Blood Atonement and the Origin of Plural Marriage: A Discussion

This volume captures a vituperative early 20th-century exchange between two senior figures in the Latter-day Saint tradition: Joseph F. Smith of the Salt Lake-based LDS Church and Richard C. Evans of the Reorganized Church. The spark was public accusation: Evans had criticized mainstream LDS doctrines, particularly the historical practice of plural marriage and the provocative teaching known as blood atonement. Smith's response is rigorous, documentary, and defensive. He summons passages from church leaders, especially Brigham Young, to explain and justify doctrines that had already passed out of official practice but remained theologically potent. The result is not mere polemic but something more valuable: a window into how one of American religion's most controversial movements wrestled internally with its own harder teachings. The debate illuminates factional tensions within Mormonism, the difficulty of managing a painful polygamous past, and the theological gymnastics required to defend or distance oneself from blood atonement, a doctrine that suggested Christ's suffering alone could not atone for certain sins. For readers interested in American religious history, the sociology of sectarian conflict, or the internal debates of a global faith, this is a primary source that speaks loudly across a century.