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.
What Are 'Secret Combinations'?
In the Book of Mormon, 'secret combinations' are organizations set up to ensure its members become rich and powerful. Their strategies to become rich are always dark - stealing, robbing, deceiving, murdering, etc. They are usually secretive - as their strategies are obviously highly unpopular - but at times they are strong enough, or society is wicked enough, for them to act overtly without consequence. Their strategies cause, exacerbate, and perpetuate inequalities and the persecution of the poor, and are the essence of the iniquities that the God of the Book of Mormon hates the most.
Secret combinations are behind the destruction contained in most of the history of the Book of Mormon. They are the downfall of the Jaredite people, as well as King Noah's people (Iniquitous Kings). Nehor's priestcraft followers formed a secret combination called 'The Order of Nehors' (Priestcraft). Secret combinations, and their concomitant iniquities and inequality, are the source of all the wars and dissensions among the Nephite people (Dissension and War).
And of course, the largest and most dangerous secret combination are the Gadianton Robbers, who will be addressed specifically in the companion to this article (Gadianton Robbers).
To the Nephites, the only social organizations that exist in their society are the government, churches, and secret combinations; and sometimes the government is controlled by secret combinations, and sometimes churches are secret combinations, or at least their priestcrafts ideologically guide the combinations. There is no economic organization, or for-profit institution or venture which does not fall under these three categories, with 'secret combination' being the broadest category.
Additionally, in the Nephite world everything is black and white - there are people and organizations which seek the welfare of God's Children, and there are the people and organizations which seek after money. There are no people or organizations that are neutral. There is no free market, no corporations, no non-profit organizations, no business ventures or institutions of any kind, aside from government, churches, and secret combinations. There is nothing like our modern and complex economy, and there isn't room in the worldview of the book for there to be - any for-profit venture would probably be considered an evil 'secret combination'.
Now, my point here isn't to say that modern capitalism is just a large collection of vicious secret combinations - that's a discussion for another time - but to provide appropriate context for the phrase.
Activities and Characteristics of Secret Combinations
All secret combinations are united under their singular purpose - for their members to become rich - but their strategies to achieve this goal differ throughout the Book of Mormon. At times they become rich simply by taking resources; and at other times they become rich not by stealing, but by lying, deceiving, murdering, and doing everything possible to ensure their own members end up in leadership positions as government officials, judges, and lawyers, and then use these positions to rob from the poor.
Let's take a look at some of their main and overlapping strategies. Remember, the Book of Mormon carefully uses particular words to describe situations, trusting that the reader knows the meaning of the word from earlier context. In describing the iniquities of secret combinations the Book of Mormon uses similar verbs - like steal, plunder, and rob - where each word has its own particular nuance.
They Steal
For secret combinations, stealing is a pretty straightforward way to become wealthy. Fortunately for the people of the Book of Mormon, it is not the easiest. Strong laws exist against stealing - what civilization can exist without such laws? For the Nephites, laws against stealing exist from the beginning as that is a part of the Law of Moses. In Mosiah 29, king Mosiah also establishes more laws against this iniquity, which laws are enforced by the judges of the land after his passing.
In order to get around this, secret combinations seek out to alter the laws. In Helaman ch. 6 a secret combination is formed by members who make covenants and oaths with each other that they will protect each other from the consequences of their iniquities. They are called the Gadianton Robbers - who will be discussed in more detail in the next post. This secret combination murders and deceives in order to obtain powerful government positions. Once in power they change laws and remove punishments to make their iniquities more easy, including stealing, and destroy any justice and equality in the process. Helaman 7:4-5
4 [the Gadianton Robbers] having usurped the power and authority of the land; laying aside the commandments of God, and not in the least aright before him; doing no justice unto the children of men;
5 Condemning the righteous because of their righteousness; letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money; and moreover to be held in office at the head of government, to rule and do according to their wills, that they might get gain and glory of the world, and, moreover, that they might the more easily commit adultery, and steal, and kill, and do according to their own wills."
They Plunder
Plundering is the forceful and violent extreme of 'stealing'. Secret combinations plunder by introducing chaos to families or entire cities, and then taking resources by force. This chaos is caused by disrupting government, murdering, and by causing warfare - either behind the scenes or by raising up armies themselves.
They Rob
Robbing is by far the most subtle form of 'stealing'. To rob from someone resources do not necessarily need to be taken by force, but can refer to denying otherwise justified resources. In the scriptures when the word 'rob' is used it generally refers to the withholding of resources unjustly. The most famous use of this word is in Malachi 3, also repeated in 3 Nephi 24:
8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say: Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
9 Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.The robbery here is that money, which should have been the Lord's, was not given to Him. The Book of Mormon usage is consistent with this definition.
The secret combination - the Order of Nehors - among the people of Ammonihah, as well as the Zoramites, rob by vilifying the poor in their priestcraft, and thereby convincing the people that there is no need to give resources to them (and instead should give money to the Order).
