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Come Follow Me (Alma 30-31) We've already talked about spotting the counterfeit doctrines of the world which compete with Jesus Christ for the hearts and minds of humans. ( https://www.laureensimper.com/post/spotting-a-counterfeit ) It always seems to start the same way: someone supremely selfish just doesn't resonate with the sound doctrine of time-honored principles, or with laws or commandments which promise an ordered society with maximum use of individual agency. Those laws are seen as restrictive, binding - they're just not his truth. The only thing for such a person - the law-unto-himself type (D&C 88:35) - is to recruit, thereby assuring himself an eventual majority to stifle the voices of all the buzz kills who oppose him. Such is the case of Korihor, an ancient social influencer whose only objective seemed to be legitimizing his choices by making them popular and prevalent. Alma chapter 30 is the most detailed account of anti-Christ thinking and preaching. Mormon explains that there was no crime against a person's beliefs, as that's the only sure way to protect religious liberty. Every person must have the right to conscience - even a person who is only pretending to believe a certain way. And it's clear as the story progresses that Korihor was pretending; his explanation of how he arrived at his ideas makes NO SENSE at all. An angel told you there was no God? Did you kind of wonder where that angel came from? The nonsense presented to Korihor really underscores that old adage: if it sounds too good to be true, it can't be true. Yet Korihor lapped up the idea - even the possibility of the idea - that he wouldn't be accountable to a higher Being for anything he may do - that there was no sin because of this, and thereby, no need for repentance. This anti-Christ doctrine is like the siren song of the Odyssey, driving Ulysses' men to madness and his ship to crash onto the rocks. Korihor's teaching attempted to nullify the doctrine of Christ in its most essential characteristics: There is no need for a Savior (Alma 30:12, 15) - this eliminates any need for faith in one. No one can know what is to come (Alma 30:13); you can only know things based on evidence you see - again - a world view devoid of faith. Believing in sin and the need for a remission of sin is the product of a frenzied mind and false traditions (Alma 30:14, 16) - this removes hope that you can ever be more than what you are. Worldly pursuits will simply help you ignore that the need for growth even exists. There is no need for an atonement (Alma 30:17) - which follows there is no need for repentance because there is no sin. Again - the loss of hope in anything but the here and now. Men just look out for themselves and get ahead based on their own strength and abilities - thus finally removing even charity . (Alma 30:17) The record explains the loss of faith and hope in the anti-Christ teachings of both Sherem and Nehor, but it isn't until this more rounded out manifesto of Korihor that the loss of charity truly underscores the pernicious nature of this doctrine. A society without Jesus Christ can never achieve Zion, because without the principles of Jesus Christ - primarily, faith, hope, and charity - the false principles pit men against each other. This is where the doctrine of scarcity comes from - the complete antithesis of the doctrine of abundance coming from an infinite Creator. This is where coveting, lying, stealing, and even killing become justifiable, and eventually, can even become legalized. If the highest societal goal is your own desires, then society is full of beings who've created their gods in their own images, and the ones with the most societal power and influence will rule over everyone else. No wonder a society without the teachings of Jesus Christ becomes one where the love of men waxes cold, and men's hearts fail them. The rueful, ironic end of Korihor is a lesson for the ages: be careful what you wish for. A community of apostate saints embraced every one of his teachings not far from Zarahemla. Here, among the Zoramites, Korihor found himself mute and unable to ask for help - turned away, and eventually trampled to death. Abandoned, neglected, and he is killed by a society which fully lived the grim doctrine of selfishness antithetical to faith, hope, and charity. No wonder the prophets of dying societies focus on the most basic part of Christ's doctrine. Faith, hope, and charity can save entire communities - even nations. But when those communities and nations succumb to selfishness, faith, hope, and charity will save individuals from being stampeded down the cliff with the rest of the herd.

Come Follow Me (Alma 32-35) Once upon a time, there were two trees. One tree, if chosen, would be a problem.  Make that ALL the problems. The other tree was the solution. But the first tree would also be potential. With those problems there would also be the possibility of learning from mistakes, growth, and progress. But the second tree would actually realize that potential. Without the second tree, all the lessons learned, all the growth achieved, all the progress attained, would count for nothing. Because the biggest problem introduced by the first tree was this: once humanity left the pristine perfection of the glory of God, it was completely impossible to go back into that glory because we would now be stained. Without the glorious, delicious fruit of the second tree, we would be forever exiled from our first home in the presence of God. The second tree - the fruit on the tree - the beautiful spring of water at the roots of the tree - all represent the same thing - the source of the solution: the perfect love of Jesus Christ, made manifest in his atoning sacrifice. We can be restored to what we once were when we lived with God - now, with all the experience of the lessons learned and the growth and progress attained because of the first tree, but clean and pure, justified to be in that glory again, because of the pure love of Jesus Christ - the delicious fruit of the second tree. Think of those two trees as you read the way Alma teaches the humble Zoramites. It isn’t faith he invites them to plant - no, no. It’s God’s word - the beautiful reality of His plan for His children, which centers in the sacred holy offering of His perfect Son. Alma assures if there is only a desire to believe such an incomprehensibly generous plan, that desire is enough. Planting this idea in your heart - “I want to believe I can be clean and live with God again” - is a personal choice.  And God loves it when we choose Him. Alma taught: “And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life. “But if ye will nourish the word , yea nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life. “And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck of the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst. ”  (Alma 32:40-42) We don’t plant faith - we plant with faith. Faith is the plant food. Alma concludes his sermon at the end of the following chapter: “And now, my brethren, I desire that ye shall plant this word in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell even so nourish it by your faith. And hold, it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life. And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son. And even all this can ye do if ye will . Amen. (Alma 33:23) Look again. Alma 32:40 says you can’t… if you WON’T . Versus Alma 33:23: you CAN… if you WILL . If you want it, you can have it. Won’t… produces can’t. Which means - “because of [the] Son - WILL produces CAN. That’s why desire is so important to faith - what makes faith the ultimate plant food. When Father knows you mean to follow Him at all costs… Well. That’s when miracles happen. And the biggest miracle of all is that in all the ugliness and nastiness produced by the first tree, life can be sweet and delicious, because of the second tree. Because of the Son. Even when it seems that it changes absolutely nothing, knowing who we are - and whose we are - changes absolutely everything.

