Nephite Dissenters More Wicked Than Lamanites?

[consiglieri]

At several junctures, the Book of Mormon mentions Nephites dissenting over to the Lamanites (or the Gadianton robbers), and even notes that these former Nephites were at times "of a more wicked and murderous disposition than the Lamanites."

Alma 43:6 And now, as the Amalekites were of a more wicked and murderous disposition than the Lamanites were, in and of themselves, therefore, Zerahemnah appointed chief captains over the Lamanites, and they were all Amalekites and Zoramites.

This is an interesting state of things, but one with historical parallels, as I discovered last Saturday night while watching some lectures about the Vikings through the courtesy of The Learning Company.

The lecturer is Kenneth W. Hart, professor of Classical and Byzantine History at Tulane University in New Orleans.

In discussing the Viking attacks on Ireland, he had the following to say:

The [Viking] raids [between 790-840] were deplored in the Irish chronicles written by monks who also deplored the number of apostate Irish, that is, Irish who had gone over to the Vikings, known as the Gaell-Gaidaill ("Foreign Gaels").

Within a generation of the attacks, the Vikings settled into military encampments at the mouths of all the critical rivers and established bases. . . . In these towns, the Vikings took native wives and spawned a mixed population. These Gaell-Gaidaills turned out to be even more ruthless and destructive than the Vikings themselves.

Any thoughts?

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[consiglieri]

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Come on. Humor me!

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[Calm]

Perhaps part of the motivation was to prove themselves as sincere, full members of their current group by being so hateful/violent to their previous one.

If so, I wouldn't be surprised if this is a motivation that continues to this day with some.

===

Another could be that the expectations were higher seeing how as they would be assumed to be more 'civilized' due to their connection with their previous society (whose views of the barbaric nature of the 'apostates' and 'halfbreeds' are the assumptions we are examining as opposed to known reality) and thus the same behaviours would be seen as more grievous from the supposedly more enlightened...if you get what I mean, I'm not sure I said that all that clearly.

[cjcampbell]

I think it has to do with the nature of dissenters. Many Lamanites do not seem to have cared much one or the other about the Nephites. Some even were favorable toward the Nephites and appear to have had regular dealings with them. The Lamanites invariable had to be goaded to war against the Nephites, usually by dissenting Nephites who had worked their way into Lamanite leadership.

Dissenters, however, start out hating the group they dissented from -- that is why they are called dissenters. Further, these dissenters were either forcibly exiled or living in a state of self-exile. They constantly reminded themselves that the horrible Nephites were responsible for their exile. It is not surprising, then, that people who committed acts that forced them to leave the country, continued to nurse resentment at being forced to leave, and who continually plotted to come back and take over would be more vicious and more determined to destroy those whom they perceived to be their oppressors. Even the Gadianton robbers attempted to justify their behavior by convincing themselves that they were merely reacting to unjust oppression.

[consiglieri]

Interesting insights.

Do you think there may be any correlation between Nephite dissenters and some Mormon dissenters?

I ask this because, often when I am reading the Book of Mormon, it seems to be describing the future of the LDS Church that was only being organized the year it came off the presses.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri