Sabbath Devotional :: Pacifist Perspective on War in the Book of Mormon

Photo: The inchworm I took outside to free after I found him on my NY Times a couple of months ago. I took great pleasure in helping his life continue on for another day.

I would not feel uncomfortable if someone accused me of being a pacifist. My brain tells me that there are times that war is justified, but my heart can hardly handle the thought of it. My distaste for violence grows out of an innate recoiling at the suffering of any living creature. I was just born this way. By way of example, earlier this year my son’s seven baby rabbits all became ill, one after another and on separate days. Each died quite terribly after an hour of seizures and suffering. I cried and held each one as they passed, reasoning that my presence and soothing touch could help ease their fear and terror at what was happening to them. I still mourn for those rabbits and the pain they suffered during their terrible deaths. If I still cry at the thought of those baby rabbits, you can imagine what my natural reaction to reading the news is like. In order to cope with everyday life, I have learned, to a certain extent, to push back the feelings of intense empathy that rush forward when I am faced with stories of violence and suffering. It has resulted in some excellent compartmentalizing skills, which may or not be healthy in the long term, but allow me to stay informed and resist the urge to tune everything out completely.

The Book of Mormon is full of warfare. I believe the Book of Mormon was written for our day. Therefore, in spite of my aversion to all things related to war, I have spent a lot of time trying to understand what I am supposed to learn from the tales of terrible violence and bloodshed in that book. The end of the Book of Alma is particularly tough to get through. After spending the last two months pouring over chapters 32-45 in great detail and analyzing sermons about faith and redemption and gratitude, I was faced with a choice about chapters 46-63. Should I just rush through the stories of young men being recruited to go to war, the sermons about defense of liberty, and the stirring stories of leaders who motivate their people via inspiring calls to protect freedom? That is the way I usually approach such chapters. I am eager to push through to Third Nephi, where the sermons of Christ can fill my soul day after day.

During this reading of the Book of Mormon, I decided to dig into those stories of warfare and really ask what I was supposed to be learning from them. As a result, I have filled pages of notes about the stripling warriors and their “firm and undaunted minds,” their strict obedience as taught to them by their mothers, and the ways that distress and trials can lead to intense prayer resulting in acts of great courage.

The real payoff, though, comes near the very end of Alma in chapter 62, verse 41:

“But behold, because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depth of humility.”

After reading this verse, I began to ask myself the following questions: “What are the modern day parallels to this intense Book of Mormon warfare? How am I allowing myself to become hardened as I encounter these parallels? What can I do to increase my chances to be softened instead?”

Acknowledging upfront my natural reluctance to bring battle images into situations where they don’t necessarily belong, I submit the following hypothesis: One current equivalent to these terrible scriptural battles is the psychological battle for what is defined as truth. This war is being waged by Satan from every direction as he seeks to get into our hearts and minds and make us question everything we read or listen to. This looks vastly different than normal critical thinking or healthy questioning. It is rather a state of mind in which truth is overlooked or even discarded in favor of a mindset that we can’t know if anything is really true, so why even try? In this case, it is a war where the enemy is not always clear and where the point is for us to give up and accept that truth is always relative. It is a war for our souls and the battlefield is a minefield of information. No side actually wins because the point is that everyone is constantly off balance and pointing fingers at each other, thus assuring our mutual destruction.

So how do we fight these battles? How do we learn to be skeptical without being hardened and careful without being perpetually distrustful? How do we keep our eyes open to truth, without allowing those things disguised as truth to penetrate and pollute?

The “affliction” of information overload and warfare is real. Will I become hardened by its onslaught or softened as I seek ways to identify and spread truth? If great warriors like Moroni were able to retain their faith and goodness in the midst of brutal war filled with violent hand-to-hand combat, surely I can avoid the trap of despair and hopelessness as I face an uncertain future and a near constant barrage of bad information and terrible news. The formula is actually laid out in the verses following, as Mormon describes the prosperity following the years of war:

49 But notwithstanding their riches, or their strength, or their prosperity, they were not lifted up in the pride of their eyes; neither were they slow to remember the Lord their God; but they did humble themselves exceedingly before him.

50 Yea, they did remember how great things the Lord had done for them, that he had delivered them from death, and from bonds, and from prisons, and from all manner of afflictions, and he had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies.

51 And they did pray unto the Lord their God continually, insomuch that the Lord did bless them, according to his word, so that they did wax strong and prosper in the land.

This could not be any clearer: 1. Be Humble, 2. Remember your Blessings and 3. Pray Continually.

As I gathered and stapled my notes from all 63 chapters of Alma early this morning, I was struck by the elegance and simplicity of those final instructions in this book of scripture filled with evidence of humankind’s rashness, inclination towards tribalism, and the inevitable resulting war. As a person who tends to analyze, overthink and over-complicate everything, I have learned to seek out the straightforward path as an anecdote to my natural inclinations. In addition, pushing myself to study these stories of violence and bloodshed provides a counterbalance to my instincts to push away the stories of pain and suffering. I will never enjoy those stories, but I think that is the point. The discomfort I feel when studying them helps bring forth a depth of insight that would not be present otherwise.

Returning to my inclination towards pacifism, it turns out that “peacemaker” is often used as a synonym for “pacifist.” With this connection between physical warfare and the battle for truth now fresh in my mind, I feel a new urgency for peacemaking to be used in every possible space, but especially in our pursuit of truth.