re mormon beliefs about children born out of wedlock aaronc athena mit edu aaron bryce cardenas writes bruce webster writes indeed lds doctrine goes one step further and in some cases holds parents responsible for their children s sins if they have failed to bring them up properly cf d c note that this passage applies it only to members of the lds church i include the key verse d c because others may not have the reference and again inasmuch as parents have children in zion or in any of her stakes which are organized that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance faith in christ the son of the living god and of baptism and the gift of the holy ghost by the laying on of the hands when eight years old the sin be upon the heads of the parents what is the sin of the parents hi bruce how do you reconcile this practice with ezekiel ezekiel the soul who sins is the one who will die the son will not share the guilt of the father nor will the father share the guilt of the son the righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him is ezekiel not translated correctly in your eyes perhaps ezekiel teaches a correct principle however it assumes that fathers and sons have equal knowledge to prepare for the judgment parents are responsible to teach their children the gospel and other life skills should they fail to make a sufficient attempt to teach their children the parent would be held responsible not for their children s sins but for not teaching them properly whenever the lord installs someone to a position of authority in either the family or the church he expects that person to teach those in his charge in ezekiel someone called to care for others is likened to a watchman unto the house of israel if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way that man shall die in his iniquity but his blood will i require at thine hand nevertheless if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it if he do not turn from his way he shall die in his iniquity but thou hast delivered thy soul even though the d c prefaces this commandment with parents have children in zion i believe all parents are responsible for teaching their children whatever good principles they understand however lds parents accept greater responsbility and could be judged more strictly a idler
