A reflection on violence and death as punishment within scripture
“The Book of Mormon records the destruction of individuals and societies that embraced wickedness and allowed secret combinations to exist. At the same time, the Book of Mormon also teaches that we can live righteously despite living in a wicked environment.” – LDS Book of Mormon Study Manual Lesson 25
Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash
As soon as our babies are old enough to sit in a little chair we teach them to fold their arms and walk reverently to the LDS primary room for spiritual nourishment. There, our children learn songs about Heavenly Father and how to live their lives so that they may return to live with Him and their earthly families again someday. We learn specific ways to live in order to reach that goal. We must be baptized and participate in additional living ordinances. We must live by our Articles of Faith and protect our testimonies. We must not be deceived and descend into wickedness.
I was one of those kids who listened intently early on, always ready to raise my hand and always eager for my turn to give a talk or say the prayer. I’d actively try to make things easier for the teachers. Because I listened so intently, I was very aware of the violence thrust upon the wicked and, yes, it did deter me from wanting to sin and made me quick to repent when I did.
Like many children raised with Christian beliefs, the first story I remember learning is the one about Noah’s flood. In primary, a chorus of children’s voices sing “Noah was a prophet called to preach the word, tried to cry repentance but nobody heard. They were busy sinning – Noah preached in vain. They wished they had listened when they saw the rain.” I remember singing this verse with particular gusto, those people sinning “got their comeuppance” and I didn’t feel sad for them. After all, no one mourns the wicked. It genuinely was decades before my brain started asking questions like “were there no pregnant people on the earth at that time? Were the toddlers already wicked? How?” Those questions bothered me, but nobody talked about it. The earth started over again with Noah’s family and that was that.
At ages 3 through 12 the felt fabric story pieces and illustrations used to teach me exposed me to violence. Sometimes even costumes were provided so we could act out the scripture stories. I learned about Nephi cutting off the head of Laban and putting on his clothes to trick guards. I learned the story of Ammon who chopped off the arms of robbers which were then carried and laid at the King’s feet (Alma 17:33-39). In every example of wicked people being killed I felt the satisfaction of justice for the Lord because I was on the Lord’s side and anyone who wasn’t was an enemy.
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
Now is the time to show.
We ask it fearlessly:
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
We wage no common war,
Cope with no common foe.
The enemy’s awake;
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
(Lyrics to “Who’s on the Lord’s side”)
As an adult, I loved teaching primary. I loved my students and loved teaching them the gospel. I never wanted them to go hide in the mother’s lounge to avoid class like I had sometimes done in my last years of primary. I glossed over the stories that included violence by justifying it; yes, Lot’s wife got turned to a pillar of salt for looking back at the city being destroyed and yeah that may seem a bit harsh but really, what did she expect when being disobedient? We are taught that the first law of heaven is obedience so it makes sense that the punishment would be extreme, right?
Practically every person reading this has probably experienced social media posts that turn into major disagreements. I was a part of one that started off by me responding to a post by a ward member asking if the new Jurassic World movie was appropriate for kids. I commented that I thought it was fine to bring kids to. I explained that there was one part that could be scary because a person gets swallowed by a pterodactyl but that my 6 year old had laughed during this scene of the movie. I got a quick reply questioning what kind of parent I must be to have raised a child who would laugh at someone being eaten by a pterodactyl. They questioned my parenting and my child’s adjustment. I felt so angry.
Once the anger from having my parenting skills questioned eased, I began to take a mental inventory of my child’s exposure to violence. I thought about the TV shows that my child watched with me and in family settings and felt/feel extremely guilty for introducing violence into their growing mind. My inventory started within my home and expanded outward. As it expanded outward the exposure to violence grew. I suddenly looked at the scripture cartoons differently. I saw the gospel art kit with a fresh set of eyes. The pictures I’d grown up with of the crucifixion, the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, his tarring and feathering in graphic detail, the attempted sacrifice of Isaac, the severed arms of robbers, the destruction of Zarahemla, and King Solomon threatening to cut a baby in half now seemed gratuitously graphic. The rape, torture, murder, and eating of Lamanite women in Moroni Chapter 9 immediately came to mind when I was mentally cataloging violent scriptures.