Come Follow Me (Alma 8-12) Alma's mission to Ammonihah makes for some thrilling reading; it runs the gamut of beauty and quite literally - ashes. It's another account so timely, it makes you wonder at the inevitability of history repeating itself, as similar stories continue to darken our nightly news. Those with eyes to see, see the wisdom of God in sending one ordinary man with an extraordinary message. (Alma 9:2-6) How else can a loving Father honor agency? He saves His sermons of nature for special circumstances, punctuating His message with earthquakes and such to get His fickle children's attention according to His will and timing. But generally, He sends one obscure man to give His children the chance to approach Him privately with the question, "Is this guy for real?" And as an equal opportunity Parent, He's ready to answer the sincere truth-seeker with a witness from the Holy Ghost - the only sure way to know anything not of this world. Ammonihah's response to Alma's preaching is fascinating to me. It follows a pattern which repeats through the millennia and begs this question: how do people respond to truth who only want to be a law unto themselves? (D&C 88:35) Short answer: badly. Watch the pattern unfold in the chapters of this extraordinary mission: First line of attack: those who would be a law unto themselves - let's abbreviate them as the lawless - mock and dismiss any contrary ideas to that ideology. Second: amplify that dismissal by darkening the mockery to vilification. People who believe become enemies of the community. Third: criminalize the ideas, so that any believing them become criminals who can be "legally" prosecuted. Persecuted. Potayto. Potawto. Fourth: eliminate any whose beliefs oppose the lawless. So insecure in their lawlessness, there can be none who dare to oppose them. And the opposition needn't be simply rhetorical. Someone even quietly existing in the corner, harboring an opposing belief, strikes at the very heart of the lawless ideology. This elimination happens by way of complete expulsion for those who can get out, or by legalized murder posing as "legalized" executions for those who can't. I need to parenthesize for a moment and ask: why the insecurity? Why is it so threatening for those who don't believe to co-exist with those who do? David Kupelian was onto something about this insecurity when he wrote: "I conducted a little thought experiment a while back, while looking out over the Pacific from the Oregon coast. Drinking in the vast expanse of the ocean, the pounding surf, the seagulls, the salt air – ultimate serenity and ultimate power all in one timeless moment – I asked myself: How can one experience all this magnificence without believing in a Creator?  "So I tried, just as an experiment mind you, to conceptualize the existence of the fantastic creation I was beholding, yet without a Creator. I consciously tried to adopt an atheistic worldview, even for just a minute, to see what it was like.  “What I got was a headache, a psychic shock, a momentary taste of another realm – an empty, prideful, appalling dimension of hell-on-earth, masquerading as enlightenment and freedom. "That's why the conflict between theism and atheism is not just a philosophical topic for polite debate over tea. It's a spiritual war of the worlds. That high anxiety I felt momentarily, as I tasted the "other dimension" that animates those who reject the very idea of God, was minor and passing. But I'm quite sure hard-core atheists feel agony when the opposite happens to them – that is, when they chance to experience a fleeting moment of realization that God exists, and that they are accountable ultimately to Him.  "This would account for the near-explosive emotion that always seems to surround this "objective, scientific" subject. Underneath all the scientific pretension, it's all about man being master of his own destiny, about freedom from accountability to God, about being released from Judeo-Christian sexual morality, about making up your own rules, about sustaining the life of pride and individual will. "In a very real sense, it's about being your own god."  From David Kupelian, “How Atheism is Being Sold to America”, October 11, 2007 Back to our story. Amulek makes an interesting observation before those who accepted the message either fled or were rounded up: "...if it were not for the prayers of the righteous,...ye would even now be visited with utter destruction;.... "...it is by the prayers of the righteous that ye are spared; now therefore, if ye will cast out the righteous from among you then will not the Lord stay his hand; but in his fierce anger he will come out against you; then ye shall be smitten by famine, and by pestilence, and by the sword; and the time is soon at hand except ye repent." (Alma 10:22-23) A society can survive - even flourish - when both believers and non-believers can co-exist peaceably. But it's when a society no longer tolerates religion and believers that a society decays and falls apart. This feels like natural law at work again. If that's true, then it means a society somehow naturally sustains residual blessings by having faithful believers among them. The Lord must intervene and protect that society against the natural consequences of destruction when there are righteous people who obey God's law within a wicked society. When that tolerance is no longer extended to the righteous, God doesn't stay His hand. The natural consequences of wickedness must follow - destruction. And please - hear me now, believe me later: God doesn't do the destroying. The wicked destroy themselves with their own disobedience. You can only pretend natural law doesn't exist for so long before gravity takes over and there's a cosmic spiritual splat. Notice that Amulek warns of the inevitable natural consequences, he lists the same destructive methods mentioned in the Old Testament: famine, pestilence, and the sword. It's worth noting that the order is often different and accentuates how natural the consequences of supreme selfishness are - as war tends to lead to food shortages, which lead to sickness. War, famine, pestilence - is very often the order you'll see in actual fulfillment of disobedience. But the patterns are the same. The descent into madness is predictable. Which is why it can be stopped if enough righteous people see it in time. Sadly for Ammonihah, there weren't enough. Some escaped. But sadly, not many. Sorry about that big ol' spoiler for next week. :(

Come Follow Me (Alma 23-29) Alma chapter 24 makes me cry every time I read it. I'm in complete awe of the miraculous missionary efforts of Ammon and his brothers with the Lamanites. These boys became men on their missions, and the power of their conversion was so great, they spent fourteen years teaching in an enemy nation. Long enough to give them pause when the new converts refused to defend themselves from war. The king's speech in chapter 24 is so insightful as to why it's so difficult - if not impossible - to be forgiven of murder: "And now behold, my brethren, since it was all we could do (as we were the most lost of all mankind) to repent of all our sins and the many murders which we have committed, and to get God to take them away from our hearts, for it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that he would take away our stain - " (Alma 24:11) If God governs with natural laws, that would mean that He hasn't arbitrarily determined murder - or for that matter, adultery - will not be forgiven. Perhaps He has warned about these two because the spiritually lethal, infectious germs of murderous rage or lust are so perniciously difficult to remove from a human heart once they've taken root there. My heart swells with wonder at the beauty and power of repentance when I realize this murderous people figured that out. I read this account and