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Brigham Young's United Order: A Contextual InterpretationVolume 1 - Main PresentationThe United Order was Brigham Young's collection of policies and plans for overcoming the many economic and legal problems the Saints faced in their Western territory. Having been denied through federal malice for many decades the normal benefits of state and local self-government, including an effective criminal law system and mechanisms for property ownership and conducting business, the Saint's creating of a vigorous society and economy was very difficult and required much ingenuity until statehood and legal independence were finally achieved. It was necessary for the first 50 years in Utah to create temporary substitutes for normal criminal systems, property ownership, and conducting corporate business.On a more personal note, what does the term "United Order" mean to you? Have you ever worried whether you might have to join a communal enterprise, and surrender all your worldly goods to gain salvation? Some of the LDS traditions seem to support such a possibility.You may be pleased and surprised to learn that Brigham Young was strongly against the idea of any required communal ownership of property or the equal distribution of the proceeds.You take some ... who want us all to be of one heart and of one mind, and they think we cannot be so unless we all have the same number of houses, farms, carriages, horses, and the same amount in greenbacks. There are plenty in this Church who entertain such a notion .... but let such ... guide and dictate, and they would soon accomplish the overthrow of this Church and people. JD 12:61 June 16, 1867 SLC.I do not wish for one moment to recognize the idea that in order to establish the United Order our property has to be divided equally among the people ... JD 18:353-7 April 6, 1877 St. George.So where did all the unusual ideas and projects come from that have helped spawn the troubling traditions? The hostile terrain and political climate meant that the Saints were required to be in a "wagon train" or military mode, a version of martial law, for the first thirty years they were in Utah, and this explains almost everything.Armies must coordinate all aspects of their lives and operations to survive and be effective. In peacetime, such discipline is usually counterproductive. We surely do not wish to hold up the military life as the epitome of religious devotion and temporal felicity, thus letting past persecutors determine our view of future possibilities.Many of the harsher aspects of that early political and temporal setting have been glossed over to help heal the breach with the rest of the country. However, without an understanding of those stressful circumstances, one can never hope to understand the many economic, political, and doctrinal anomalies that are found among the historical fossils from the Brigham Young period.Volume 2 - Related Anomalies and Side IssuesThese chapters were separated from the original unabridged edition to facilitate a more economical publishing process and to lessen the complexity level of the original study. Those people who have a very active interest in the history of the united order and related ideas, and wish to go beyond the central issue into various levels of related historical and doctrinal sub-issues, should find these supplemental chapters of interest. The multiple conflicting views of early church leaders on the united order, blood atonement, one-man power, Adam-God, polygamy, theocracy, and Christ's infinite atonement are among the many topics analyzed using opinions expressed in the Journal of Discourses - the original conference reports.
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