article concerns the forthcoming execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner, who has been convicted of the murder of a man during a failed prison escape, 25 years ago. Gardner is petitioning to be executed by firing squad, citing his “Mormon heritage,” and Stack’s article connects Gardner’s request to the 19th century LDS doctrine of blood atonement.


Judging from the comments left by HuffPost readers, the whole matter of blood atonement seems quite strange to modern American ears. Some Latter-day Saints may have some pointed questions directed their way regarding this matter by their non-LDS friends and acquaintances. Below, I mention a few points of fact that may help to clarify this matter.

  1. Since the time I was baptized a Latter-day Saint (LDS) in 1975 at college in Pennsylvania, I have never once heard blood atonement taught in an LDS Church class or preached from an LDS pulpit. Teachings about blood atonement are much more alive in anti-Mormon literature than they are in the LDS Church today.
  2. At its heart, the doctrine of blood atonement states that some offenses against humanity (especially murder) are so heinous that the offender’s death is required to atone for it. One may disagree with the idea of capital punishment, but it is not inherently outrageous.
  3. The shedding of the murderer’s blood seems to be meant to parallel the atonement of Jesus Christ, where Jesus’ blood was shed. The doctrine that Christ’s blood was shed to atone for the sins of the world has been a central aspect of traditional Christian theology for twenty centuries, and is clearly stated in the New Testament.
  4. The LDS doctrine of blood atonement was taught by Brigham Young at a time when many of the Latter-Day Saints had recently been murdered by anti-Mormons (particularly in Missouri). LDS President Joseph Fielding Smith is mentioned in the Stack article as having once authored a pamphlet on blood atonement; President Smith’s grandfather and granduncle (the Patriarch Hyrum and the Prophet Joseph) had both been shot by an anti-Mormon mob of assassins. In that context, murder and its consequences, quite understandably, were on the minds of many of the Saints who lived in the latter half of the 19th century. In later years, these concerns have faded.
  5. The punishment of blood atonement was never inflicted by LDS authorities as a punishment for apostasy or any such.

The modern LDS Church does not focus on blood atonement because it is not a central part of the LDS Christian Gospel message. It is simply not important enough to teach. However, these points above may help to put the whole matter in some context.

(This post expands on a comment of mine on a news item in The Huffington Post. The original news article is available here. An archive of all my comments on The Huffington Post is available here. Readers of this blog are welcome to become “fans” of mine on The Huffington Post.)

Copyright 2010 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Environmentalism, the Latter-Day Saints, and Glenn Beck

Back in March, I wrote a post on this blog regarding Glenn Beck’s comments to the effect that religious teachings on social justice amounted to Nazism and Communism. Mr. Beck has continued in this vein; a few days ago, he objected to the recommendation of a government panel that the government should help faith-based and other not-for-profit organizations obtain loans to encourage green building projects. For Mr. Beck, this amounts to “merging” the churches of America with the Environmental Protection Agency, into a superfaith that teaches “the Gospel of Gaia” and “the religion of environmental and social justice.”


In a new post to “On the Mark: Social Commentary from a Reflective Perspective,” another blog of mine, I address the misunderstandings that Mr. Beck has regarding the real meaning of the separation of Church and State. However, on “Mormon from Manhattan,” I would like to focus on another aspect of Mr. Beck’s thought: his misunderstanding regarding, yet again, the theology of his own church.

Yes, Glenn Beck is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, his understanding of the LDS Gospel in reference to environmentalism appears to be profoundly deficient, as was his understanding of the Gospel with reference to social justice.

The subject of LDS doctrine on environmentalism is not without its own controversies; the subject is worth a detailed doctrinal and historical treatment. Here, I shall just focus on two things: the commission given to Adam and Eve concerning the Earth, and the vision given to Enoch of the Earth as a living being.
Adam, Eve, and the Earth

In the first chapter of the Bible, the Lord states the following:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1: 27-28)

The language of the King James Version, given above, might lead one to the impression that human beings are justified in basically doing whatever they wish to the world and its living beings. However, the underlying Hebrew text clarifies the meaning of the scriptures in a very different way.

The word translated as “subdue,” the Hebrew kivshuah from the root kavash, does indeed indicate the idea of putting something under submission. It is a forceful word, carrying the idea of Adam and Eve making the Earth do their will. This is appropriate for people who, quite soon, will be making their living from hard work in agriculture and herding. The world does not support us easily.

The word translated as “and have dominion,” the Hebrew urdu from the root radah, does indeed mean “to have dominion over, to rule.” However, the word means to rule in the way a king rules. One prominent theme in the Jewish scriptures is that when the king rules wisely, the people prosper, but when the king rules poorly or selfishly, the people suffer greatly.

Overall, this passage is not a license for humanity to do whatever it likes with the world. Rather, it is a commission to rule wisely over the world. It can easily be argued that we have not done so well in that department.
Enoch and the Earth

The LDS scriptures contain within them an account of a vision given to the prophet Enoch, a vision that features the world as a living being:

And it came to pass that Enoch looked upon the earth; and he heard a voice from the bowels thereof, saying: Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me? When will my Creator sanctify me, that I may rest, and righteousness for a season abide upon my face? (Pearl of Great Price, Moses 7:48)

This is an astonishing confirmation of a concept that is found in several religious and spiritual traditions throughout history (including, yes, the Gaia Hypothesis): the Earth is indeed a living being. Moreover, it is a living being over whom we have stewardship.

Conclusion

It is important for Latter-day Saints to understand that, implicit in the LDS Gospel, we are taught to take care of the planet, as wise rulers of the living Earth. This is something that Glenn Beck seems not to understand.

(This post expands on a comment of mine on an opinion piece in The Huffington Post. The original opinion piece is available here. An archive of all my comments on The Huffington Post is available here. Readers of this blog are welcome to become “fans” of mine on HuffPost.)

Copyright 2010 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.

[The image of the Earth as seen from Apollo 17 is in the public domain, and was obtained through Wikipedia.]

Sorry to Be Gone for So Long

I am sorry to say that a combination of unfortunate health and family circumstances have kept me off my blogs for a long time. I am happy to say that my health is much improved, and so I look forward to returning to my blogging with renewed vigor.