see the unparalleled fruit of repentance in their choices. When did this great epiphany come to them? Practically on the eve of war. Wouldn't that be a great time to lay aside those thoughts for just a minute in order to defend yourselves? But no - that's when this incredible collective of newly converted saints make a covenant to never take another life - even in a war of self-defense. And to have tangible evidence that they've made this covenant - they bury any and all weapons of destruction. All the people. All the weapons. A collective act of devotion to their God - in humble recognition of what He has already done to make their hearts clean. The fact this covenant was made when the lives of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis were in peril underscores not just the importance of covenants but their very purpose. It's one of the most powerful illustrations in scripture of what it means to live by correct principles once they've been taught, received, and embraced. They don't mean anything if you cast them aside for expediency. It's in those very perilous circumstances that our covenants mean the very most to us - when it costs us to keep them. Let me say that again: covenants are meaningless if they're set aside for any reason. Even for expediency - real or perceived. If that's the ground you stand on, it's amazing how many perceived expediencies Satan will be able to present. Good luck with that slippery slope. On the eve of this great emergency, as weapons of self-defense are buried deep in the earth, even higher and holier realizations come. We shouldn't expect to exist on the labor of others! We're not going to take what we haven't worked for anymore. We're going to be more generous and give freely when we have more than we need. That means we're going to have to stop living an indolent and idle lifestyle and work for our own support. The fact that an entire community of saints could go from murder, plunder, and indolence to charity and industry is one of the greatest miracles recounted in scripture. And how did this people punctuate this choice? With a covenant which cost their very lives. These are the men who went out so they would be killed before their wives and children - whose widows raised a generation of valiant soldiers. These men gave their lives in the ultimate atypical response - stinging the consciences of other murderous hearts. How incredible - that the atypical response could allow the Spirit of God to move those murderous hearts to repentance! I continue to praise God that He can do such things with unruly human hearts. Even without being at literal war, it's only the gospel of Jesus Christ that can teach and train us to practice the atypical response against the swords of unkindness and even cruelty or brutality. If we can do this in our personal relationships, we can aid the Spirit to work upon not just an enemy's heart, but our own.

You've probably done it at least once in your life - ruefully considered a past event in your life, and thought, "If I could go back and do that again, I'd sure do it differently." Humans seem to enjoy indulging in 'what ifs' from time to time, and thanks to that quirky little 2004 film, Napoleon Dynamite , I like to call it the Uncle Ricco syndrome. Uncle Ricco was Napoleon's uncle who was so hung up on the botched play in the Big Game of his high school football career, he was certain his life needed a do over to right the terrible wrong. This seems to be one of the adversary's best strategies to cripple our progress. Because all the adversary's strategies center around obfuscating the brilliant, comforting reality of Jesus Christ, looking back and thinking 'what if' only keeps us from looking forward and trying again. The truth is stated like this: "There is no fixing this without Jesus' help." But Satan croons only the first part of that: "There is no fixing this." Mistakes are vital to our progress; apparently, they were so vital a part of our mortal curriculum, Father allowed His perfect Son to suffer the infinite pain of the atoning sacrifice to put everything right that goes wrong in this fallen sphere. You heard me. Everything. Let me repeat: Every. Single. Thing. Jesus Christ's pain in Gethsemane and on the cross corrects every stupid act, every vile act, every harsh and unkind word - whether deliberate or unwitting. It soothes and heals every snub, every exclusion, every injustice, every betrayal. He felt the pain of unresolved illnesses and pains, the ache of empty arms - be they the empty arms of the infertile or those who put babies to rest, having barely said welcome to them. He experienced the ache of those whose partners left them too soon in death, or too cavalierly in divorce. He mourned - and mourns - with those who never had a partner to begin with, who wonder if there is a safe place for them anywhere in this wilderness of a world. Our dear Savior, who deserved none of eternal justice, paid all of our debt to eternal justice so that He could truly be with us as we suffer. He paid our debt so we wouldn't have to if we ask for His advocacy. He paid our debt so we can feel the sweet relief of the comforted or forgiven, and can learn to feel compelled to give it to others. There are do overs with learning to shoot foul shots or nail a scale in a Chopin nocturne. There's simply a lot of repetition as consistent, intentional practice builds higher proficiency. Buried inside the arduous work of countless repetitions is the subtle message - not of do over - but of do again. It's repentance. In a fallen world with deeply flawed humans, repentance is rarely a one-and-done event. It nearly always has the feel of mastering those foul shots or scales. It involves a lot of practice and do agains. Do it again. Again. Getting a do over is a fantasy for movies. Getting a do again is the mystical yet raw reality of Father's generous plan of "grace for grace" (D&C 93:12). In April 2024 Elder Renlund called it " repeatedly and iteratively applying the other elements of the doctrine of Christ [faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost], creating the 'powerful virtuous cycle’..." ( https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/04/43renlund?lang=eng ) The beauty of do agains is the beauty of intentional practice of any desired ability: while there may be far too many repetitions where it looks like absolutely no change is taking place, eventually, thanks to natural law (D&C 130:21-22), and that beautiful enabling, transforming grace offered us by Jesus Christ, we change. We become holy. And in that process, the stones we stumbled over, the pits we fell into and maybe lived in for a while, the seemingly inescapable circumstances we used to wistfully look back on will also become holy. Because that was the training ground that truly introduced us to our God. C.S. Lewis wrote: "Ye cannot in your present state understand eternity...That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it," not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory . And of some sinful pleasure they say "Let me have but this and I'll take the consequences": little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin . Both processes begin even before death. The good man's past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man's past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And t hat is why...the Blessed will say "We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven, : and the Lost, "We were always in Hell." And both will speak truly.” (C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce) I don't know about you, but in a world where we have the privilege of experiencing both, I want to make the intentional choice of heaven and glory. Because He is there, and in all my blundering repetitions, I've humbly discovered I really can't live without Him.

This painting by Greg Olsen hangs in my front hall. There's more than the proverbial thousand words in this one for me - sermon upon sermon of what it is to be God, what it is to follow God, and what it is to be like God. The other day a friend told me of a loved one she has been praying for for many years. She has been praying her loved one would have cause to consider the safety and refuge of church again. She was frustrated and disappointed that this loved one had seen only the glaring imperfections of the church members when she did in fact attend a church meeting several weeks ago. My friend was frustrated because she knew how easy it is to find those imperfections. As I glibly like to say, you can't swing a dead cat in this church without hitting a person who is very likely to offend you. My friend was disappointed because she longed for her loved one to see beyond the starkly obvious - oblivious - behavior we all exhibit from time to time. We have to focus on the Savior, not each other, in order to feel help there - hope there. I've thought it dozens of times before, but I found myself again picturing us all staggering into church in one way or another, getting there by the skin of our teeth, desperate for the living water promised if we come thirsting. Probably because I staggered in today. I realized again that churches are meant to be way stations for the wounded. Churches are like MASH units in the army. Though set up to be far more permanent and stationary they are every bit the same in serving as the first line trauma unit for the spiritually and emotionally wounded. There's just one problem: there are zero professional staff assigned there who are coming from a completely 100% healthy and healed place themselves. Whether you could see it or not, every single person at church today had wounds that needed tending to. These are the people who may have offended you at church today: The bishopric member who's been out of work for eight months. The Relief Society teacher who may not have spoken to one of her children in over a year. A member of a quorum or auxiliary presidency who may have just learned their spouse is leaving them; another who may have just found out their third invitro attempt failed. The person assigned to be your minister may be at their aging parent's home around the clock after a full-time job. The person sitting next to you in class may have a young adult child who just announced they no longer believe. When I look at this painting of Jesus, I see our God, Lord and King of our universe, condescending to have the same gritty, back-breaking, heart-wrenching, soul-stretching experience we are having in mortality. He didn't come to float above it all. He had it, right beside us. When I look at this painting, I see Him in His perfection, reaching upward to where only He can reach, and yet at the same time, reaching back to those of us with far less steady legs and much shorter strides - helping us over the biggest hurdles towards the vistas waiting out ahead. He calls out encouragement to the whole group, but is entirely and intimately accessible to whisper in each ear, "You can do this. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. I'll help you. Keep going." He patiently waits for the slowest among us - knowing there is no prize for finishing first. It only matters that Someone finished - making it possible for the rest of us to even make the climb at all. He expects us to reach back and help the next person, and here's the real challenge: He expects us to call out the same kind of encouragement as we do our level best to catch our own breath, grieve our own tragedies, nurse our own wounds. One of the most sanctifying things we can do to practice being like our great God is to minister to each other out of our own lack. There are seeds of exaltation in doing this the way Jesus Christ does it, as impossible as it sometimes seems. I believe it is equally sanctifying to forgive when we feel like someone has let us down when we've needed someone - when someone has failed to minister to us with the elegance and grace of our Savior, or in the way we're sure we've needed. In forgiving others' clumsy practice attempts, we remember they have their own boulders to hurdle, their own "sorrows that the eye can't see." As unpaid MASH workers, we get the very most out of church when we remember we're there to give aid to other broken soldiers as much as we are there to receive our own aid. We mess it up when we mistakenly keep score over how many times we were helped, or called, or how many cards or casseroles we received. We mess it up when we forget that the one Person we actually came to receive aid from isn't any of these other wounded warriors. We came to worship the Wounded Warrior - the one who was "wounded for our transgressions." He is the only One who can provide the healing and the hope and the help. Any time we decide someone else didn't meet our expectations, we're cutting ourselves off from that source. We aren't in the same kind of covenant relationship with anyone but Jesus Christ - "and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5) Let's all resolve to give each other a little more room, remembering each battlefield is fierce, and truly, everyone is doing their best. Let's stagger into the way station next week, focusing on the right set of wounds, determined to keep our covenant with Him to help walk each other home. That gives Him the permission He needs to walk us home.

