Just to be clear, I believe the concept of blood atonement to be false.Amonhi wrote:I am not aware of anyone having been killed for breaking their oath.butterfly wrote:What about the covenants we make in the temple? They were tweaked relatively recently- didn't everyone use to swear that if they broke the covenant then their throat would be slit and their bodies disemboweled?Amonhi wrote:Thank you,rewcox wrote:Amonhi, you missed this in George and my posts:
My mistake.
Peace,
Amonhi
That sounds like blood atonement being taught in the temple and practiced in ritual. It wasn't just something the officiator said - each individual made these signs over their own sacred bodies, covenanting before God, angels, and witnesses that they would spill their own blood in consequence of breaking their covenants.
In this regard, i disagree with the church's claim that it never practiced blood atonement.
Also, even if they were, it would not be part of atoning for your sins. The words that describe the atonement are misleading. The loss of blood doesn't actually do anything. It didn't with Christ and it wouldn't for those who have progressed beyond the reach of the atonement.
There is never an instance in which shedding your blood or the blood of a sheep or even of Christ for the sake of performing a blood atonement would save a person from their sins.
Peace,
Amonhi
The point I want to make is that as a result of the blood oaths that were made in the temple, the LDS psyche was groomed to believe that God supported a form of blood atonement.
If your teenager came to you and said "I'm going to join a gang, Dad. I just have to promise to kill myself if I ever share certain secrets. But don't worry, no one has died yet."
I imagine that one conclusion you would make is that this gang supports suicide penalties and you'd try to emphasize to your child that anyone who encouraged suicide could only be sent from satan.
However, even though we can logically tell a teenager that blood atonement is wrong, the problem remains that when you condition believing members to repeatedly promise to kill themselves for revealing God's secrets, it inevitably bypasses logic and begins to permeate other parts of their lives.
I think it's extremely important that you are emphasizing that we can't make restitution by killing ourselves. I just want to point out that the idea of blood atonement was supported for years in the temple and I don't think most people have had the type of wisdom that 5tev3 has shared with us in order to see a deeper meaning.