. . . as in "Mountain Meadows Massacre."
Yes, the roots of the stupid, prying "Mormon temple recommmend"/"bishop worthiness interview" that you've probably gone through more times than you care to admit actually were planted during the period of Brigham Young's bloody Inquisitional, otherwise known as the "Mormon Reformation."
We're talking the theocratic fever swamp of Utah in the 1850s, when there was lots of wild-eyed, threatening Mormon Church talk of blood atonement, death to sinners (including javelins through the heart and decapitations), excommunications, etc. It was a hunkering-down time for paranoia-driven purging of the "wolves" from among the sheep.
A prototype of today's temple recommend/personal "worthiness" interviews was produced during this time period featuring intimidating and invasive questions designed by ranking Mormon authorities to determine the spiritual status of the individual Church members being grilled. Here's a misleadingly benign synopsis on the temple recommend questions, under the headline,"Bishop’s Interview Timeline":
"1856--Temple recommend questions. The First Presidency sent a letter stating that those recommended by local leaders should 'be those who pray, who pay their tithing from year to year; who live the lives of Saints from day to day; setting good examples before their neighbors. Men and women, boys and girls over 16 years of age who are living the lives of Saints, believer in the plurality [plural marriage], and do not speak evil of the authorities of the Church, and possess true integrity towards their friends.' (Spring 1998. "History of LDS Temple Admission Standards," in "The Journal of Mormon History," pp. 135-75).
"There was no temple in Utah yet, so the questions were simply asked by home teachers as part of the Reformation."
("Exploring Mormonism," at
http://www.exploringmormonism.com/?p=834)
Below is more historical context in which the Mormon "worthiness" checklist was created:
"Mormonism was in its early days a Restorationist faith, and leaders such as Joseph Smith and Brigham Young frequently discussed efforts to re-introduce social, legal, and religious practices described in the Bible, such as temple building, polygamy, and a patriarchal, theocratic governing structure."
One of the means of restoring--and reinforcing--proper Mormon belief and practice was, in fact, through the introduction of the "worthiness" questions. Not coincidentally, blood atonement--as an official Mormon Church doctrine and practice--emerged during this "Utah Reformation/Worthiness Questionnaire" period:
"The doctrine [of blood atonement] originated during the Mormon Reformation, when Brigham Young governed the Utah Territory as a near-theocracy. Young and the other members of his First Presidency taught that the doctrine was ideally to be a voluntary choice by the sinner, carried out with love and compassion. Young considered it more charitable to sacrifice a life than to see them endure eternal torment in the afterlife. In a full Mormon theocracy, the practice would be implemented by the state as a penal measure.
"The blood atonement doctrine was the impetus behind laws in the territory and state of Utah allowing capital punishment by firing squad or decapitation. Though people in Utah were executed by firing squad for capital crimes under the assumption that this would aid their salvation, there is no clear evidence that Young or other top theocratic Mormon leaders enforced blood atonement for apostasy or non-capital crimes like miscegenation. There is, however, some evidence that the doctrine was enforced a few times at the local church level without regard to secular judicial procedure. The rhetoric of blood atonement may have contributed to a culture of violence leading to the Mountain Meadows Massacre."
("Blood Atonement," at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_atonement: for a wider examination of the "Mormon Reformation" time period in which the LDS "worthiness interview" was born, see: "Mormon Reformation," at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_Reformation; and "History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints#The_Mormon_ReformationThe "Salt Lake Tribune," in an article headlined, "New Era Dawns for LDS Temple Recommends," reports on how all this recommend business started in the midst of extremist, draconian Mormon religiousity:
"Starting in the so-called 'Mormon Reformation' of 1856, LDS leaders began asking members about their adherence to religious principles. They were asked about their faith and commitment but also about whether they'd committed murder or adultery.
"At that time, such questions were not necessarily used to determine whether a Mormon could go to the temple--in fact, the St. George Temple, Utah's first, wasn't dedicated until 1877.
"For years thereafter, a Latter-day Saint had to be invited by the Church leaders to enter a temple, wrote Brigham Young University law professor Edward] Kimball in the spring 1998 'Journal of Mormon History.' Local leaders, relying onC'broad categories of worthiness,' recommended members to the Church president, who issued approval.
"'Letters of recommendation had to be countersigned by the Church president until 1891 when Wilford Woodruff, who had signed over 3,000 that year, delegated responsibility for determining worthiness to bishops and stake presidents,' Kimball wrote."
("New Era Dawns for LDS Temple Recommends," by Peggy Fletcher Stack, 25 August 2007, at:
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6709434)
Another article, entitled, "Temple Recommend Questions," reports on how Mormons were queried if they had murdered anyone in "cold blood" (apparently non-cold-blooded murder was acceptable):
"Temple recommend interviews were not formalized until the 1880′s. In the 1856-57 'Mormon Reformation' when ‘home teachers’ were asked to visit the Saints and recommit them to live the Gospel, they would also ask a series of questions (much like the Catholic Cathecism) about worthiness or behavior. This was the beginning of such a practice.
