Systematic Inequality in the Book of Mormon and Today

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.
Table of Contents

The historical narrative of the Book of Mormon contains a powerful message about the dangers of economic inequality, and also has many similarities to patterns of inequality today.  This article will be focused on the ideologies and organizations of the book and today that orchestrate and create inequality, and a comparison of the two can offer new ways of looking at the present.

This article will apply principles from these previous articles:
Priestcraft
Secret Combinations
Secret Combinations - Gadianton Robbers
Dissension and War

Also, in Beginning to Apply the Historical Narrative I offer a short note on my philosophy in making applications of the Book of Mormon which may be helpful.

Priestcraft - Ideologies Which Create and Sustain Inequality

In the Book of Mormon, it is priestcrafts that serve as the ideological underpinnings of inequality.

In practice, priestcrafts are methods for a few to become rich, famous, and/or powerful by deceiving and stealing from the masses through taking advantage of, or manipulating, Gospel principles.  This is done directly by deceiving people into giving money to practitioners of priestcraft, and indirectly by convincing the people that there was nothing wrong with inequality, and that the poor deserved their fate, thereby eliminating the need of the wealthy to meet the needs of the poor.

The religion of the Book of Mormon counteracts priestcrafts by preaching an ethic of equality; the government of the book counteracts priestcrafts by creating laws against deceiving people, stealing, etc., although they maintained laws which protected the freedom of belief.

There are many similarities between Book of Mormon priestcraft, and ideologies and strategies today.  What do you think of using this Book of Mormon terminology to describe these ideologies and practices today?

• Today many religious practitioners have turned their churches into effective money-making schemes, sometimes called "mega churches", and other times just called schemes.  These schemes are priestcraft because they inequality by massively redistributing money from the masses, to a megalomaniac few, and use the Gospel of Jesus Christ to do so.  I think that most would agree this is priestcraft at its finest.

• It is a common practice among politicians today to flaunt their religiosity in an attempt to be voted into office, and thereby profiting directly from the Gospel.  Some politicians appear to be genuine, but a frightening number come under criminal investigation for their business practices, or "iniquities", while others in is revealed that their purported "family values" only apply outside of their own family, as they come to apologize for their affairs, drug use, etc.  Regardless of whether the politicians religiosity is genuine or not, this practice falls under the category of priestcraft; the revelation that the religiosity was not genuine simply adds an extra level of egregiousness.  

• In the Book of Mormon, all cultural beliefs fell under the umbrella of religion - there appears to be nothing similar to our modern concept of a division between religious and secular knowledge.  With this in mind, perhaps priestcraft can also apply to taking advantage of cultural beliefs, that may or may not be religious in nature.  What do you think about these potential priestcrafts?
• Politicians who capitalize on common beliefs, or popular rhetoric, in order to become elected, when the rhetoric is known to be untrue, or when the politician has no intention of acting according to the rhetoric
• Business practices which capitalize on existing cultural attitudes of what is good, right, or desirable, in order to increase sales, especially if there is a measure of deceit involved.  For example, taking advantage of body image, holidays, desire for education, family values, etc.  I suggest that deceit is a requirement to be a priestcraft, but do you think there is an argument for any profiting off of cultural ideas being considered a form of priestcraft?  Why and why not?
• Deceitful business schemes, especially pyramid schemes (particularly those which employ religious or moral messages to encourage their workers)