Not to start with a buzz kill or anything, but life is really hard. No, seriously. If someone disagrees, it's highly possible they either: A. have a lousy memory; B. the hard stuff hasn't hit yet; or C. maybe they're fibbing. The longer I live, the more in awe I am of pretty much everybody. I watch people walking with arms full of groceries on a sidewalk, and I wonder how far from home they are, admiring this simple yet hard thing. I see someone who's no more ripped than I am walking in the morning as I hobble out for my own walk and think, "Way to go! Way to do battle with yourself - way to win today!" I don't know why, but the grocery store has me watching young mothers with little children, and elderly couples, clinging to each other and the grocery cart for dear life. I find myself saying little prayers for them: "Father, please bless them today. Help them feel Your love, and give them the strength to do their stuff today." Everyone I know is currently carrying a load nearly too heavy to bear. I've decided it's highly possible that when we leave this life and put down the grueling burden of opposition, it will stagger us how much we were pushing daily against it. Many years ago, I had a conversation with a dear friend about becoming perfect. This was sometime in the quixotic years of my 20's or 30's when the illusion of achieving perfection in this lifetime was just starting to slip away. I was in the throes of early motherhood, had recently set aside the career I had planned since childhood, and spent much of my time bemused and bewildered at how I had gotten to this place. On this particular day, something like this tumbled out of my mouth as Dear Friend and I - henceforth in this post to be referred to as DF - strove to solve the problems of the universe. "I think I'm starting to think that God knows we can't achieve perfection in this life, so when He asks us to be perfect, He's asking us to make a perfect effort." DF balked even at this. She made the most excellent point that perfect effort was every bit the sliding scale on any given day that perfect performance was. Touché. Meanwhile, life just kept happening. Some of it was brutal. Some of it was glorious and sweet - the foretaste of joy C.S. Lewis writes about so wistfully. Then one particularly bleak day, life found our fair heroine down for the count. I can't even remember the set of circumstances that laid me out, but on this day, I pictured myself as a handcart pioneer, trudging uphill in the snow (of course, uphill in the snow - the only way I ever walked to school as a child, right?), completely spent and unable to take another step. On this particular day I couldn't even put one foot in front of the other to push that dang handcart. I was face planted in the snow, unable to get up. I begged Father to give me the strength to keep going, even just one more step, and praise Him forever - He did. Shortly after that, I had another conversation with DF. These were running conversations over years - and now decades. I asked her: "Remember when I said Father only expects a perfect effort, and you said you weren't sure you were capable of even that? I think maybe I know what He expects of us when we can't push the handcart. I think if we're face down in the snow, unable to go on, the only thing He expects is that we wish we could. And maybe what that looks like is rolling over in the snow and lying there looking up at Him until we have the strength to get up again." That's where I've settled on the issue of perfect effort. Sometimes my perfect effort has the brilliance and blinding efficiency of watching a thoroughbred racehorse win the Kentucky Derby. Who WAS that masked woman?? Sometimes my perfect effort is making the bed and making dinner. Sometimes my perfect effort is getting dressed. There. I said it. Heavenly Father wants my heart, and He's got it. Being perfect in Christ (Moroni 10:32-33) means to give Him what's in your wallet - be it a million dollars or two mites. In fact - Jesus Christ is so unbelievably generous - having earned the inheritance for all of us - He actually takes on your deficits when your wallet has cartoon butterflies fly out of it. In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis writes in the voice of a senior devil - Wormwood - to an apprentice devil, Screwtape. As a devil, Wormwood refers to God as "our Enemy" and their "cause" as devils to seduce humans away from God: “Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” I like to think Wormwood is talking about all us pioneers, lyin' in the snow on summer days, at the very least, finding the strength to roll over and look up at that dear Face until we can walk toward Him again. He's so happy to wait. Oh. how He waits. Just keep your eyes on Jesus. His eyes have never left you, not even for a second.

Come Follow Me (Mosiah 29 - Alma 1-4) "It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force." (Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers, No. 1) Mosiah Chapter 29 is a pivotal point in Nephite history and mirrors the American founding of the 18th century. King Mosiah seemed to share the opinion of Joseph Smith that if his people were taught correct principles, they could govern themselves without the need for a sovereign king. As I wrote in Part 1 (https://www.laureensimper.com/post/the-first-american-founding-92-b-c-part-1-setting-the-stage), Mosiah spent a great deal of time reading the records of his people's past and concluded that moving forward, it would be unwise to establish another king. Mosiah outlined why wicked rulers harm an entire nation in verses 16-23, as the memories of King Noah were still fresh. Appointing toady associates to support corruption, changing laws to insulate corrupt leaders from accountability, destroying any opposition to shore up their power, ... Wow. Again - hard to tell if I'm referring to scripture or current news to compile that list of the danger of corrupt rulers. The daring proposal was put forth: what if you govern yourselves, and elect judges to oversee cases of dispute and law breaking? You choose your leaders, and agree to be accountable to them under the law. Higher and lower courts were proposed to assure a separation of power and a set of checks and balances. King Mosiah emphasized the point again and again - this will only work if most of you are capable of doing the right thing without being forced to do it. "Now it is not common that the voice of the people desire anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law - to do your business by the voice of the people." "And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you..." (Mosiah 29:26-27) "And [Mosiah] told them that ... the burden should come upon all the people, that every man might bear his part." (Mosiah 29:34) "Therefore they relinquished their desires for a king, and became exceedingly anxious that every man should have an equal chance throughout all the land; yea, and every man expressed a willingness to answer for his own sins." (Mosiah 29:38) The laws would apply equally to all - as all people were on the same equal, flawed plane in a fallen world. God's laws, which protect individuals from the selfishness of each other, would become the law of the land as overseen by the new judges. "Therefore, it came to pass that they assembled themselves together in bodies throughout the land, to cast in their voices concerning who should be their judges, to judge them according to the law which had been given them; and they were exceedingly rejoiced because of the liberty which had been granted unto them." (Mosiah 29:39) The people accepted the responsibility of answering for their own behavior under the law. That's the only way liberty works. Freedom without morality isn't liberty; as Edmund Burke said, "It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.” (Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France) The first American founding was 92 B.C. A group of pilgrims from the Old World, several hundred years after arriving, decided to form a government to largely govern themselves - to choose - as Hamilton suggested - to govern from their own intentional reflection and choice. As the majority of humanity has been ruled by either accident or force, the second American founding nearly two millennia later posed the same bold question. This is the great American experiment - are men capable of governing themselves? Two hundred forty years after that second founding, with civil unrest at a near-fevered pitch, the question almost mocks: can human beings rise to their highest capabilities and largely leave each other alone? Or must they always be micromanaged and told what to do? Call me a cockeyed optimist - I like to believe Joseph Smith was right - correct principles make it possible for people to govern themselves and have a well-ordered society with peace, prosperity, and maximum freedom. Mosiah 29 concludes at the dawn of an era where another group of humans are determined to try.

