By Jerald and Sandra Tanner

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Since the recent massacre in Guyana there has been a great deal of discussion concerning what constitutes a cult and the process of brainwashing used by such a group. The Salt Lake Tribune for November 26, 1978 reported:

The brainwashing, said the experts, was just as subtle as the charismatic tune played by the Pied Piper. Brainwashing, they point out, doesn’t require a dungeon, bright lights, or physical torture.

The Guyana victims, they said, probably lost their will and substituted blind obedience months and years before they even went to the “Peoples Temple” complex in Guyana, long before their suicides . . .

Ultimately they had to turn possessions over to the temple, follow orders without question as they fell in line behind the charismatic leader Jones. . . . Dr. Calvin Frederick, chief of emergency mental health and disaster assistance at the National Institute of Mental Health, commented on how to avoid brainwashing:

“Unless you are aware ahead of time of some of the dangers you cannot help yourself. For psychological ‘immunization’ to work it must take place prior to exposure. . . .

“There is nothing wrong in wanting to belong to a group, to do good through that group, to get swept up by the activity—but without losing control over your will. . . . You do their thing but you still do your own thing. You are still the master.”

The difference is that the dangerous groups reduce participants to dependent, childlike states as part of the brainwashing, Frederick says.

“New members are told . . . ‘You do not need to think. I will do the thinking for you.’ A lot of worries are taken a-way. The group promises to take care of you forever and remove all stress.”

The next step is blind obedience in which people might follow an order to jump off a cliff.

For a number of years we have tried to point out that Mormonism encourages blind obedience. For instance, the ward teacher’s message for June 1945 contained these statements:

Any Latter-day Saint who denounces or opposes whether actively or otherwise, any plan or doctrine advocated by the “prophets, seers, and revelators” of the Church is cultivating the spirit of apostasy. . . . Lucifer . . . wins a great victory when he can get members of the Church to speak against their leaders and to “do their own thinking.”. . .

When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done. When they propose a plan—it is God’s plan. When they point the way, there is no other which is safe. When they give direction, it should mark the end of controversy. (Improvement Era, June 1945, page 354)

[Bold in quotations is added for emphasis and does not appear in originals.]

Heber C. Kimball, First Councilor to President Brigham Young, made these statements about obedience to the leaders of the Church:

When brother Joseph Smith lived, he was our Prophet, our Seer, and Revelator; He was our dictator in the things of God, and it was for us to listen to him, and do just as he told us. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 2, page 106)

. . . learn to do as you are told, . . . if you are told by your leader to do a thing, do it. None of your business whether it is right or wrong. (Ibid., vol. 6, page 32)

If you do things according to counsel and day are wrong, the consequences will fall on the heads of those who counseled You, so don’t be troubled. (William Clayton’s Journal, page 334)

Although the Bible warns: “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, . . .” (Jeremiah 17:5), President Brigham Young claimed that “The Lord Almighty leads this Church, and he will never suffer you to be led astray if you are found doing your duty. You may go home and sleep as sweetly as a babe in its mother’s arms, to any danger of your feeders leading you astray, . . .” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 9, page 289).

The reader will notice that at least to some extend Mormonism encourages the very thing Dr. Frederick warned against—i.e., teaching the convert that “You do not need to think. I will do the thinking for you.”

Although we do not find anything in present-day Mormonism to compare with the tragedy in Guyana, when we examine Mormon history we find some interesting parallels to the religion of Jim Jones. For instance, Joseph Smith was certainly a charismatic leader who had a powerful influence on his followers. Brigham Young, the second President of the Church, emphasized:

. . . no man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph

. . . every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, junior, as a passport to their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are—. . . I cannot go there without his consent. . . He reigns there as supreme a being in his sphere, capes any, and calling, as God does in heaven. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, page 289)

Joseph Smith’s secret practice of polygamy together with his political ambitions and the destruction of an opposition press (The Nauvoo Expositor) eventually led to his murder in a jail at Carthage, Illinois (see Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? pages 252-59).

After Smith’s death relations between the Mormons and their neighbors deteriorated to the point where the Mormon people were forced to leave the city of Nauvoo. Brigham Young, the second leader of the Mormon people, blamed the U.S. Government for his troubles. Apostle Orson Pratt wrote the following in 1845: “Brethren awake! — be determined to get out from this evil notion next spring. We do not want one saint to be left in the United States after that time. . . . flee out of Babylon, . . . (Times and Seasons, vol. 6, page 1043).

Like Jim Jones, Brigham Young decided to take his people “beyond the boundaries of the United States, but the Mexican War “changed these calculations” (Quest for Empire, page 115).