•  In addition to directly causing inequality, priestcrafts are popular among the rich because they are designed to eliminate the requirement to help the poor; this is done by justifying inequality and vilifying the poor.  Consider these modern examples of the same process, and let me know what you think of calling them 'priestcraft':
• Economic philosophies which claim that inequality is necessary and good; or that claim greed is a good thing.  "Trickle-down" economics (which could be included in the schemes above), or any philosophy that sees widening economic inequality as natural, normal, or a necessary method for economic growth.
• The exaggeration of the sins which the poor are more likely to commit, while de-emphasizing the sins which the rich are more likely to commit.  For example, having high punishments for drug use, but no punishment for white-collar crimes, ie iniquities. 
• Pointing out the sins of the poor, but obscuring the same sins in others; and demanding a higher level of morality from the poor than others for them to be deemed worthy of economic assistance.  For example, many religious charities will require their beneficiaries to prove some measure of self-reliance, or to work for their benefits, while their is no expectation for wealthy church members to demonstrate qualities of self-reliance.
• The Prosperity Gospel - a modern Christian concept which claims that God rewards people with wealth according to their righteousness, concluding that the poor are in their poverty because of their degenerate natures.  Connected with this thought process is the idea that inequality is merit based, and one can pull oneself out of poverty simply by working harder, or being a better person.  (we will cover this very non-Book of Mormon prosperity theology in detail in the next sub-series)
• Philosophies and attitudes which suggest an injustice has occurred when assistance is given to those in need when such assistance was not given to everyone.  Read the article on envy if you haven't already for more on this.
• Any philosophy which attempts to erode the moral, religious, and civil necessity to assist the poor by suggesting that the poor have deserved their fate

Secret Combinations, Dissension, and War

As was mentioned above, at times the inequality in the Book of Mormon is orchestrated by groups of people driven by greed; these groups are referred to as secret combinations.

Secret Combinations steal (direct taking of resources) and rob (indirect withholding of resources), murder, deceive and manipulate, and commit all manner of other iniquities in order to enrich their own members.  Their primary foe is the government and laws of the people, which stands as a bulwark against iniquities and inequality.

When the government fails to stop the largest secret combination, the Gadianton Robbers, the robbers take control of the government with their money and murders.  They then persecute the poor, dissolve any equity in justice, convince even the righteous with their priestcrafts that their iniquities are not evil, and eliminate governmental regulations and laws which limit iniquities.  All of these things cause economic inequality to skyrocket.

When secret combinations fail to alter the laws and minds of the people, they dissent from the religion and government of the Nephites.  They then convince the Lamanites to go to war with the Nephites in order to destroy the government and religion which punished their iniquities, and limited their wealth.  Most of the wars in the Book of Mormon then are between those who want the freedom to commit iniquities and become rich, and those who have constructed as society to limit those very freedoms.

With these paragraphs in mind, let's consider similar items today:

• Today, economic and cultural theories alike all vary on their explanation of why inequality occurs.  Like the Book of Mormon, many of these theories are priestcrafts designed to misdirect the populace from the real culprits of inequality - powerful, and often secret, interest groups who exert their economic and political power to ensure that their few members benefit over the rest of the populace.

• In the Book of Mormon, it is secret combinations and dissenters - the bad guys - who are anti-government, anti-laws, and anti-regulations, and who persecute the poor.  There is a lot of praise in our culture for anti government and anti regulation philosophies, especially in my home state of Utah.  If we were to compare history today to the Book of Mormon, then the anti-government rhetoric would be priestcrafts designed by secret combinations.

• "Secret Combination" is a general term used to describe any group unified by greed, although the strategies and characteristics of each group differ throughout the book.  What do you think of the following list being considered modern secret combinations?
• Special interest groups, corporations, political groups, etc. who are willing and able to pay millions of dollars to ensure that public policies are enacted which economically benefit them over the rest of the populace
• Criminal, drug, and terrorist organizations - the mafia, drug cartels, ISIS, dictatorships and their cronies, etc.
• Corporations, businesses, and any 'for profit' organization which steals, robs, and withholds resources from their customers in an attempt to enrich their shareholders.  Which "commit secret murders" by knowingly allowing products and biproducts damage public health, or by robbing people of needed life-sustaining resources.

•  Although there are religious elements in the wars of the Book of Mormon, it is clear that the cause of war in the book is money, iniquity, and greed, with the conflict ultimately divided between those who wish to freely commit iniquities on one side, and equality, morality, and laws on the other.  Modern warfare is similar - it is caused by greed and economics, by a few attempting to wrest economic power from the many.

So what do you think of these possible examples of priestcrafts and secret combinations?