"Some of the early questions were: 'Have you murdered anyone in cold-blood?' 'Have you knowingly branded another person's cattle or livestock?' 'Have you plowed or harvested grain from a field that was not your own?' 'Do you, and your family, wash or bathe as regularly as you are able?'"
("Temple Recommend Questions? By Guest Aaron Reeves," 16 February 2009, at:
http://mormonmatters.org/2009/02/16/temple-recommend-questions-by-guest-aaron-reeves/)
Another essay, titled, "Tracing Conflict Between Latter-day Saints and the Outside World," tracks how the LDS Church reacted to perceived external threats with the launching of its radical "Mormon-Reformation" Reign of Terror--which culminated in the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857:
"In 1856, when the Mormons realized that the government was sending an army that could destroy them, no one could've predicted the peaceful and uneventful outcome of the controversy. Some Mormons saw the intrusion as a sign of the End Times and believed that they were about to see the obliteration of their beloved Salt Lake City.
"With this fear in mind, they entered into a brief period of their history (1856–57) known as the 'Mormon Reformation.' To prepare themselves spiritually for the end, they prayed more fervently, met more frequently, and performed round-the-clock ordinances in the Endowment House (the building that substituted for a temple while the temple was under construction). They also made a dizzying number of plural marriages, with some men marrying several women on the same day.
"The 'Mormon Reformation' was a time of deep, and even bizarre, fervor in Latter-day Saint history and played an important part in understanding the religion's greatest tragedy: the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
"Although the 1850s Utah War was bloodless, Mormon history in the 1850s wasn't. The government may not have traded bullets with the Mormons, but many of the Latter-day Saints suspected that civilians in emigrant trains crossing the Utah Territory were in league with the invading army. For this and other complex reasons, a group of Mormons made a large-scale attack on an emigrant train in September 1857. Interestingly enough, the worst of the bloodshed happened on September 11, a day that almost 150 years later similarly became associated with the violence that can stem from religious fanaticism.
"The massacre occurred about 200 miles south of Salt Lake City, when a group of men, women, and children passed through southern Utah on their way to settle in California. Some accounts claim that Native Americans initiated the attack and that the Mormons joined in later; others claim that the Mormons planned and executed the whole affair. The latter explanation seems more credible to most historians. At the end of the day, more than 120 men, women, and older children were dead. Young children, the oldest of whom was 6, were left alive, and many were temporarily adopted into the families of local Latter-day Saints before being returned to their homes in Missouri and Arkansas."
("Tracing Conflict between Latter-day Saints and the Outside World," by Jana Riess and Christopher Kimball Bigelow, at:
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/tracing-conflict-between-latterday-saints-and-the-.html)
Thus, it was in this frenzied environment of Mormon madness that the notion of subjecting rank-and-file LDS believers to "worthiness" interviews took hold.
Even the Mormon apologist group, FAIR, admits that such "worthiness questions" were conceived and asked during this time period.
("Mormon Reformation/Historical Background," at:
http://en.fairmormon.org/Mormon_Reformation/Historical_background)
In doing so, however, FAIR makes its predictable, downplaying and rationalizing excuses:
"A series of questions were prepared by the General Authorities to be asked of the members. Some critics have characterized these as excessive and invasive, but they are little different from the modern temple recommend interview questions. (For a list of the questions, see: "Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Absurd claims," at:
http://en.fairmormon.org/One_Nation_Under_Gods/Absurd_claims#234)";
Yeah, only a "little different"--as long as you leave out the part about the Mormon slaughter of 120 innocent men, women and children.
*****
Bottom line:
The "bishop's interview"/"temple recommend"/"personal worthiness" sacred-scorecard practice came into being during a violent and bloody time in Mormon Church history--a time where LDS members (as well as non-Mormon outsiders) understandably feared for their lives (and Mormons for their eternal lives, as well)--as those lives were threatened by the leaders of the Mormon Church.
The next time you sit down, alone, in front of your Mormon bishop, behind the closed doors of his confining little office, and he starts creepily asking you about:
--what kind of sex you're having with your spouse;
--if you've been playing with yourself (a question, by the way, that he will also ask your kids when he gets them alone, as well);
--whether or not you are in total, unquestioning obedience to the men who lord over you in the name of the Mormon God; and
--if you're handing over your time and money to the Mormon Cult to satisfy its needs. . .
Through all of those inquisitional questions, think about how these kind of outrageously inappropriate and invasive interrogatories came to life in the first place: During a time when Mormons were murdering people in, well, cold blood and threatening the sheep trapped inside their Mormon Cult corral with the same fate if they didn't move in lockstep.
It might help end that worthless "worthiness" interview sooner rather than later.
Edited 26 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2013 12:28AM by steve benson.