Alma 54 & 55:1 - A lesson about lies and power

I know I'm kind of weird - the infamous "war section" of the Book of Mormon, typically the part many people like to skip, actually is one of my favorite parts of the whole Book of Mormon. My favorite heroes (Moroni, Helaman, Pahoran) shine during these parts, and there are golden nuggets of political strategy and philosophy just begging to be read and applied!

Context: Amalickiah (the ex-Nephite, devious, & power hungry leader of the Lamantites) has just been killed and his brother Ammoron takes command of the Lamanite armies that are attacking the Nephites all over. Captain Moroni and Ammoron exchange some letters just dripping with "fightin' words" or "red meat" (using today's terms) but essentially it's a semi-diplomatic way of negotiating for the release of prisoners. I'm not exactly sure what I think about Moroni's letters - they certainly aren't a model of common courtesy - but I think I may write about that in a different entry.

Chapter 54:
Ammoron is the quintessential two-faced politician, spinning lies to make them sound like truths. He claims that the Lamanites from the beginning had the right to the government of the people, and that Nephi "did rob them of their right to the government when it rightly belonged" to the Lamanites, so this completely "justified" their aggressions against the Nephites, almost 600 years later! Again, this is the same old rhetoric that keeps getting the lazy Lamanites riled up from time to time. But the real truth of the matter sneaks out anyway, as it usually does, when Ammoron declares, "We will wage a war which shall be eternal, either to the subjecting the Nephites to our authority or to their eternal extinction" (Alma 54:20).

That's what it really was about -POWER! Not freedom, not justice, not reclaiming something rightfully theirs (as they claimed), but the ability to glut themselves off of the Nephites and do whatever they wanted with the "lesser class" of Nephites. Of course, this is very familiar - Gadianton Robbers, Kingmen, Adolf Hitler, Communists, Terrorists, and even in our day those people that are into politics for the POWER of it more than public service.


Chapter 55, Verse 1:
"When Moroni had received this epistle he was more angry, because he knew that Ammoron had a perfect knowledge of his fraud; yea, he knew that it was not a just cause that had caused him to wage a war against the people of Nephi."

I think I'd be angry too. I recall the day when the whole Culbertson mortgage fraud news broke out during the Eagle Mountain City Mayoral race in 2006. I was in the city council building right before the debate where Culbertson claimed he was a "victim" of political operatives in the city who didn't want him to fight the "land speculators." I remember looking him in the eye as he walked in that door, knowing what I knew about the truth, and I had the distinct impression that he knew he was caught, but was using this election as a way to manipulate his way out of it. I was pretty angry about his claims, but even angrier that a lot of people believed him! However, the real truth eventually comes out, and unfortunately Culbertson and his wife were convicted a short while ago and received some pretty hefty jail/prison sentences. I feel bad for them, worse for their victims, and even worse for those who believed their twisted lies. I think it helped our city in the end though, but that's a topic for another day.

I'll continue with the rest of chapter 55 in another post tomorrow hopefully. Good bye for now!