Come Follow Me (Mosiah 29, Alma 1-4) Anyone reading this who knows me well won't be surprised to see this post coming. Chapter 29 of Mosiah is one of my top three favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. To fully appreciate the parallels between the restructuring of Nephite government to the American founding in 1789, first take a look at something pivotal in chapter 28 - the impetus of the restructuring, so to speak. Like the American founders, King Mosiah studied the records of many peoples. He studied the brass plates brought from the Old World, as well as the Nephite record up to his time. These were added to with the recently acquired records of Zeniff, Alma, and the extinct Jaredite nation. None of these are entirely happy records. Deceit, betrayal, bondage, debauchery, unjust trials, narrow escapes, and even an execution. The extinct record warned particularly about secret combinations which seek to overthrow governments, and how allowing them without fighting them led to the very extinction itself. Like I said, grim stuff. I'm particularly fascinated with the reaction of Mosiah's people to the public reading of the Jaredite record - what I would argue might be the grimmest part of the entire Book of Mormon. I repeat - THIS IS NOT A HAPPY STORY. If it weren't for my other top two favorite chapters ever in that record, both of which recount face-to-face conversations with Jesus Christ, you'd need a whole lot of chocolate for the dementor attack that is the Book of Ether. Sorry about that parentheses. I just really want to get this idea across - Ether is a huge downer of a read. You know - a lot like reading the news today. And yet Mosiah read this bleak, dark record to his people, and Mormon makes this fascinating, important commentary as to why - which we would do well to remember when we want to look away and not pay too close attention to the world on fire around us: "Now this account did cause the people of Mosiah to mourn exceedingly, yea, they were filled with sorrow; nevertheless it gave them much knowledge, in the which they did rejoice." (Mosiah 28:18) Knowing hard things is a lot like making the decision Eve made in the Garden of Eden to eat the fruit. I love that Mormon adds this brief commentary that some knowledge, while it brings joy in the knowing, also brings sorrow in the knowing. It's something bittersweet to know both the good and the evil; it will ever be a hallmark of mortality. The founders of modern America did something very similar as they mined nuggets of knowledge from poring over the records of ancient civilizations - including Greece, Rome, and interestingly - Israel and the early Anglo Saxons - the Anglo Saxons very possibly being descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. The founders were students of history, and this also made them students of human nature. In reading Mosiah 29, it's very apparent King Mosiah was a similar student. Students of human nature can almost seem prescient in their ability to predict certain outcomes. But maybe it's just inevitable natural consequences of immersing oneself in the history of humanity and seeing the same patterns play out again and again. There will always be people who want nothing but power and influence over others, seeing other humans as either stepping stones or stumbling blocks towards it. There will always be people who want to do away with that kind of tyranny and bondage, and will lift their voices and spend out their lives to warn and to rally others to protect themselves from oppression. There will always be people who see the showdown coming between the liberty-loving patriots and those thirsting for power, who hedge up their bet by siding with the tyrant, becoming either willing or unwitting toadies with no other desire but to protect their own interests. There will always be people who want to be left alone, possibly hoping if they ignore eating that fruit long enough, their lives can go on normally and they can completely stay out of the fray. Same roles throughout history. Similar scripts. Different players. But you study enough of them, and the patterns are unmistakable. Seeing those patterns, the founders were "wise, and look[ed] forward to these things" (Mosiah 29:10), as did King Mosiah. The result was a completely new way of doing things, The result was an ancient democratic republic uncannily similar to the democratic republic of 1787. The result was a daring experiment in self-government. Cecil B. DeMille asserted: "God means us to be free. With divine daring, He gave us the power of choice." (https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/cecil-b-demille/ten-commandments-and-you/) Which begs the question - can we govern ourselves? What principles must a society live by to pull it off? That's what both the American founders and King Mosiah seemed determined to discover. Many of them are set forth in Mosiah chapter 29.

[Originally published April 19, 2021] From my journal - March 7, 2021 I started to pay closer attention to the unjust actions of corrupt government about twelve years ago. It’s been a very interesting journey. I’ve learned a lot about the subtle ways the very desire to self-govern is being eroded in the U.S. Because so many have lost the historical context of what self-government is even supposed to be, which is at the heart of the American experiment, my fear that we are losing our desire and ability to do it has often been dismissed and disrespected. It hurts to have people you love and respect treat your fear as irrational. With that as context, you might imagine the consternation I’ve felt in the last year. I am told I am an uncharitable person to disrespect the very real fear of people who are afraid of dying of a virus that has proven to have a 99% survival rate. To me, fear of a virus with that survival rate is the very definition of an irrational fear. Until just the last few years, the United States I have lived in my whole life has been a place where individuals could decide for themselves whether they wanted to take precautions for their own health. Those who feared getting sick - rational or not - could do something about it. Their fear - rational or not - had nothing to do with using compulsory means to change the way anyone else lived their lives. The fact that it’s considered selfish and even reckless or cruel to do this now, a year into “flattening the curve,” would suggest that MY fear of a loss of liberty has been the most rational. I work very hard to not allow myself to be offended, but I’ve got to tell you - I am now officially offended that my fear of the last twelve years has been dismissed, and even mocked and derided for being irrational, while at the same time those who may have been germaphobic to begin with are treated as if their fear has genuine merit. I respect the precautions of more hand washing, more attention to improving my own personal immune system, and staying home when you’re not feeling well. All other precautions? I can’t respect any of them because of the outlandish inconsistencies in implementation. But I’m made to comply with these inconsistent policies, and from the look of it, the reason is to assuage others’ fear. I’m particularly offended when over a hundred illegal immigrants were released into Texas last week, who tested positive for the virus! This - at the same time I’ve just spent the last year being denied the unalienable right of AIR, all in the name of calming others’ fear. Well, what about MY fear that we are losing our freedom? How seriously can I take this if illegal immigrants who have the virus aren’t quarantined before being allowed into the U.S. at large, while at the same time, people are policing each other about keeping a mask up over the nose, and families are being kicked off planes because a terrified little child doesn’t want to keep a mask over his face for a 4-hour flight? What of my fear that power-hungry people have seized the opportunity of a crisis - as they always do - and have used fear to get us to comply with an important loss of individual liberty? Naomi Wolf has written recently of her concern that “emergency” powers - once taken, are historically NEVER relinquished. And lest you think this is a partisan issue: Naomi Wolf is a Democrat. Self-government means that not only are we capable of making the best choices for our own lives, but that we’re capable of allowing other people to do the same - even if their choices look completely different than our choices. Self-government means we’ve outgrown the first-grade tendency to tattle to teacher, pointing to our neighbor at Table 1, and shouting, “He’s doing it wrong!” My apologies to the more mature first-graders everywhere. Self-government means we realize that freedom means we have to give each other room to learn from our mistakes by doing it wrong, because WE need that room ourselves. I need to change my answer. I’m not offended; I’m heart-broken. I’m heart-broken and stunned at the widespread ignoring of logic which has been necessary to bring us to this one-year anniversary of two weeks to flatten the curve. I mourn that the United States of America’s beautiful experiment in self-government seems to be lost. All rational evidence points to the curve being flattened a long time ago. But the more contagious virus - irrational fear that a healthy neighbor can kill you - may never be flattened if we don’t turn our frontal cortexes back on. It’s the only thing that will override fear, and the only thing that will save our liberty.

