Lamanite Prejudices
Book of Mormon Notes - Wednesday, August 30, 2023, Alma 20
Ammon’s brothers had a much more difficult time on their missions. We often focus on Aaron, because he was one of the original four (Aaron, Ammon, Omner, and Himni), but in this chapter we also learn about Muloki and Ammah. Aaron, Muleki, and Ammah had been thrown into prison, and the Lord sent Ammon to deliver them out of prison.
Among the Lamanites, there were very deep-seated prejudices about the Nephites. The prejudices were based on lies, but they were so engrained in the hearts and minds of the Lamanites that they considered that every Nephite was basically evil, children of a liar. The Lamanites believed the exact opposite of the truth, namely that Nephi was a liar, and that Laman and Lemuel were the good guys. Does this remind you of anything in American society today? So many lies about American history have permeated our culture that now there are many people who really believe that the Founding Fathers were evil and Karl Marx was good. It’s insanity, but we can see how such insanity takes hold when false traditions are handed down from one generation to the next.
Lamoni’s father tried to kill Ammon because of his prejudices against all Nephites. Just prior to this encounter, Ammon had been rejoicing because of the Lord’s mercy in pouring out His Spirit upon the Lamanites who had been the enemies of the Nephites:
Now Ammon seeing the Spirit of the Lord poured out according to his aprayers upon the Lamanites, his brethren, who had been the cause of so much mourning among the Nephites, or among all the people of God because of their iniquities and their btraditions, he fell upon his knees, and began to pour out his soul in prayer and thanksgiving to God for what he had done for his brethren; and he was also overpowered with cjoy; and thus they all three had dsunk to the earth. (Alma 19:14)
Notice that Ammon still considered the Lamanites to be his brethren, but that the Lamanites had been the cause of so much mourning among the Nephites, or among all the people of God, because of their iniquities and their traditions. The rebellions of Laman and Lemuel, as the first King Mosiah taught his sons, had set entire generations on a course for destruction:
I say unto you, my sons, were it not for these things, which have been kept and preserved by the hand of God, that we might read and understand of his mysteries, and have his commandments always before our eyes, that even our fathers would have dwindled in unbelief, and we should have been like unto our brethren, the Lamanites, who know nothing concerning these things, or even do not believe them when they are taught them, because of the traditions of their fathers, which are not correct. (Mosiah 1:5)
In the last general conference, Elder Haynie observed that:
As a generation that has the sacred charge to prepare the rising generation for its prophesied role in the latter days,22 which role must be fulfilled in a time when the adversary’s influence is at its peak,23 we cannot be a source of confusion about the importance of following prophetic counsel. It is that very counsel that will allow the rising generation to see “the enemy while he [is] yet afar off; and then [they can make] ready” to withstand the enemy’s attack.24 Our seemingly small deviations, quiet neglect, or whispered criticisms in response to prophetic counsel may result in our only walking dangerously near the edge of the covenant path; but when magnified by the adversary in the lives of the rising generation, such actions may influence them to leave that path altogether. Such a result is a generational price that is too high.25
Laman’s and Lemuel’s deviations, neglect, criticism, and even violence against Nephi and Lehi so altered the course of Lamanite history that by the time the sons of Mosiah arrived among them to rescue them and lead them back to Christ, King Lamoni’s father was ready to slay Ammon just because he was a Nephite. Consider just how engrained these prejudices were against the Nephites. How did that happen? It reminds me a bit of the kinds of prejudices that so many Americans now hold against men, and particularly white men, and particularly heterosexual white men who voted for Donald Trump. These kinds of prejudices are completely irrational and based on lies that go back to Rousseau (see also here), and yet they are so engrained in the hearts and minds of some people that they can hardly reason clearly about them.
In any case, Ammon had to give Lamoni’s father a dead-arm before he could talk any sense into him. Sometimes I wonder if that is what it will take to reason with modern American leftists. But the key is that Ammon truly loved Lamoni and the Lamanites. He loved them and gave his life to serve them, and King Lamoni’s father could feel that love:
And when he saw that Ammon had no desire to destroy him, and when he also saw the great alove he had for his son Lamoni, he was astonished exceedingly, and said: Because this is all that thou hast desired, that I would brelease thy brethren, and suffer that my son Lamoni should retain his kingdom, behold, I will grant unto you that my son may retain his kingdom from this time and forever; and I will govern him no more (Alma 20:26)
Ammon gives us the key to effective missionary work. Ammon loved and served the Lamanites, and that great love was palpable and transformative. Ammon was full of charity, the pure love of Christ. Charity is essential for missionary work. Consider the Lord’s counsel through the Prophet Joseph Smith to Joseph Knight, Sr.:
Now, as you have asked, behold, I say unto you, keep my commandments, and seek to bring forth and establish the cause of aZion.
Behold, I speak unto you, and also to all those who have desires to bring forth and establish this work;
And no one can assist in this work except he shall be ahumble and full of blove, having faith, hope, and charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be centrusted to his care.
Behold, I am the light and the life of the world, that speak these words, therefore give heed with your might, and then you are called. Amen. (D&C 12:6-9)
Ammon and his brothers were humble and full of love. They were filled with faith, hope, and charity. They were temperate. But Aaron, Muloki, and Ammah had been thrown into prison. Ammon and King Lamoni went to the land of Middoni to rescue them, and when they found their imprisoned friends, they were in bad shape.