No One Mourns The Wicked
A reflection on violence and death as punishment within scripture
“The Book of Mormon records the destruction of individuals and societies that embraced wickedness and allowed secret combinations to exist. At the same time, the Book of Mormon also teaches that we can live righteously despite living in a wicked environment.” – LDS Book of Mormon Study Manual Lesson 25
Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash
As soon as our babies are old enough to sit in a little chair we teach them to fold their arms and walk reverently to the LDS primary room for spiritual nourishment. There, our children learn songs about Heavenly Father and how to live their lives so that they may return to live with Him and their earthly families again someday. We learn specific ways to live in order to reach that goal. We must be baptized and participate in additional living ordinances. We must live by our Articles of Faith and protect our testimonies. We must not be deceived and descend into wickedness.
I was one of those kids who listened intently early on, always ready to raise my hand and always eager for my turn to give a talk or say the prayer. I’d actively try to make things easier for the teachers. Because I listened so intently, I was very aware of the violence thrust upon the wicked and, yes, it did deter me from wanting to sin and made me quick to repent when I did.
Like many children raised with Christian beliefs, the first story I remember learning is the one about Noah’s flood. In primary, a chorus of children’s voices sing “Noah was a prophet called to preach the word, tried to cry repentance but nobody heard. They were busy sinning – Noah preached in vain. They wished they had listened when they saw the rain.” I remember singing this verse with particular gusto, those people sinning “got their comeuppance” and I didn’t feel sad for them. After all, no one mourns the wicked. It genuinely was decades before my brain started asking questions like “were there no pregnant people on the earth at that time? Were the toddlers already wicked? How?” Those questions bothered me, but nobody talked about it. The earth started over again with Noah’s family and that was that.
At ages 3 through 12 the felt fabric story pieces and illustrations used to teach me exposed me to violence. Sometimes even costumes were provided so we could act out the scripture stories. I learned about Nephi cutting off the head of Laban and putting on his clothes to trick guards. I learned the story of Ammon who chopped off the arms of robbers which were then carried and laid at the King’s feet (Alma 17:33-39). In every example of wicked people being killed I felt the satisfaction of justice for the Lord because I was on the Lord’s side and anyone who wasn’t was an enemy.
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
Now is the time to show.
We ask it fearlessly:
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
We wage no common war,
Cope with no common foe.
The enemy’s awake;
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
(Lyrics to “Who’s on the Lord’s side”)
As an adult, I loved teaching primary. I loved my students and loved teaching them the gospel. I never wanted them to go hide in the mother’s lounge to avoid class like I had sometimes done in my last years of primary. I glossed over the stories that included violence by justifying it; yes, Lot’s wife got turned to a pillar of salt for looking back at the city being destroyed and yeah that may seem a bit harsh but really, what did she expect when being disobedient? We are taught that the first law of heaven is obedience so it makes sense that the punishment would be extreme, right?
Practically every person reading this has probably experienced social media posts that turn into major disagreements. I was a part of one that started off by me responding to a post by a ward member asking if the new Jurassic World movie was appropriate for kids. I commented that I thought it was fine to bring kids to. I explained that there was one part that could be scary because a person gets swallowed by a pterodactyl but that my 6 year old had laughed during this scene of the movie. I got a quick reply questioning what kind of parent I must be to have raised a child who would laugh at someone being eaten by a pterodactyl. They questioned my parenting and my child’s adjustment. I felt so angry.
Once the anger from having my parenting skills questioned eased, I began to take a mental inventory of my child’s exposure to violence. I thought about the TV shows that my child watched with me and in family settings and felt/feel extremely guilty for introducing violence into their growing mind. My inventory started within my home and expanded outward. As it expanded outward the exposure to violence grew. I suddenly looked at the scripture cartoons differently. I saw the gospel art kit with a fresh set of eyes. The pictures I’d grown up with of the crucifixion, the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, his tarring and feathering in graphic detail, the attempted sacrifice of Isaac, the severed arms of robbers, the destruction of Zarahemla, and King Solomon threatening to cut a baby in half now seemed gratuitously graphic. The rape, torture, murder, and eating of Lamanite women in Moroni Chapter 9 immediately came to mind when I was mentally cataloging violent scriptures.
“… after depriving [the daughters] of that which was most dear and precious above all things, which is chastity and virtue. … they did murder them in a most cruel manner, torturing their bodies even unto death; and after they have done this, they devour their flesh like unto wild beasts.” (Moroni 9:9-10)
My entire world view was challenged during my mental inventory of exposure to violence. My eagerness for the Second Coming and its corresponding destruction of the wicked suddenly felt yucky. I questioned my tolerance and justification for violence. When I tried to rewatch a movie I had enjoyed as a teenager (Reservoir Dogs,) I almost puked. Something was not the same, something had changed within me. I feel sorrow for feeling no sympathy about the “righteous” destruction of human beings prior to my mindset being challenged. I think it was unfair and cruel of me to have assumed everyone affected by violence in our scriptures and our world deserved it or was necessary collateral in the battle for righteousness. I don’t understand why I just accepted violence as a normal consequence for so long even though I understand that I was taught to embrace it as a natural consequence for breaking the Lord’s commandments. When I learned about the early Church’s use of blood oaths and blood atonement (a question that was asked of Utah jurors in death penalty cases up until 1994), it didn’t bother me. In fact, it made sense to me.
Now in my late forties, I look at the conflicts in our country and around our globe and recognize a thirst for violence. I hear people in my country speak of another civil war as an inevitability. People use the phrase “culture wars” and I have to wonder if it’s to create distance from the very real human beings whose lives are at stake during a time of record breaking number of hate crimes. I wonder if people confuse their own religious commitment to the Lord with their obligation to let others live according to the dictates of their own conscience.
We are religiously primed to dehumanize people we see as wicked. We listen to prophets describe those who have descended into wickedness with phrases like “poisoned wells, dead trees, bitter fruit, Sons of Perdition, etc.” When drawing the map of the Plan of Salvation on church chalkboards we draw a line that shows a separate destination for the wicked and we label it “Outer Darkness.” Perhaps it’s time to question why we see them as “wicked” and to question why we teach children to look forward to the glorious day of Christ’s return when “the proud and wicked will be burned as stubble.”
When we’re separating wheat from tares, when we’re burning the vineyard, when we’re flooding the earth, we are teaching children that the horrific deaths of fellow humans is acceptable, and even worthy of celebration, because they are not righteous like us, they’re “wicked”. An omnipotent God doesn’t need humans who are prone to bias and tribalism to mete out His will or to cheer on His punishments as good news. He certainly doesn’t need us to condemn parents for taking their kids to story time led by a person with big hair and extravagant make-up while we take ours to hear about murder (but for good reasons, right?)
What are your earliest memories of violence within scripture/church instruction? How have you navigated violence in scripture for yourself or with your children? We’d love to hear from you: https://exponentii.org/submit-a-guest...
