“Mormonism and Torture: Paradoxes and First Principles” -- Excerpt from Boyd Petersen’s Dead Wood and Rushing Water December 10 2014

 

From Dead Wood and Rushing Water: Essays on Mormon Faith, Culture, and Family:

Mormon scripture offers paradox rather than surety. Should we in all places and times “renounce war and proclaim peace,” or should we adopt the view that it is better that “one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief ”? Both sides can be supported with Mormon scripture. And Latter-day Saints have found themselves, with tragic consequences, on both sides of this moral debate.

Read the full chapter below: