FLDS reinstituting 'blood atonement'

Custer County Chronicle - FLDS reinstituting 'blood atonement'

I saw this article on the web. The FLDS "fundamentalist" Mormon sect seems to be looming on the edge of re-instating Blood Atonement, a true principle revealed through Brigham Young. However, like Polygamy, it cannot currently be practiced for many reasons, including legal reasons.

The thing that caught me most, and made me want to blog about the article was this off-the-cuff comment at the end:

"I can see him teaching men who have lost their families that they need to be blood atoned. I think this may get to the point where fathers blood atone sons and sons blood atone fathers."

This comes from a speculation on the part of a dissident from the group, and has not actually been taught or verified to my knowledge. I also misunderstood it on my first reading, and thought it said something it didn't. I thought it was saying that fathers would have themselves killed in order to blood atone for their sons, and that sons would have themselves killed to blood atone for their fathers (possibly already dead), and I was musing over how quintessentially Mormon of an idea it is. Blood Atonement, taken one step further, and made into a vicarious ordinance. Actually, even if it was done in the normal fashion (and what I now realize is the way he said it to begin with) as a Temple ordinance, it would still be vicarious in that you are performing something they are not able to do for themself. But, as to my first and incorrect reading, what greater sacrifice could a person make for their departed family member? It is sinister and clever and ridiculous at the same time. I love it.

No, don't worry, I'm not going to practice it ;) It is purely useful as a bit of humor.