It is claimed that Jim Jones “viewed anyone who criticised or defected from the Temple as part of a conspiracy, aimed at destroying him and his movement” (Salt Lake Tribune, December 5, 1978). President Brigham Young had a similar attitude toward dissenters:

I say, rather than that apostates should flourish here, I will unsheathe 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. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, page 83)

During his reign over the people of Utah, Brigham Young preached the doctrine of Blood Atonement. According to this doctrine, a person who committed certain sins such as murder, adultery, stealing, apostasy or marriage to an African had to make atonement by sacrificing his own life so that his blood would be spilled upon the ground. In a sermon given in 1857, Brigham Young taught:

Now take a person in this congregation who has knowledge with regard to being saved in the kingdom of God . . . and suppose that he is overtaken in a gross fault, that he has committed a sin that he knows will deprive him of that exaltation which he desires, and that he cannot attain to it without the shedding of his blood, and also knows that by having his blood shed he will atone for that sin, and be saved and exalted with the Gods, is there a man or woman in this house but what would say, “shed my blood that I may be saved and exalted with the Gods?”

All mankind love themselves, and let these principles be known by an individual, and he would be glad to have his blood shed. That would be loving themselves, even unto an eternal exaltation. Will you love your brothers or sisters likewise, when they have committed a sin that can not be atoned for without the shedding of their blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood?

I could refer you to plenty of instances where men have been righteously slain, in order to atone for their sins. I have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there would have been a chance (in the last resurrection there will be) if their limos had been taken and their blood spilled on the ground as a smoking incense to the Almighty, but who are now angels to the devil . . . I have known a great many men who left this church for whom there is no chance whatever for exaltation, but if their blood had been spilled, it would have been better for them, the wickedness and ignorance of the nations forbid this principle’s being in full force, but the time will come when the law of God will be in full force.

This is loving our neighbor as ourselves; if he needs help, help him; and if he wants salvation and it is necessary to spill his blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, spill it 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 nor rest until your blood should be spilled, that you might gain that salvation you desire. That is the way to love mankind. (Sermon by Brigham Young, printed in the Deseret News, February 18, 1857)

In Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? pages 398-413, we give a great deal of information concerning the doctrine of Blood Atonement. Gustive O. Larson, Professor of Church History, at the Church’s Brigham Young University, made this comment about Brigham Young’s suicide-murder doctrine:

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 a sentenced to death for atonement of his sin. According to the report of reputable eye witnesses, 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 meaning of the doctrine and the emotional extremes of the Reformation. (Utah Historical Quarterly, January 1958, page 62, note 39)

Conditions in Utah became so intolerable under Brigham Young that the U.S. Government finally had to send a small army to restore order. Like Jim Jones, the Mormon leaders stirred up their people to the point of bloodshed. They misrepresented the intentions of the U.S. Government by stating that the troops were going to kill them and steal the women. On September 27, 1857, Heber C. Kimball claimed that the troops:

exulted over us . . . telling how they were going to kill brother Brigham and all those who would uphold ‘Mormonism;’. . . They swore that they would use every woman in this place at their own pleasure—that they would slay old Brigham and old Heber; . . . (Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, page 274).

Charles L. Walker recorded the following in his diary “Sunday, Jan. 24,1858 . . . Went to the Tabernacle. Bro. E. T. Benson . . . said the U.S. were all gaping full of fear about the Mormons and were shipping troops around by California. Said it was their intention to destroy every man, woman and child that was a Mormon and wipe us out of existence” (“Diary of Charles L. Walker,” 1855-1902, excerpts typed, page 2).

Brigham Young issued a “proclamation” which stated that he intended to resist the U.S. troops when they tried to enter the territory of Utah. This document also stated that “no person shall be allowed to pass or repass into, or through, or from this territory, without a permit from the proper officer’’ (A Comprehensive History of the Church, vol. 4, page 274). This “proclamation” virtually made the inhabitants of Utah prisoners of Brigham Young. Heber C. Kimball boldly asserted:

We have declared our independence . . . that man and that woman who cannot stand up to the test, I ask you to leave as quick as you can; for when the time of the test comes, as the Lord God Almighty lives, if you then leave us or betray us, that is the end of you. . . .

This year’s trouble . . . will amount to this—a collision between this people and the United States; and the gate will be shut down between us and them. . . .

When the United States have done their best, then other nations will tackle us, and so things will go on, until every nation is brought into subjection to the kingdom of God. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, page 275)

The conflict which followed is known as the “Utah War.” The historian Hubert Howe Bancroft says that “the Mormons lived on the troops, stampeding their cattle, plundering or destroying their provision trains, and only after all fear of active hostilities had been removed, selling them surplus grain at exorbitant rates” (History of Utah, page 499).

The Massacre

The Mormon historian B. H. Roberts called the Mountain Meadows Massacre “the most lamentable episode in Utah history, and in the history of the church” (A Comprehensive History of the Church, vol. 4, page 139). This massacre took place when a company of emigrants tried to pass through the territory of Utah at the time of the “Utah War.”

