Mormon Reformation - History

History

All pioneers who gathered to Utah Territory under the direction of Young, whether members of the LDS Church or sympathetic non-members, were welcome as long as they helped in efforts to build up Zion. The undeveloped area required labor for the cutting of timber, road development, the creation of farms and pastures for cattle and other livestock; and the construction of homes, meetinghouses, mills, businesses, and irrigation systems. Church members who were willing to physically strengthen the Mormon settlements were so valued that "problems they might have with smoking, drinking, profaning, Sabbath breaking, and even immoral living did not normally cost them their standing in the community and the Church." Consequently, by the early 1850s, communities within the Mormon settlement region were prospering and secure but contained a segment whose personal practices were not within the exacting standards of the LDS Church.

In 1852, Young felt the church in Utah was secure enough to announce the practice of polygamy to the world. Shortly after the announcement, however, the Latter-day Saints in Utah experienced a period of trial. The population of the new territory was increasing at a rapid rate as Mormon converts from Europe joined the American Saints in their migration across the Great Plains. In 1855, a drought struck the flourishing but still largely undeveloped territory. Very little rain fell, and even the normally dependable mountain streams ran very low. In addition to the damage caused by drought, an infestation of grasshoppers and crickets destroyed whatever crops the Mormons had managed to salvage. During the winter of 1855–56, flour and other basic necessities were suddenly very scarce and very costly. Heber C. Kimball wrote his son, "Dollars and cents do not count now, in these times, for they are the tightest that I have ever seen in the territory of Utah."

In September 1856, as the drought continued, the trials and difficulties of the previous year led to an explosion of intense soul searching. Jedediah M. Grant, a counselor in the First Presidency and a well-known conservative voice in the extended community, preached three days of fiery sermons to the people in the area of modern Kaysville, Utah. He called for repentance and a general recommitment to moral living and religious teachings. Five hundred people presented themselves for rebaptism as a symbol of their determination to reform their lives. The zealous message spread from Kaysville to surrounding Mormon communities. Church leaders traveled around the territory, expressing their concern about signs of spiritual decay and calling for repentance. Members were asked to seal their rededication with rebaptism.

This reformation was promoted intensely by all three members of the First Presidency, as well as several apostles, who gave fiery sermons in favor of greater orthodoxy, and rebaptism in preparation for the full practice of "celestial law" in Utah Territory prior to the Second Coming, which they thought would be soon. According to Young:

"The time is coming when justice will be laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet; when we shall take the old broadsword and ask, Are you for God? And if you are not heartily on the Lord's side, you will be hewn down."

Throughout the winter special meetings were held and Mormons urged to adhere to the commandments of God and the practices and precepts of the Church. Preaching placed emphasis on the practice of plural marriage, adherence to the church practice of the Word of Wisdom, attendance at church meetings, and personal prayer. Several sermons also focused on improving personal appearance, dress and hygiene. Although Grant died shortly after one of his winter tours, a victim of pneumonia, the influence of the reformation spread throughout the Mormon colonies. On December 30, 1856, the entire all-Mormon Utah territorial legislature was rebaptized for the remission of their sins, and confirmed under the hands of the Twelve Apostles. As time went on, however, the sermons became excessive and intolerant, and invoked threats of hellfire and damnation to motivate members.

To encourage reformation, certain adjunct theocratic committees may have attempted to ensure order and conformity by censuring local troublemakers. Dissident Mormons of the time reported rumors that committees resorted to summary judgments with punishments meted out by enforcers colloquially termed "Danites" or "destroying angels". For example, the southern Utah pioneer and militia scout of the time John Chatterley later wrote that he had received threats from "secret Committee, called ... 'destroying angels'" in late 1856 and early 1857. Commentators have pointed to pronouncements during this period by Young and Grant which would seem to give vigilante-style bloodshed a religious basis. Young denied that any such acts were condoned by him or the church leadership. In a speech in 1867 Young said:

Is there war in our religion? No; neither war nor bloodshed. Yet our enemies cry out "bloodshed," and "oh, what dreadful men these Mormons are, and those Danites! how they slay and kill!" Such is all nonsense and folly in the extreme. The wicked slay the wicked, and they will lay it on the Saints.

Historian Dean L. May noted that the more zealous reformation efforts were not universally accepted in Utah: in a possible tongue-in-cheek diary entry, Hannah Tapfield King responded to Grant's accusation that the Polysophical Society (a literary club organized by the more socially liberal Lorenzo Snow and his sister Eliza R. Snow), had an "adulterous spirit." King wrote, "Well, there may be, for he says there is, and probably he understands it. To me it all seemed good and nice, of course a little vanity and folly, and that one sees in the tabernacle and everywhere."

As in similar Protestant reformation movements, the enormous enthusiasm and dramatic signs of repentance could not be sustained. By the spring of 1857, with the return of more familiar spring rains, the religious life of Mormon communities returned to a more normal pattern. The Reformation appears to have burned out completely by early 1858.