THE WORLD IS NOT DIVIDED INTO GOOD PEOPLE AND DEATH EATERS (Albus Dumbledore)

As you might surmise, I am a Harry Potter fan.  I see types and shadows of Christianity all through the series,  just as I do in the  Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings Trilogy. In the wizarding world, I am quite taken by the wisdom of Albus Dumbledore.  In the title, is one of my favorite messages: the Professor is teaching Harry that there is more to life than just those two categories.  (Perhaps the best example of this is Dolores Umbridge who is not identified as a death eater, but who is anything but a good person!)

So what does that have to do with today's post? This: It is simplistic to look at the peoples of the Book of Mormon as either Nephites - the good guys - or Lamanites - the bad guys. There are so many Nephites who are "bad" and there are Lamanites who are "good." Simple two-dimensional categories are not reality.

Unlike the Westerns of the 50's, you can't always tell by the color of their hats!

Here are some of the other sub-groups of people to look for:

• The Kingmen - Nephites who wanted to do away with the judges and return to a monarchy
• The Zoramites
• The Order of the Nehors
• Other apostate Nephites like Amalakiah and Ammoron
• Converted Lamanites (who were often better people than their Nephite counterparts
• King Noah, the priests of Noah,  the people of Limhi, the people of Alma 
• And, of course, the Gadianton robbers and other secret combinations bound by covenant to Satan.

As a writer I know that flashbacks can be tricky to

use and still maintain internal consistency. 

In addition to all of the different cultural and religious groups, much of the story is told in flashbacks.  Limhi tells the story of the people of Zeniff who returned to the Land of Nephi, including details about the wicked King Noah, Abinadi, and Alma.  When Alma the Younger and the four sons of Mosiah return from their missions, they share their stories with one another and we meet people like King Lamoni and Amulek.  These stories are so seamlessly woven together that it is difficult to know the players without a program!

Join me in reading the Book of Mormon this year.  You will find yourselves on a grand adventure to equal anything in Narnia or Middle Earth and even more compelling than the Wizarding World of England. The best part is that these stories are true, not high fantasy like the others. These were real people who lived and died in real time.  The drama is real, as is the joy and the sorrow.  Most compelling of all is the reality of the Lord, Jesus Christ.  We can watch groups of people caught in the pride cycle, anti-Christs, prophets and kings, rich and poor, peaceful and warlike, brave and cowardly, sober and licentious.  Their tale is a blueprint of what we are seeing in our world today.  Someone once said that if we fail to learn from history, then we are doomed to repeat it.  We will either learn the lessons they failed to learn or we, too, will be swept away.  The choice is ours.

© Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson, April 2020