King Noah and his priests rob the people - not only because he forcefully taxes them, but when those taxes are used on himself and not on the welfare of the people where the funds justly belong.
The Gadianton Robbers (aptly named) rob the people when they take over the government, and then use their new found powers to disrupt the regulations of the government and to change laws, the new transformation which persecutes the poor.
They Lie and Deceive
Whether it's false priests, lawyers, royal family members, or politicians, every secret combination in the Book of Mormon practices some form of deceit in order to find themselves on the top.
The most dangerous lie they tell is that the iniquities that they commit - the stealing, murdering, and robbing - are not wrong, but are normal. At times, as with the Gadianton Robbers, they even manage to convince the righteous to practice iniquities with them - to the detriment of the poor. As iniquities in society increase, so too does the power of secret combinations.
Another dangerous lie many secret combinations practice is priestcraft. King Noah and his priests, as well as the Order of Nehors and the Zoramites, are a few examples of secret combinations employing this strategy, where they lie about religion in order to deceive people into giving their money willingly, as well as providing justification for the inequality which results from the craft.
They Take Away Rights and Freedom
The only freedoms secret combinations care about is the freedom to commit iniquities and other wickedness. When in power they change the laws and social/religious rules which put limits on their economic wickedness, while on the other hand removing freedoms from ordinary citizens. Moroni warns in Ether 8:
25 For it cometh to pas that whoso buildeth [secret combinations] up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies...The freedom most targeted is the freedom of worship. This is because religion can be a very effective tool against iniquities and inequality, as well as an effective tool of galvanizing the government and people into hunting and destroying secret combinations.
We will discuss more about strategies to combat secret combinations and inequality later in the chapter on Solutions to Inequality.
They Murder
Murder is a constant tool used by secret combinations; used directly in order to more easily plunder and terrorize, or indirectly to facilitate political maneuvering. Laws are altered, and deceptions made, to make it easy for their members to murder and get away with these murders.
But there is a deeper connection that secret combinations have to murder. Between Helaman 6 and Ether 8 we learn that the first secret combination was between Satan and Cain, when Satan put the idea of murder into Cain's heart, and so he killed his brother Abel. Cain then became the master deceiver and murderer in order to get gain, or become rich. All secret combinations thereafter are built from Cain's plans and Satan's whisperings, and have murder at their heart.
But this verb 'murder' does not only refer to the act of Cain's violent slaying of his brother, but to any secret plan which leads to the deaths of human beings. Secret combinations also murder by stealing, plundering, and robbing - and thereby taking away life-giving resources from those in need. They murder by creating lies and priestcrafts which corrupt morality and government into justifying death and war in the pursuit of economic development.
Murder is at the soul of secret combinations, and death follows them wherever they go.
Consequences of Secret Combinations
There are several obvious consequences of secret combinations. Their attempts to become rich, and the spreading of iniquities throughout the land, causes serious economic inequality, and its concomitant pride and persecution of the poor. The inequality found during several Pride Cycles are caused by the activities of secret combinations, including Mosiah 11, Helaman 3,4,6, and 13, and 3 Nephi 6.
Any equality in justice is also lost when secret combinations become powerful, as laws and morality is eroded away to facilitate the quick generation of wealth for a few, and the many iniquities which accompany that process. Justice comes down hard on the poor, and their resources robbed, while the rich get away free because of their money.
If secret combinations and their iniquities become omnipresent then there is economic collapse. Helaman 13, Ether 14, and Mormon 1 each chronicle events of serious economic recession and collapse in association with the iniquities of secret combinations. In each case it is described that a 'curse' has come upon the land, where every treasure that is hidden up then disappears, and thieves infest the land. Then everyone becomes paranoid and poor. For example, Ether 14:
1 And now there began to be a great curse upon all the land because of the iniquity of the people, in which, if a man should lay his tool or is sword upon his shelf, or upon the place whither he would keep it, behold, upon the morrow, he could not find it, so great was the curse upon the land.
2 Wherefore every man did cleave unto that which was his own, with his hands, and would not borrow neither would he lend; and every man kept the hilt of his sword in his right hand, in the defense of his property and his own life and of his wives and children.The 'curse' in each of the chapters are the natural consequences of rampant dishonesty and the erosion of economic justice - cooperation and trust between people ends. When laws are eroded for the pursuit of riches, and wealth is robbed from the people, it dispels trust in the economic system and invites further dishonesty and theft. In a desperate attempt to survive economic chaos, people hide up their treasures instead of sharing them with those in need, but find later that these are lost anyways.
The treasures do not magically disappear, but are stolen - stolen likely by people who have been driven to desperation, and who have followed in the footsteps of the Gadianton Robbers in doing the only economic action which the law now facilitates - iniquity. All thoughts of justice, equality, and charity are thrown out the door as everyone then embraces the idiom 'every man for himself', and society devolves into desperation, selfishness, iniquity, and violence.
This article will continue with a special look at a particular secret combination, the Gadianton Robbers.
What Does the Book of Mormon Say About Inequality - Table of Contents
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