Iniquitous Kings

What Does the Book of Mormon Say About Inequality? Series

The Book of Mormon contains some surprising insights concerning economic inequality.  This series explores several topics addressed by the LDS scripture and its insights for today.

The Disastrous Reigns of Iniquitous Kings

During the majority of the historical chronology in the Book of Mormon, the people were ruled by kings.  These kings for the most part had complete economic and ideological control over the people, and some kings used this power to bring chaos and ruin upon the people in the selfish pursuit of riches and power.  Kings ruled during the entire history of the Jaredite people (the Book of Ether), and the iniquity of many of these kings was the source of all of their problems.

The Nephite/Lamanite civilizations were also ruled by iniquitous kings at times - featured primarily in the book of Mosiah - but at the end of Mosiah kings are abolished among the Nephites, and for the rest of the narrative the people are governed by elected judges.  This change is remarkable, and most of the economic content that we are interested in occurs during this post-Mosiah period.  However, in order to best appreciate the economic uniqueness of this later time it is important to take a look at the events and conditions leading to it.

Iniquitous Kings of the Jaredites

 
In 31 pages the book of Ether gives a short account of the entire history of the Jaredite people - a history spanning about 2000 years.  Moroni wrote the book centuries after the Jaredites using much larger records written by Ether.  Aside from the story of the initial voyage to America of the Jaredites, the rest of the details in the short record are focused on the iniquities (ie economic wickedness) of the people, and complements similar details in the rest of the Book of Mormon.  Moroni's details in the book of Ether also complement his own prophesies about our day, in which he says that the problems of the Jaredites will be had among us, but worse (Ether 8).  So, despite its small size, it is an important record to consider.

Over the generations, the Jaredites experience almost comical cycles of righteousness and wickedness.  When a king comes to power who seeks the welfare of the people, then there is a period of peace and prosperity; when kings come to power who seek their own welfare, and create a lavish lifestyles for themselves at the expense of the people, then there are long periods of war, bloodshed, poverty, and iniquity.  The cycle worsens when people are so desirous to become rich that they murder their own royal family members in order for themselves to be placed on the throne - throwing the whole civilization into long and bloody tug-a-war contests among ruling families.

In order to facilitate the quick succession to the throne, wicked people join in secret societies and combinations, using the murderous plans of Cain, the first murderer.  These secret societies seek after power and money for a few, and manage to not only cause more bloodshed and war, but to even corrupt the hearts of all the people until everyone commits iniquity (Ether 9:6).  Eventually, the secret societies seeking riches corrupt all of the Jaredites, and the whole civilizations crumbles.

Moroni's details emphasize two things:

a) The primary wickedness of the Jaredites are their economic iniquities - that a few would seek to be rich over all others at any cost, including murder.  This is the wickedness that led to their destruction;

And b) that it is extraordinarily easy for a society to be corrupted when an iniquitous king is in charge and/or when secret societies seeking wealth exist and are ideologically and politically powerful.

Nephite Era Kings

Like the Jaredites, the first 500 years of the Nephite civilization is ruled by kings.  There is little record of most of these kings until the book of Mosiah.  My guess is this is probably because Mormon's account of this history was lost in the early translation of the Book of Mormon, and the records that are included covering this timeline were written by authors who had a different purpose than Mormon.

Of the kings who are written about we have an example of one very iniquitous king - king Noah - and a couple examples of a righteous kings, including Benjamin.

King Noah did unspeakable damage to his people as a result of his selfishness.  Mosiah 11 details how he levied a large tax on his people, all of which would be used to support the lavish and riotous lifestyle of him and his priests.  They had many wives and concubines, they built a spacious palace and temple to flaunt their wealth, and they built wine-presses in order for themselves to have unlimited amounts of wine. 

The people suffered as a result of King Noah's iniquity, not only because they labored in poverty to support the iniquity, but also because they were lied to and deceived by the priests of Noah - the religious authority of the land - until the people came to be iniquitous and idolatrous themselves, setting their hearts upon riches and committing iniquities in the selfish pursuit of wealth, in emulation of their king.

This twisting of religion in order to become wealthy, and its consequences on the people, is called Priestcraft in the Book of Mormon.

Seeing the iniquities of not only Noah, but now all the people, the Lord sends a prophet named Abinadi.  In Mosiah 12 Abinadi preaches that because of iniquities the people will be brought into bondage, and some will be destroyed, and that they obviously are not following the Law of Moses.  The people harden their hearts, save only a few, and Abinadi is put to death.  The few believers flee the land, led by Alma, but the rest are indeed put in bondage as Abinadi said when an army of Lamanites - likely drawn by the ostentatious displays of wealth - invade and put an even greater tax on the people (Mosiah 7).  And thus the people are "bound with the bands" of their own "iniquities" (Mosiah 23:12), as Abinadi had predicted.

