1 And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea,
even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened
their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as
they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be
enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon
them.
22 And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they
shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities.
23 And cursed shall be the seed of him that mixeth with
their seed; for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord
spake it, and it was done.
24 And because of their cursing which was upon them they
did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the
wilderness for beasts of prey.
25 And the Lord God said unto me: They shall be a scourge
unto thy seed, to stir them up in remembrance of me; and inasmuch as they will
not remember me, and hearken unto my words, they shall scourge them even unto
destruction.
In the first post, we looked at the curse that was placed upon the Lamanites. That curse was being cutoff from the presence of the Lord. Other things occurred, including a skin of blackness. But, that was not a part of the curse; that was one of the many consequences of the curse.
How does the Book of Mormon itself treat the Lamanites? You would expect a racist book to minimize
them and tear them down whenever possible.
To determine if the Book of Mormon is racist, we need to understand how
the Lamanites were treated in the Book.
From the beginning of the Book of Mormon, we learn the
Lamanites will “be a scourge unto [Nephi’s] seed, to stir them up in the way of
remembrance” (1 Nephi 2:24). We also
read the Lamanites will be a scourge to the Nephites in 2 Nephi 5:25 and Jacob
3:3. We must keep in mind that the
Lamanites will be this scourge only when the Nephites have become a wicked
people.
Of course, there was hatred towards the Lamanites by many of
the Nephites. We would expect this
record to portray them in a negative light.
Shortly after Nephi’s death, Jacob was preaching to the
Nephites. Even this early in their
history, the Nephites had turned away from God.
The Nephites had more than one wife and concubines. Jacob uses the Lamanites as his example. You hate the Lamanites “because of their
filthiness and the cursing which hath come upon their skins” (Jacob 3:5). Jacob then informs the people that the
Lamanites are more righteous than the Nephites.
They only have one wife and no concubines. Husband and wives love each other. They love their children. While the Lamanites hate the Nephites, they
do so “because of the iniquity of their
fathers” (Jacob 3:7). In fact, they
are held in higher esteem by the Lord.
Unless the Nephites repent, “[the Lamanites] skin will be whiter than
yours when ye shall be brought before the throne of God” (Jacob 3:8). (For a full account of Jacob’s words, see
Jacob 3:5-9.)
Towards the end of Jacob’s life, “many means were devised to reclaim and restore the Lamanites to the
knowledge of the truth” (Jacob 7:24).
It wasn’t successful, but the effort was made.
When Jacob’s son, Enos, wrestled with the Lord in prayer,
part of his prayer dealt with the Lamanites (see Enos 1:11-20). He desired “that if it should so be, that my
people, the Nephites, should fall into transgression, and by any means be
destroyed, and the Lamanites should not be destroyed, that the Lord God would
preserve a record of my people, the Nephites; even if it so be by the power of
his holy arm, that it might be brought forth at some future day unto the
Lamanites, that, perhaps, they might be brought unto salvation—“ (Enos 1:13).
The missionary effort to the Lamanites continued during the
time of Enos; however, “our labors were vain; their hatred was fixed … and they
were continually seeking to destroy us” (Enos 1:20).
Enos’s son, Jarom, tells us that the small plates of Nephi “are
written for the intent of the benefit of our brethren the Lamanites” (Jarom
1:2).
Why was their so much hatred between the Lamanites and
Nephites? A Nephite, Zeniff, presents
the Lamanite perspective (see Mosiah 10:12-17).
He lists the following traditions that had been passed down
to each generation:
- They were driven out of Jerusalem because of the inequities of their fathers (v. 12).
- They were wronged in the wilderness and while crossing the sea (v. 12).
- They were wronged in the Promised Land by Nephi (v. 13).
- They were angry because they claimed Nephi had taken the right to rule out of the hands of Laman and Lemuel (v. 15).
- When Nephi departed into the wilderness, he robbed Laman and Lemuel by taking the brass plates with him.
When Mosiah stepped down as king, none of his sons would
accept the kingdom. These royal sons “thought upon the Lamanites, who were their
brethren, of their sinful and polluted state, they were filled with pain and
anguish for the welfare of their souls” (Mosiah 25:11).
The sons of Mosiah asked their father to allow them and
their group to preach the word of God to the Lamanites. “[T]hey
were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they
could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts
that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble”
(Mosiah 28:3).
They were allowed to preach to the Lamanites. The account of their amazing missionary
efforts is found in Alma 17-26.
Alma2 would use the Lamanites as an example in
his teachings. For example, he taught
the Nephites that ”here are many
promises which are extended to the Lamanites; for it is because of the
traditions of their fathers that caused them to remain in their state of
ignorance; therefore the Lord will be merciful unto them and prolong their
existence in the land” (Alma 9:16).
During their missionary efforts, the sons of Mosiah
converted a group of Lamanites who covenanted with the Lord that they would not
take up arms against their enemies lest they return to their bloodthirsty
ways. Many of these faithful Lamanites
did suffer death rather than take up arms again. These people were known as the
Anti-Nephi-Lehis (later Ammonites).
It was soon realized that they needed to return to the land
of Zarahemla with the Ammonites and ask for Nephite protection. The Ammonites feared the Nephites would see
them as enemies and kill them, but they placed their faith in the sons of
Mosiah.
The chief judge heard the request and went to the people
asking them what they would do. “And it came to pass that the voice of the
people came, saying: Behold, we will give up the land of Jershon … and this
land Jershon is the land which we will give unto our brethren for an
inheritance. And behold, we will set our armies between the land Jershon and
the land Nephi, that we may protect our brethren in the land Jershon; and this
we do for our brethren, on account of their fear to take up arms against their
brethren lest they should commit sin; and this their great fear came because of
their sore repentance which they had, on account of their many murders and
their awful wickedness” (Alma 27:22-23).
Nephi2 and Lehi3 preached to the
Lamanites, baptizing 8,000 Lamanites. As
the Lamanites were converted, they laid down their weapons of war and rejected
the traditions of their fathers. (Helaman 5:18 – 19; 50-51).
One of the greatest prophets in the Book of Mormon shows up
in Helaman 13-15. This prophet was
Samuel, the Lamanite.
Here are other references about the Lamanites.
- Helaman 6:1 - 4
- Helaman 6:20
- Helaman 6:34 - 37
- Helaman 7:23 - 24
- 3 Nephi 2:11 - 14
- 3 Nephi 10:18
- Moroni 1:4
- Moroni 10:1
There are many accounts of wars and problems with the
Lamanites. Yet, the Nephites were taught
that the Lord would be more understanding of the Lamanites because of the
traditions of their fathers. The Lord
always expected more from the Nephites because they had the gospel.
You would think if the Lamanites were nothing more than evil
villains, the Book of Mormon would constantly condemn them. Yet, this doesn’t happen. One of the purposes the Book of Mormon record
was preserved was to go to the descendants of the Lamanites to bring them to
Christ and the gospel.
No, the Book of Mormon is not a racist Book. The critics claim fails badly. It is shown to be nothing more the political
correctness at its worst.
No comments:
Post a Comment