Come Follow Me (Mosiah 11-17) The Book of Mosiah has some of the most brilliant commentary about government in the entire Book of Mormon - both the best of it, as in Mosiah 1-5, and some of its worst, as in Mosiah 11-17. Benjamin was a stellar public servant worth emulating. He's a perfect foil with whom to contrast the corrupt and morally bankrupt King Noah described in Mosiah chapter 11. This chapter underscores Gordon B. Hinckley's statement that reading the Book of Mormon daily could often be confused with reading a current-day newspaper. This key phrase sets off a horrible checklist of corruption: "he had changed the affairs of the kingdom." (Mosiah 11:4) Change indeed. To really appreciate the change - read chapters 1 and 2 to see how Benjamin raised his children and served as king, and then get on your trusty neck brace before you read chapter 11 so you won't get whiplash. And even though Noah's kingdom had completely separated from King Benjamin's/Mosiah's kingdom for at least one generation, the contrast is worth noting because in the space of "not many years" (Helaman 11:26), a group of people who started out as largely self-governing had almost completely given themselves to licentiousness. Note the eerie similarities in our current situation to that of King Noah's people after the affairs of the kingdom had been changed: King Noah's wickedness justified the people's wickedness and vice versa (verse 2). High taxation supported a debauched, idolatrous, excessive lifestyle - which allowed King Noah and his priests to live off the work of others and not support themselves (verses 3-4, 14-15). High taxation also paid for expensive government trappings - which only served to accentuate a different class: those who 'governed' and the ordinary people (verses 8-11). King Noah replaced his father's priests with his own yes-men who would support his unrighteous decrees (verse 5). The people "labored exceedingly" to pay these taxes to "support iniquity" (verse 6). Yet King Noah and his priests deceived the people with vain and flattering speech, leading the whole nation into idolatry. No doubt this flattering speech justified taking an exorbitant portion of their living by telling them they would benefit from it (verse 7). National surveillance was established (verse 12). Even with all that excessive taxation, King Noah didn't manage and maintain sufficient national defense to protect the people - the number one role of government (verses 16-17). A pattern emerges throughout the Book of Mormon where laziness and indolence are paired with idolatry. It's repeatedly used to describe the lifestyle of primarily the Lamanite nations. In the miraculous conversion of those Lamanites who come to be known as the Anti-Nephi-Lehis (Alma 23), Mormon particularly mentions that one of the significant changes in their lifestyle was that they became industrious. Since these vices show up together so often throughout the book, it begs the question: does laziness lead people into idolatry? Or is laziness idolatry? No wonder people who are committed to this kind of lifestyle don't want anyone telling them it's not a good choice. And that includes that same person warning them there are divine consequences for that choice. This is where the children in the room like to put their fingers in their ears and shout loudly, "LA LA LA LA LA." I started calling this reaction to reality the Pharisee Disease many years ago. As I studied the Pharisees' reaction to Jesus' teaching, it struck me how very much they had invested in their lifestyles and how important it was to their way of life that Jesus was wrong. He had to be wrong, or they had to change. And who wants to change? Absolutely no one, that's who. If you're not quickened by the Spirit, absolutely 100% of natural humans are absolutely 100% committed to staying exactly as they are. Because entropy. Entropy, atrophy, and all the forces of the universe which demand effort against chaos are real and cannot be denied. And effort demands the legitimate pain of discipline, as Scott Peck called it. And doughnuts. And Netflix. Few of us want to look too closely at our first response to new information that might require change from us. I wince just writing that. If you don't want something to be true, you enter the hypothesis of its possible truth with a huge bias most of us don't want to admit. If you have zero intention of accepting the truth and changing your behavior - or bigger still, your lifestyle - to accommodate it, then you'll view a potentially new truth as an enemy - because of its potential to completely dismantle your habits, livelihood, belief system, world view, etc. It would "destroy [your] craft." (Alma 35:3) You can tell King Noah, his priests, and his people didn't want Abinadi's warnings to be true because of this very natural human response to new information. They didn't want it to be true because of what it would require of them if it were. But that pesky thought in the back of every human brain: what if it is true? - is behind all the vitriol hurled at Abinadi. It explains their reaction over two thousand years ago, and it explains the world's reaction to basic absolute truths today. That checklist earlier of changes to the government aren't the problem. They're symptoms of a much larger problem - the spiritually lethal germ in human thinking which tricks us into imagining we can insulate ourselves from reality. Humans attempt this through the ease and comfort of wealth, in the deceptive safety of a peer group of like-minded people, through power and influence, or with enough power and influence, even with laws which eventually - inevitably - lead to the criminalization of the truth and the speakers of truth. Maybe laziness really is idolatry. If humans are that committed to staying as they are, have they made ease and comfort their god? There's certainly a staggering degree of obeisance to it and rapid responses to anything which threatens it. This pattern can be seen over and over in the Book of Mormon - starting with Lehi's family. Watch for it - watch how both individuals and collective groups respond to truth, and what happens as a result of that choice. The road map of destruction can always be traced back to this first fatal step - not wanting truth to be real. After millennia of feeble, futile attempts filled with false bravado, the best thinkers of the ages can almost be heard saying, "Best of luck with that."

