The last two nights have been monumental for me. Saturday,
February 14, I asked the love of my life to marry me and he said yes. Sunday,
February 15, I told my family I was engaged. Because of their staunch LDS faith, this led to a discussion between my father and me about
where this choice was taking me. It was a sincere, respectful conversation that
left me in awe and gratitude at the amazing man I have been given for a father. (The rest of my family is pretty amazing, too.)
In the course of the discussion, my dad brought up the power
of the teachings in Alma
5 in the Book of Mormon. I have to admit here that my views of the Book of
Mormon have been dim as of late. I have been considering viewpoints that cast
doubts on its provenance and its authenticity. Is it really the word of God?
This morning, since Presidents Lincoln and Washington allowed
me a paid shift off from the library, I took a look at Alma 5. My father was right. Those words pack
a wallop, and it’s because they’re true. They are true regardless of whether
the Lamanites and Nephites really walked the American continent. They are true
because of their powerful call to follow Christ. I am humbled by the words of Alma and, though my relationship with it might be a little different than it was before, I will not
discount The Book of Mormon again.
This testimony isn’t the main reason I’m writing, however. I
want to share what I found in Alma ’s
words and how I feel they relate to my current situation. The people that Alma was preaching to in the city of Zarahemla were descendants of the
refugees from Noah’s kingdom. Wicked, fat King Noah (thank you, Arnold
Freiburg) ruled his domain with the help of his priests who led the people to
invest their hearts in riches and shallow relationships (“spending their
strength with harlots” is how it’s phrased in the book). This allowed Noah to
maintain his power and wealth. As long as the people didn’t turn to true
religion, they supported his very lucrative form of idolatry. Enter Abinadai, whose
powerful preaching converted one of King Noah’s priests, Alma ,
who in turn converted many others whose children and grandchildren eventually
ended up in the city of Zarahemla .
Apparently, these children and grandchildren were falling
into some of the ways of their forefathers because Alma ’s
son, Alma the Younger, hereafter referred to as Alma , felt the need to call the people to
repentance. What were they guilty of? Verses 53 – 56 say they were “puffed up
in the pride of [their] hearts” and persisted “in the wearing of costly
apparel,” “setting [their] hearts upon the vain things of the world, upon
[their] riches.” This pride led them to “persist in supposing that [they were]
better than one another” and “in the persecution of [their] bretheren” who were
humble and trying to follow Christ. These prideful people turned their backs
upon the poor and needy, withholding their resources from those around them. Does
any of this sound familiar? Isn’t this going on all around us right now?
So, it seems that Alma ’s
main concern was to get the people to swallow their pride and start caring
about each other again. He wanted them to look past the blinding influence of materialism
and heed the future Christ’s call to love one another as He loves us. (In
regards to the harlotry in King Noah’s time, lest anyone accuse me of ‘slut
shaming,’ this means we need to seek deeper relationships with those around us.
It’s not so much about the casual sex as it is the fact that we’ve just treated
someone like a Kleenex, which is so NOT how Christ loves people. It IS how we treat each other when we think we're better than them.)
