Editing Brigham Young (section)

===Teachings===
The majority of Young's teachings are contained in the 19 volumes of transcribed and edited sermons in the ''[[Journal of Discourses]]''. The LDS Church's [[Doctrine and Covenants]] contains one section from Young that has been canonized as scripture, added in 1876.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/136?lang=eng|title=Doctrine and Covenants 136|website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org}}</ref>

{{LDSpolygamy}}

==== Polygamy ====
Though [[plural marriage|polygamy]] was practiced by Young's predecessor, Joseph Smith,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/plural-marriage-in-kirtland-and-nauvoo?lang=eng|title=Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo|website=ChurchofJesusChrist.org}}</ref> the practice is often associated with Young. Some Latter Day Saint denominations, such as the [[Community of Christ]], consider Young the "Father of Mormon Polygamy".<ref>{{citation |author=Richard and Pamela Price |title=Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy: How Men Nearest the Prophet Attached Polygamy to His Name in Order to Justify Their Own Polygamous Crimes |place=Independence, Missouri |publisher=Price Publishing Company |year=2000 |chapter-url=http://restorationbookstore.org/articles/nopoligamy/jsfp-vol1/chp4.htm |chapter=Vol. 1, Ch. 4: Brigham Young: The Father of Mormon Polygamy |isbn=1891353063 |oclc=42027453 |lccn=99041763 |type=[[self-published]] |access-date=October 30, 2010 |archive-date=July 16, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716072007/http://restorationbookstore.org/articles/nopoligamy/jsfp-vol1/chp4.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1853, Young made the church's first official statement on the subject since the church had arrived in Utah. Young acknowledged that the doctrine was challenging for many women, but stated its necessity for creating large families, proclaiming: "But the first wife will say, 'It is hard, for I have lived with my husband twenty years, or thirty, and have raised a family of children for him, and it is a great trial to me for him to have more women;' then I say it is time that you gave him up to other women who will bear children."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Watt|first=G. D.|date=September 21, 1856|title=The People of God Disciplined By Trials – Atonement By the Shedding of Blood – Our Heavenly Father – A Privilege Given to All the Married Sisters in Utah|url=https://jod.mrm.org/4/51|journal=[[Journal of Discourses]]|volume=4|pages=56}}</ref> Young believed that sexual desire was given by God to ensure the perpetuation of humankind and believed sex should be confined to marriage.{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=96}}

==== 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>

==== Race restrictions on temples, priesthood, and interracial marriage ====
{{see also|Black people and temple and priesthood policies in the LDS Church|Interracial marriage and the LDS Church}}

Young is generally considered to have instituted [[Black people and Mormonism|a church ban]] against conferring the priesthood on men of black African descent, who had generally been treated equally to white men in this respect under Smith's presidency.<ref name=Bush>{{cite book |editor1-last= Bush |editor1-first= Lester E. Jr. |editor1-link=Lester E. Bush Jr. |editor2-last= Mauss |editor2-first= Armand L. |editor2-link= Armand L. Mauss |title= Neither White Nor Black: Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church |publisher= [[Signature Books]] |year= 1984 |location= Salt Lake City|url=http://signaturebookslibrary.org/neither-white-nor-black/|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 1, 2022|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20221001163611/http://signaturebookslibrary.org/neither-white-nor-black/ |isbn= 0-941214-22-2|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>{{rp|pp=54–65,70}} After settling in Utah in 1848, Young announced the ban,<ref name=Bush/> which also forbade blacks from participating in Mormon temple rites such as the [[Endowment (Latter Day Saints)|endowment]] or [[sealing (Latter Day Saints)|sealings]]. On many occasions, Young taught that blacks were denied the priesthood because they were "the seed of Cain".<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V08N01_13.pdf |title=Mormonism's Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview |journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|Dialogue]] |date=Spring 1973 |author=Bush, Lester E. |pages=54–97}}</ref> In 1863, Young stated: "Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so."<ref>{{cite book|title=Journal of Discourses|volume=10|page=[http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/JournalOfDiscourses3/id/4266 110]|title-link=Journal of Discourses|via=[[Brigham Young University]]}}. See also: [[miscegenation]].</ref> Young was also a vocal opponent of theories of human [[Polygenism|polygenesis]], being a firm voice for stating that all humans were the product of one creation.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Non|first=Sic et|date=August 18, 2015|title=Brigham Young against a then-fashionable scientific form of racism|url=https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2015/08/brigham-young-against-a-then-fashionable-scientific-form-of-racism.html}}</ref>

Throughout his time as prophet, Young went to great lengths to deny the assumption that he was the author of the practice of priesthood denial to black men, asserting instead that the Lord was. According to Young, the matter was beyond his personal control and was divinely determined rather than historically or personally as many assumed.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Esplin|first=Ronald K.|title=Brigham Young and Priesthood Denial to the Blacks: An Alternate View|date=1979|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43044952|journal=[[BYU Studies]]|volume=19|issue=3|pages=394–402|jstor=43044952|issn=0007-0106|publisher=[[Brigham Young University]]}}</ref> Young taught that the day would come when black men would again have the priesthood, saying that after "all the other children of Adam have the privilege of receiving the Priesthood, and of coming into the kingdom of God, and of being redeemed from the four-quarters of the earth, and have received their resurrection from the dead, then it will be time enough to remove the curse from Cain and his posterity."<ref>{{cite book|title=Journal of Discourses|volume=2|page=[http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/JournalOfDiscourses3/id/9600/rec/2 142]|title-link=Journal of Discourses|via=[[Brigham Young University]]}}</ref>

These racial restrictions remained in place until 1978, when the policy was rescinded by church president [[Spencer W. Kimball]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Doctrine and Covenants|contribution=Official Declaration 2|chapter-url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/od/2?lang=eng|title-link=Doctrine and Covenants}}</ref> and the church subsequently "disavow[ed] theories advanced in the past" to explain this ban,<ref name="Gospel Topics-Race and the Priesthood">{{cite web|title=Gospel Topics {{ndash}} Race and the Priesthood|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood|publisher=LDS Church}}</ref> essentially attributing the origins of the ban solely to Young.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Mormon Church Disavows Its Racist Past But Still Offers No Apology|work=[[HuffPost]]|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/darron-t-smith-phd/the-mormon-church-disavow_b_4440244.html|access-date=December 17, 2013}}</ref>