Since the Mormon leaders had been fervently preaching the doctrine of Blood Atonement and stirring up their people with the spirit of war, the emigrants could not have picked a worse time to try to pass through Mormon country. As they went south the Mormons refused to sell them grain. When the emigrants arrived at Mountain Meadows, about 325 miles south of Salt Lake City, the Mormons encouraged the Indians to attack them. The Indians could not overcome the emigrants, however, and the Mormons were forced to directly participate in the massacre which followed. Mormon historian B. H. Roberts admits that the number of “whites” at the Mountain Meadows had swelled to “between fifty and sixty” by September 10, 1857 (A Comprehensive History of the Church, vol. 4, page 153). Another Mormon writer, William E. Berrett, gives this description of the massacre:

It was a deliberately planned massacre, treacherously carried into execution. On the morning of September 11, flag of truce was sent to the emigrant camp and terms of surrender proposed. The emigrants were to give up their arms. The wounded were to be loaded into wagons, followed by the women and children, and the men to bring up the rear, single file. Thus they were to be conducted by the whites to Cedar City. This was agreed to, and the march began.

A short distance from the encampment, the white men at a given signal, fern the unarmed emigrant men. At the same time hundreds of Indians, who had lain in ambush, rushed upon the hapless party. In five minutes the terrible tragedy was enacted. . . . Only the smallest children were spared. (The Restored Church, 1956, pages 468-469)

A monument at Mountain Meadows contains this statement: “A company of about 140 Arkansas and Missouri emigrants led by Captain Charles Fancher, en route to California, was attacked by white men and Indians. All but 17, being small children, were killed.” Juanita Brooks, a Mormon scholar who is considered to be a real authority on the massacre, says that “While Brigham Young and George A. Smith, the church authorities chiefly responsible, did not specifically order the massacre, they did preach sermons and set up social conditions which made it possible” (The Mountain Meadows Massacre, 1970, page 219). Mrs. Brooks goes so far as to admit that “Brigham Young was accessory after the fact, in that he knew what had happened, and how and why it happened. Evidence of this is abundant and unmistakable, and from the most impeccable Mormon sources” (Ibid.). In Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? pages 493-515, we give a detailed account of the Mountain Meadows Massacre and the cover-up and obstruction of justice which followed.

The historian Bancroft says that the army that came to Utah passed “the winter of 1857-8 amid privations no less severe than those endured at Valley Forge . . .” He claimed that the Utah War “cost several hundred lives.” It would, of course, be hard to determine just how many of these men would have lived if the Mormons had not spent their time destroying and stealing their provisions. While the Mormons were reluctant to fire upon the U. S. troops, they killed a large number of innocent civilians in Utah at this time. The Mountain Meadows Massacre, the Aiken Massacre and a number of other cruel murders were committed during this period of rebellion. We feel that hundreds of people probably lost their lives because of the teachings and foolish orders of Brigham Young. In the case of the Aiken massacre we feel that there is very good evidence linking Brigham Young directly to the crime (see Mormonism—Shadow or Realty? pages 448-450).

Spiritual Suicide

During the last year our minds have been impressed with the danger of cults. For instance, just a few months ago a man by the name of Immanuel David committed suicide in a canyon near Salt Lake City. David, who had served as a Mormon missionary, broke away from the Church and formed his own cult. After his death his wife and children jumped (some of the children were apparently pushed) from a tall building on West Temple—just 12 blocks north of our company. The reader will remember that Dr. Frederick said that when people allow someone else to do their thinking the “next step is blind obedience in which people might follow an order to jump off a cliff.” In November Jim Jones induced his followers to commit suicide.

Brigham Young’s teaching concerning Blood Atonement (i.e., suicide or murder for atonement of sin) is almost as bizarre as Jim Jones’ order that his followers kill themselves. Although Blood Atonement is not practiced by Mormons today, some of the polygamous cults which have broken off from the Mormon Church still strongly advocate Brigham Young’s doctrine of killing sinners. The Deseret News for September 29, 1977, reported that a “polygamist cult leader” by the name of Ervil Lebaron “has been linked to more than a dozen deaths and disappearances in the West, . . .”

Mormons, of course, claim that Brigham Young was a prophet but tend to ignore his teaching on Blood Atonement, Nevertheless, we feel that people should be very cautious about a religion which teaches “When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done.”

Since the Bible warns against trusting in an arm of flesh, we feel that it is possible to commit spiritual suicide if we allow others to do our thinking. Jesus Himself warned that “false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall spew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect” (Mark 13:21). Notwithstanding the fact that Mormonism has many attractive things to offer, the evidence clearly shows that it is based upon a false foundation. We urge all of those who are Mormons or are thinking of joining the Church to take the time to consider the evidence we have compiled in Mormonism—Shadow or Reality?

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