When I left the mormon Church in SLC, Utah I had three men from the priesthood ward level come knocking on my door. I was married and endowed in the temple. I thought they were coming to do something to me..in Modern Day..I had heard castration was often practiced against members who left the church. I know the Endowment sessions and washing/anoitings have changed, you do no go nude totally for the washings/anoitings anymore. You don’t have to get in a tub of water anymore. Gee what are these Mormons thinking?

The Mormon Church has Blood on their Hands…they are not the true church if they have Blood on their hands???

Of course, even with that being said, these days it is hard to justify the idea of a bishop heading up the posse.

Thank you for the clarifications in #60. I confused two incidents by relying on memory rather than going back and checking original sources. Since this is a “firestorm” one of my intentions was to sensationalize.
I am not sure about your point #2 though. I think there is some evidence that men with higher “status” in the church could get the wife they wanted at the expense of others feelings. For example Henry Jacobs loved his wife.

Joseph Young was furious when he heard about the attack.

Fifteen years later, while traveling from Springville to Manti, Snow was confronted by four armed men, apparently seeking revenge. Snow identified two of them as “Lewis” and “Tom.” The four men convinced Snow to go for a walk. “Lewis” hit Snow with the butt of his shotgun. Snow reacted by throwing one of the men to the ground. Snow then either pulled his own gun or wrestled one away from his captors and shot two of them.

Actually, citing John A. Peterson’s master’s thesis on Warren Snow, Quinn states that Snow castrated Lewis in 1857 for an undisclosed sex crime (Peterson writes that Lewis “was being taken by night to the penitentiary in Salt Lake to serve a sentence for what appears to have been a sexual crime”).

Quinn’s footnote adds: “Some reminiscent accounts confused this 1857 incident involving a Welshman with an 1859 incident in which a diary referred to an unnamed bishop who had just castrated a young Danish man so that the bishop could marry his girlfriend….Some reminiscent accounts claim the bishop in this 1859 castration was Warren Snow. This indicates either that Bishop Snow committed a second castration (not inconceivable in view of Brigham Young’s approval of the 1857 castration) or that later accounts mistakenly blamed him for a castration performed by someone else two years later” (Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, 250-51, 535).

Kevin, on what basis is this definition made? I confess ignorance on this question, but my impression is that this is a monastic understanding, not an early Christian one. Do you have some references to back this up?