Thursday, July 14, 2016

Alma 62:1-14

What does it mean that Moroni’s heart took courage? How do I feel when my heart needs courage?  Is that what anxiety and stress are? Moroni sounded so sure in the previous letter, but if his heart needed to take courage, perhaps he was not? I appreciate the description of his great joy and great sadness existing together at the same time. I wonder what the records said that Mormon abridged it to this? It must have been a very emotional moment.
With no internet, no tv, no media, I wonder if the people Mormon met on his march even knew someone was trying to overthrow their government before he came through? Did they flock to him because they just found out, or because they were excited to have a way to face the problem? Sometimes I feel like we all just sit around and fret about the things that are wrong, but take no action to do anything. Maybe that explains why people are flocking to Trump (which seems unexplainable to me) because he makes them feel like he will do something about the things they hate, and by voting for him they are able to “act instead of being acted upon”. I think it is an important leadership lesson, to not only have a message about what is good and bad, but a way for people to take action. Why to care and HOW to care.

And then we get into execution of traitors. Mormon editorializes that it was necessary to execute them for the safety of the country. So they couldn’t incite further rebellion? To discourage further rebellion? Did they really all have to be killed? Why were they so stubborn knowing the consequence that they wouldn’t recant and help fight the Lamenites? Or perhaps they were never given that chance? Or maybe it was fear that they would cause more problems again, even as soldiers? Would this happen now, or have we found other ways to deal with things? It seems like the narrative for the other side would be that Pahoran and Moroni were executing political enemies, where is the freedom in that? Although this wasn’t really a voting situation, since they overthrew the government by force as well. Perhaps in times of war, surrounded by violence, the violence becomes easier to advocate?

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