King Benjamin stands in stark contrast to Noah.  Near the end of his life, Benjamin gathers the people together in Mosiah 2-5 in order to give them his last counsel.  In this famous speech he emphasizes how he has been in the service of the people his entire life, and did not seek after the riches of the people.  He had done away with slavery and unjust confinement, but had punished the crimes of those who plundered and stole; he labored for his own support so that the people would not be laden with taxes (Mosiah 2:13-14).

His purpose in speaking is to suggest to the people that they ought to labor to serve one another, and to serve their God with their whole souls, but it also serves as a clue to the history before Benjamin, as he speaks as if he were an exception to the norm. 

The Law of Mosiah - The End of Kings, and Beginning of Laws and Ideals Promoting Equality

Throughout the book of Mosiah there is a growing realization among the characters that the iniquities of kings led to inequality among the people, and then to the majority of the people committing iniquities themselves.  They realize that in order to prevent the inequality and iniquities they would need to abolish kings, establish strong laws, and emphasize an ethic of equality in their culture and religion.


Alma, having seen first-hand the wickedness of king Noah, establishes an equitable society far away from Noah and his iniquities.  He forms a church among the people, but instructs his priests that they are to work for their own food, and not to esteem themselves as better than others; furthermore, he instructs the people to impart of their resources to the poor (Mosiah 18:26-29).  He refuses to be a king, but instructs the people that they should consider all people equal, and they they should have liberty among them, which will not happen if they have a king who commits iniquities (Mosiah 23:5-16).

In addition to teaching the people to serve one another, King Benjamin preaches that the people should impart of their resources to the poor, and to not turn away the beggar.  Furthermore, he emphasizes that while they may receive a remission of their sins through faith in Christ and repentance, they would only retain a remission of their sins by helping the poor (Mosiah 4).  He has the people covenant to help those around them.

Benjamin's son Mosiah takes on the mantle of a righteous king after Benjamin's passing, carrying on the tradition of serving the people, helping the poor, laboring for his own support, and not seeking after filthy lucre at the cost of his people (Mosiah 29).  Alma and his people later join Mosiah's people, and Mosiah appoints Alma as the leader of the church.  Like Alma, Mosiah instructs the priests that they should labor for their own support, and that there should be "equality among all men" (Mosiah 27:3-7).

A record of the Jaredite people is found and king Mosiah translates it.  A mixture of reading their disastrous record, learning of the iniquities of king Noah through Alma, and knowing his own history leads Mosiah to the conclusion that kings should be abolished.  Near the end of his life he gathers the people together and reminds them of the iniquities which kings can so easily commit.  In Mosiah 29 he says:

"17 For behold, how much iniquity doth one wicked king cause to be committed, yea, and what great destruction!" ...

 "31 For behold I say unto you, the sins of many people have been caused by the iniquities of their kings; therefore their iniquities are answered upon the heads of their kings."

"32 And now I desire that this inequality should be no more in this people; but I desire that this land be a land of liberty, and every man may enjoy his rights and privileges alike..."

He then admonishes the people to choose judges who will uphold a strict law against iniquities, and these judges would rule the people by election.  The people anxiously agree, and a new government is formed on principles of equity and justice, rights and liberty, and democracy, in an episode not so dissimilar from the birth of the United States of America.

These new judges do not have the economic and ideological powers that ancient kings had, and furthermore their powers are divided between a chief judge, and probably a court of higher judges, and a court of lower judges, modeled after the ancient Jews.

This political change leads to less intense episodes of economic inequality, but as we will see it does not end inequities entirely.

Context for the Rest of This Series

Although there is a lot more great economic content and details in the books of Mosiah and Ether which are not included in this post, the rest of this sub-series will focus on books afterwards.  I do think that it is helpful to point out a few items in the paragraphs above that provide context for the types of inequality that we will discuss later.

• Previous to King Mosiah, the only rich people are kings and their lackeys.  Inequality is present whenever there is a greedy and iniquitous king.

• The iniquities and greed of kings leads the people themselves to be greedy and iniquitous, although relative to the king they are poor and laden with taxes.  When strong laws and leadership exist which promote equality the people also engender equality, and usually are more wealthy as well.

• The end of the book of Mosiah reveals the growing realization that equality is an important moral and that it needs to be specifically taught - not only to priests, but to all the people - in order for it to be followed

• The Laws of Moses, and the laws of King Benjamin, previous to Mosiah were laws preventing iniquities among the people, and encouraging equality.  King Mosiah expanded upon these laws, including the abolishing of kings, and established elected judges to rule the people.

• King Benjamin taught a Gospel which includes the absolute requirement of assistance to the poor.  This type of preaching is continued by Alma, Mosiah, and all the prophets and righteous political leaders succeeding them.

What Does the Book of Mormon Say About Inequality - Table of Contents