Editing Brigham Young (section)

==== Adam-God doctrine and blood atonement ====
{{main|Adam–God doctrine|Blood atonement}}

One of the more controversial teachings of Young during the [[Mormon Reformation]] was the [[Adam–God doctrine]]. According to Young, he was taught by Smith that [[Adam]] is "our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do". According to the doctrine, Adam was once a mortal man who became resurrected and [[exaltation (Latter Day Saints)|exalted]]. From another planet, Adam brought [[Eve]], one of his wives, with him to the earth, where they became mortal by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. After bearing mortal children and establishing the human race, Adam and Eve returned to their heavenly thrones where Adam acts as the god of this world. Later, as Young is generally understood to have taught, Adam returned to the earth to become the biological father of Jesus.<ref>{{cite book|last=Widmer|first=Kurt |date=2000|title=Mormonism and the Nature of God: A Theological Evolution, 1830–1915|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|publisher=McFarland|page=131|isbn=978-0-7864-0776-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TYHZAAAAMAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Gary James |last=Bergera|url=http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/dialogue,2878|title=The Orson Pratt–Brigham Young Controversies: Conflict Within the Quorums, 1853 to 1868|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614014538/http://content.lib.utah.edu/u/?%2Fdialogue%2C2878 |archive-date=June 14, 2011|journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|Dialogue]]|volume=13|issue=2 |date=1980|page=41}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|first=Boyd |last=Kirkland|url=https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/044-36-44.pdf|title= Jehovah as the Father: The Development of the Mormon Jehovah Doctrine|magazine=[[Sunstone (magazine)|Sunstone]]|volume=44|date=1984|page=39|quote=[Adam] later begot Jesus, his firstborn spirit son, in the flesh.}}</ref> The LDS Church has since repudiated the Adam–God doctrine.<ref>{{cite magazine|author-link=Spencer W. Kimball|first=Spencer|last=Kimball| url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1976/11/our-own-liahona?lang=eng |title=Our Own Liahona|magazine=[[Ensign (LDS magazine)|Ensign]]|date=November 1976|page=77 |quote=We denounce that theory and hope that everyone will be cautioned against this and other kinds of false doctrine.}}</ref>

Young also taught the doctrine of [[blood atonement]], in which the [[Substitutionary atonement|atonement]] of [[Jesus in Christianity|Jesus]] cannot redeem an [[eternal sin]], which included [[apostasy]], [[theft]], [[fornication]] (but not [[sodomy]]), or [[adultery]].<ref name="Quinn">{{cite book |last1=Quinn |first1=D. Michael |title=Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example |date=2001 |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |isbn=978-0252069581 |page=269 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UXVj398JvnsC&q=%22blood+atonement%22+%2Cmurder%2C+fornication%2C+and+adultery.&pg=PA269 |access-date=November 3, 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Snow |first1=Lowell M. |title=Blood Atonement |url=https://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Blood_Atonement |website=Encyclopedia of Mormonism |access-date=August 13, 2021|via=[[Brigham Young University]]}}</ref> Instead, those who committed such sins could partially atone for their sin by sacrificing their life in a way that sheds blood.<ref name="Gardner">{{cite journal |last1=Gardner |first1=Martin R. |title=Mormonism and Capital Punishment: A Doctoral Perspective, Past and Present |journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|Dialgoue]] |date=Spring 1979 |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=9–26 |doi=10.2307/45224743 |jstor=45224743 |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/mormonism-and-capital-punishment-a-doctoral-perspective-past-and-present/ |access-date=August 13, 2021|doi-access=free }}</ref> The LDS Church has formally repudiated the doctrine as early as 1889<ref>{{citation |last= Roberts |first= B. H. |author-link= B. H. Roberts |year= 1930 |contribution= Blood Atonement |title= [[Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] |location= Salt Lake City |publisher= [[Deseret News]] |volume= 4 |pages= 126–137 }}</ref> and multiple times since the days of Young.<ref>{{cite web |last1=McConkie |first1=Bruce R |title=Letter from Bruce R. McConkie to Thomas B. McAffee |url=http://www.shields-research.org/General/blood_atonement.htm |access-date=August 13, 2021 |date=October 18, 1978}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Church Statement|newspaper=[[Deseret News]]|url=https://www.deseret.com/2010/6/18/20122138/mormon-church-statement-on-blood-atonement}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author-link=Peggy Fletcher Stack|last=Fletcher Stack|first=Peggy|title=Concept of Blood Atonement Survives in Utah Despite Repudiation|newspaper=[[The Salt Lake Tribune]] |date=November 5, 1994|quote=In the past decade, potential jurors in every Utah capital homicide were asked whether they believed in the Mormon concept of 'blood atonement.' In 1994, when the defense in the trial of James Edward Wood alleged that a local church leader had 'talked to Wood about shedding his own blood', the LDS First Presidency submitted a document to the court that denied the church's acceptance and practice of such a doctrine, and included the 1978 repudiation. The article also notes that [[Arthur Gary Bishop]], a convicted serial killer, was told by a top church leader that 'blood atonement ended with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.'}}</ref>