We've got to talk about the most incredulous irony of the universe. All things were created by God. He is the King of the universe, and Father of the spirits of every human ever born on this earth. "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:3) Though He has allowed what sometimes seems like a never-ending tether to the rebellious one who now wreaks such havoc in the world, that tether is still decreed finitely by Him. The destroyer can only do so much damage, and no more. This vexes many prone to disbelief as proof there must be no God - finding it easier to not believe in a Being who would allow such mischief and mayhem wherever you look. But here comes the great irony - because of eternal laws, God must allow us to choose His ways without a show of force on His part. How can we ever be tempered and trained to prefer light over darkness in a world with only light? God planned from the very beginning to send a Rescuer, a Healer, a Cleaner-Upper-of-Every-Mess. A Savior. He paid such a high price to send His beloved, perfect Son to clean up every mess we make, to make every single thing right that has gone wrong, to wipe all the tears that have been shed over all the messes. He watched that perfectly obedient Son suffer indescribably to allow us the gift of the right to choose. Mortality is our time to learn and develop preferences: to prefer light to darkness, freedom to force, work to indolence, to prefer kindness over cruelty. To prefer generosity over stinginess, magnanimity over pettiness. All life's experiences are for this one purpose - which do you prefer - God's ways, or Satan's? And through it all, the scriptures are replete with the polite suggestion that we will do best if we learn sooner than later that God's ways are the path to ultimate freedom, and Satan's ways are the path to bondage. King Limhi taught his people: "O how marvelous are the works of the Lord, and how long doth he suffer with his people; yea, and how blind and impenetrable are the understandings of the children of men; for they will not seek wisdom, neither do they desire that she should rule over them." (Mosiah 8:20) In light of the omniscience, power, and glory, from Him who made all things, it's fascinating that the typical natural human, untouched by spiritual things, has the tendency to not want to be bossed around At. All. By anyone really, but according to Limhi, the characteristic of God that makes Him so utterly trustworthy to be listened to and obeyed is His infinite wisdom. Which means natural humans don't want to be bossed around by their very Creator. So, why? Humans want what they want, as much as they want, whenever they want. Any restraints are most onerous to a typical natural human. Isaiah poetically observes: "Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood." (Isaiah 10:15) Isaiah recognizes how ridiculous it is that the created thing imagines it is greater than its creator by using the poetic images of inanimate objects to make his point, but it holds true of God's children, also created for Him - for His delight, His use, and His glory: "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth,... all things were created by him and for him." (Colossians 1:16, emphasis added) This is the great danger of the world's religion - secular humanism - which asserts that the highest moral authority is a person's own self and what he feels is right and moral. That makes for some sticky business, as this means there is no universal standard for everyone to refer to. Secular humanism teaches a doctrine which doesn't assert all humans are created in the image of one universal Creator. It assumes innumerous little gods - those gods created in the images of their flawed, fickle human creators. This turning upside down of the natural order of things is also described by Isaiah: "Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?" (Isaiah 29:16) So back to the irony. It boggles my mind that God gave all His fickle children this magnificent gift of choice - for the very reason to learn to prefer Him over all else. That's what the agency is for - to allow our experiences to teach us to prefer Him over all else. And yet, with all His power, and brilliance, and might, and glory - this mighty Being who is our Creator, Father, and God - does not force. Not only does He not, neither can He, nor will He. The choice is entirely up to us. What's not up to us is the attending consequences - the "affixed", inescapable consequences of those choices. (2 Nephi 2:10) The great irony is that the only one with authority to boss us around - the Author of the universe - refuses to boss us around. He waits, He allows, He loves. He waits, and then He waits some more. And when He's finished, He keeps waiting, watching from "yet a great way off" (Luke 15:20), and hopes that in the end, we will ask Him to boss us around - to take the rudder and captain our ship - to give Him, as Neal Maxwell taught, the only thing that is uniquely ours to give - our very selves. Humans can never do God's work if they don't learn this, if they attempt to force God's ways. God. Never. Forces. In fact, He has something pretty strong to say about those who try to force His ways: "...men... do not learn this one lesson - "That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled or handled only upon the principles of righteousness.... "...but when we undertake to... exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man." (D&C 121:35-37) God will do everything in His power to bring us to the choice of choosing Him, but He will not take it from us or make it for us. And He doesn't want us to force each other, either, in any way. God is all about choice. Because of His infinite courtesy, He lets us choose. But oh, those consequences. We'd better be quite certain we want the consequences we've chosen as well. Know this, that ev’ry soul is free To choose his life and what he’ll be; For this eternal truth is giv’n: That God will force no man to heav’n. He’ll call, persuade, direct aright, And bless with wisdom, love, and light, In nameless ways be good and kind, But never force the human mind. Freedom and reason make us men; Take these away, what are we then? Mere animals, and just as well The beasts may think of heav’n or hell. May we no more our pow’rs abuse, But ways of truth and goodness choose; Our God is pleased when we improve His grace and seek his perfect love. (Know This, That Every Soul is Free, LDS Hymns #240, emphasis added)