The Cursing of Mormon Lawyers
Cursing, it would seem, forms something of a theme in Mormon legal history. Not only was it a way of dealing with unsolved crimes, but it also seems to have been used as a way of controlling frivolous litigation. In 1856, Brigham Young delivered a particularlly blistering sermon denouncing lawyers. Speaking of the law courts, he thundered, “It is a cage of unclean birds, a den and kitchen of hell, and I am going to warn you of it.” And warn he did. In particular, he was hard on:
[T]he lustful, wicked, cursed, hellish appetites of professed brethren, in striving to cheat their neighbors, by employing lawyers to deceive or lie for them, which are synonymous terms in the eyes of justice, and by bringing in witnesses to screen the guilty and deceive a jury, whereby they are liable to give a wrong verdict.
And so Brigham cursed the lawyers (and their clients it would seem): “Men who love corruption, contention, and broils, and who seek to make them, I curse you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Lest one think that this was a simple case of cussing or rhetoric, Brigham went on, “I curse you, and the fruits of your lands shall be smitten with mildew, your children shall sicken and die, your cattle shall waste away, and I pray God to root you out from the society of the Saints.”
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