Reading this book brought home to me the truth of the following quote from Blaise Pascal. He said,
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."
John D. Lee was executed for the murders done at Mountain Meadows but he was only one of a whole list of men who were involved in this crime.
Why he was singled out to take the blame for the whole thing, is beyond me. What is sad in this whole things, besides the fact that innocent blood was shed, is that John D. Lee went to his grave maintaining his innocence in this horrible deed because he was acting out of a zeal and fervor for God and sincerely believed that his superiors in the church who order him to take the lives of these people were speaking as God's mouth piece and therefore what he did was not wrong because he believed God commanded it.
Blaise Pascal's statement that "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." certainly rings true in this book. It is a chilling book to read especially when you realize the extent of evil men will go to in the name of obedience to God.
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