In 1890 the Mormon church was forced to give up its ideals for polygamy. The United States government would not rlet these practices continue, so the church authorities yielded to them. But not everyone was in agreementwith the churches decision.  Those who felt very strongly against this decision left the church to form their own splinter groups. These people are known as Mormon fundamentalists.(www.watchman.org/splinter.html) What ideal besides polygamy blossomed from these groups was that of blood atonement. This ideal was picked from the beginning ideas of The Church of Latter-Day Saints, but what they believed was that when the day comes that the government is under the control of the First Presidency of the Church, blood atonement will again be practiced on sinners.(www.americanreligion.org/cultwtch/polygomy.html) But these certain splinter groups are not waiting for this millennial event.
 
    Church of the Firstborn of the Fullness of Time is one of the more “successful” splinter groups of its time. Ervil Le Baron started the group around 1972. Le Baron started a campaign of death, terror and atonement, which targeted anyone from complete strangers to his very own daughter.(Naifeh &Smith,1988) Le Baron and followers truly believe that if a person commits a sin, they must atone for it by death. By atoning, the person will be able to enter the kingdom of God. In the past 25 years, there have been 20 deaths reported for this reason, the Blood Atonement Doctrine. How grievious these sinners were could range from adultry to being a non- believer.

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