An Unconventional Inquiry: Consequences of Pride Cycles and Inequality

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

In the last article I pointed out that the primary feature of 'Pride Cycles' in the Book of Mormon is not actually pride - at least not in the sense that we use the word today - but the primary features are that wealth is distributed unequally among the people, and then that the poor are persecuted by the rich. Pride is the emotion that allows all this to be possible.

These features are described as 'iniquity' and 'abomination' in the Book of Mormon, and can lead to some serious consequences, which we will look at in more detail here.

Wealth Inequality Can Lead to other Forms of Inequality

As wealth grants opportunities and capabilities, a sharp divide between the rich and the poor can also cause other forms of iniquity. Every instance of inequality and the 'pride cycle' in the Book of Mormon likely resulted in other forms of inequality - but the Book of Mormon specifically mentions two instances:

Helaman 6-7 - Inequality in Justice

In Helaman 6, a secret combination called the Gadianton Robbers creates inequality through stealing, robbing, deceiving, and taking control of the political process.

In Helaman 6:39 they obtain the "sole management of the government" and use that power to immediately "trample under their feet and smite and rend and turn their backs upon the poor and the meek".

Once their economic and political power is established, then in Helaman 7 justice is no longer equal among the people.

4 And seeing the people in a state of such awful wickedness, and those Gadianton robbers filling the judgment-seats - having usurped the power and authority of the land ...

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 -

6 Now this great iniquity had come upon the Nephites, in the space of not many years...

3 Nephi 6 - Inequality in Education

After decades of a successful church and government, both collapse after a particularly nasty episode of inequality. In this instance, wealth inequality translates to inequality in access to education:

12 And the people began to be distinguished by ranks, according to their riches and their chances for learning; yea, some were ignorant because of their poverty, and others did receive great learning because of their riches.

13 Some were lifted up in pride, and others were exceedingly humble; some did return railing for railing, while others would receive railing and persecution and all manner of afflictions...

14 And thus there became a great inequality in all the land, insomuch that the church began to be broken up...

15 Now the cause of this iniquity of the people was this - Satan had great power, unto the stirring up of the people to do all manner of iniquity, and to the puffing them up with pride, tempting them to seek for power, and authority and riches, and the vain things of the world.

In the following article, the iniquity of the people - especially the acts of the Gadianton Robbers - destroys the government of the land. It is sad because the religion and the government of the people survives wars, dissensions, and unrighteousness, but does not endure inequality.

Wealth Inequality Leads to 'Strife', 'Contentions', 'Malice', and 'Envyings'

Coinciding with inequality, the historical narrative of the Book of Mormon frequently lists strife, contentions, malice, and envyings among the people. For example:

Alma 4:9 And thus, in this eighth year of the reign of the judges, there began to be great contentions among the people of the church; yea, there were envyings, and strife, and malice, and persecutions, and pride, even to exceed the pride of those who did not belong to the church of God.

Strife, contentions, and malice erupt during pride cycles for three reasons.

First, they are a response to persecutions - including railing, defaming, and withholding resources from the poor. As presented in the last post, the persecutions are initiated by the rich who are motivated by a desire to keep their wealth, rather than share to correct inequities.

At times the poor humbly accept the persecutions, and at other times they return the persecutions in kind, which would lead to the strife and contentions mentioned.

Second, the inequality in each pride cycle is not always natural - it is often orchestrated by the iniquities and actions of those who end up rich. This is especially true once priestcrafts and secret combinations enter the picture. Seeing inequality caused by evil actions could understandably generate strife, contentions, malice, and envy.

Finally, even without persecution and iniquity, inequality is uncomfortable - for the poor and the rich alike - and it is understandable that social problems, envy, and misunderstandings could easily develop.

However, when the Nephites follow their religious injunctions to share their resources then these feelings do not seem to develop.

If the reverse occurs, where religious beliefs are formed to justify inequality, and vilify the poor to make denying resources easier, then strife, malice, and even war is multiplied. This formation of beliefs to justify inequality are called priestcrafts in the Book of Mormon.

Not often, but occasionally the Book of Mormon will mention envy, or 'envyings', as part of the pride cycle, without details as to what is implied. If we use a modern definition of envy I think we will come to misunderstand the Book of Mormon message. To address this I have made a supplemental post on envy:

A Note on Envy

Wealth Inequality Leads to Iniquities and Other Types of Wickedness

Inequality in the Book of Mormon is only occasionally natural, and is never described as caused by the poor, but is often described as caused by the iniquities of those who act to become rich. As you will see in later posts, the priestcrafts and secret combinations of the minority often derail the religious, cultural, and legal elements of the majority which limit and mitigate economic iniquities.

What this means is that when inequality is caused by iniquity it causes more people to commit iniquities. When cultural, legal, and religious barriers are gone, iniquities become commonplace.

All people, poor and wealthy alike, will begin stealing, robbing, lying, and plundering - emulating the behavior of the rich which initiated the social unrest, although such emulation never actually leads to the accumulation of wealth like the initiators of the wickedness. People even come to support the ideologies that create and support the iniquity and inequality in the form of priestcrafts.

Behaviors that we would normally consider on-economic in nature, like infidelity, also skyrockets once economic inequality arises. Sometimes it is clear why this is the case, for example Jacob 2 and Mosiah 11 where the rich take extra wives and concubines for themselves in order to show off their riches and their pride.

At other times it is unclear why the people are more likely to commit adultery, whoredoms, or other wickedness. Perhaps the erosion of economic morality and laws through organized iniquity, and the discouraging fall out among all the people, simply causes the righteous to abandon family values and morality.

Religious and Civil Leaders Act to Reverse Pride Cycles

Each pride cycles invokes some response from religious and civil leaders, or in some cases God himself. It is important to note that while the people in the Book of Mormon display many types of wickedness, it is always economic wickedness as a whole which elicits a response from religious, civil, and heavenly leaders.

We will devote an entire chapter on the responses of religious and civil leaders to inequality later. But I will give an introduction here.

The church and government of the Nephites were both formed in response to greed, iniquity, and inequality, especially in the form of iniquitous kings.

The religion was established to warn the people of the social and spiritual dangers of iniquity. The church directly addressed inequality by requiring believers (Mosiah 4:26) to impart their resources to the poor according to their needs and wants (Mosiah 18:29), that the poor might also be rich (Jacob 2:17), regardless of the circumstance of the poverty (Mosiah 4:16-19). The church also mitigated the effects of inequality by addressing strife, contentions, and envy (Alma 16:18), and teaching a powerful ethic of equality (Alma 1:26-30).

The government fought inequality by establishing laws promoting "equity and justice" (Helaman 3:20, 3 Nephi 6:4). These laws prohibited lying, stealing, robbing, plundering, murdering, and deceiving in business (Alma 1:16-18), providing harsh punishments for such crimes. The government also outlawed priestcrafts and secret combinations, and acted to eliminate such groups, especially the Order of Nehors and the Gadianton Robbers. During periods of inequality, new laws were established to address the problems (Helaman 3:20, 3 Nephi 6:4).