“… after depriving [the daughters] of that which was most dear and precious above all things, which is chastity and virtue. … they did murder them in a most cruel manner, torturing their bodies even unto death; and after they have done this, they devour their flesh like unto wild beasts.” (Moroni 9:9-10)
My entire world view was challenged during my mental inventory of exposure to violence. My eagerness for the Second Coming and its corresponding destruction of the wicked suddenly felt yucky. I questioned my tolerance and justification for violence. When I tried to rewatch a movie I had enjoyed as a teenager (Reservoir Dogs,) I almost puked. Something was not the same, something had changed within me. I feel sorrow for feeling no sympathy about the “righteous” destruction of human beings prior to my mindset being challenged. I think it was unfair and cruel of me to have assumed everyone affected by violence in our scriptures and our world deserved it or was necessary collateral in the battle for righteousness. I don’t understand why I just accepted violence as a normal consequence for so long even though I understand that I was taught to embrace it as a natural consequence for breaking the Lord’s commandments. When I learned about the early Church’s use of blood oaths and blood atonement (a question that was asked of Utah jurors in death penalty cases up until 1994), it didn’t bother me. In fact, it made sense to me.
Now in my late forties, I look at the conflicts in our country and around our globe and recognize a thirst for violence. I hear people in my country speak of another civil war as an inevitability. People use the phrase “culture wars” and I have to wonder if it’s to create distance from the very real human beings whose lives are at stake during a time of record breaking number of hate crimes. I wonder if people confuse their own religious commitment to the Lord with their obligation to let others live according to the dictates of their own conscience.
We are religiously primed to dehumanize people we see as wicked. We listen to prophets describe those who have descended into wickedness with phrases like “poisoned wells, dead trees, bitter fruit, Sons of Perdition, etc.” When drawing the map of the Plan of Salvation on church chalkboards we draw a line that shows a separate destination for the wicked and we label it “Outer Darkness.” Perhaps it’s time to question why we see them as “wicked” and to question why we teach children to look forward to the glorious day of Christ’s return when “the proud and wicked will be burned as stubble.”
When we’re separating wheat from tares, when we’re burning the vineyard, when we’re flooding the earth, we are teaching children that the horrific deaths of fellow humans is acceptable, and even worthy of celebration, because they are not righteous like us, they’re “wicked”. An omnipotent God doesn’t need humans who are prone to bias and tribalism to mete out His will or to cheer on His punishments as good news. He certainly doesn’t need us to condemn parents for taking their kids to story time led by a person with big hair and extravagant make-up while we take ours to hear about murder (but for good reasons, right?)
What are your earliest memories of violence within scripture/church instruction? How have you navigated violence in scripture for yourself or with your children? We’d love to hear from you: https://exponentii.org/submit-a-guest-post/
16 Responses
This is so thought provoking. Thank you!
One thing that came to my mind when I was reading this was that when my kids were little it seemed like church movies were the movies they watched with the most questionable content. We watched the Joseph Smith movie when my kids were pre-school/toddler aged and they were scared of so much of the movie. Like what 3 year old wants to see Joseph Smith pulled out of his house while his baby is left crying. Same with Legacy. I didn’t even dare show them some depictions of the crucifixion.
Church adjacent movies weren’t much better. When my kids were in early elementary school we tried watching The Other Side of Heaven and I nearly had to turn it off when one character propositions the missionary by taking off her dress. Later another female character is lead to the bedroom of the ship captain. A few years later we tried to watch some movie about the Willie and Martin Handcart companies. It started out with implied cannibalism in the Donner Party. So yeah we gave up on watching “church movies” and never really went back.
I’ve been grappling with the violence in scripture too. As a kid I love the story of the people of Ammonihah. In that story it’s the righteous people who are burned by fire because of their testimonies. As a kid I totally bought the part where they are saved in heaven, but now I’m just deeply disturbed by the whole thing.
I also remember a younger version of me who was much more okay with violence, particularly violence in service of a Cause. It really wasn’t until I grew older and learned from the experiences of many people who weren’t like me that I learned that wow, there’s a lot of background violence in our lives and stories that we are generally just… okay with. I won’t say I’m uncomfortable with all depictions of violence, but I’m much less comfortable with a lot more violence than I used to be. I don’t try and hide it from my children, however. My husband’s inclination initially was to handwave such things away, whether in the news or in stories we read. But I’d rather talk them through it, help them understand why violence is abhorrent, and that people still choose or are forced to engage with it sometimes. Neither of us manage it perfectly, I think, and we haven’t really discussed violence in scriptures very much yet. But with the Come Follow Me curriculum coming up this next year, and our daughter being old enough that these things won’t necessarily go over her head, I’m sure such discussions are coming.
Thank you so much for writing on this topic. I too have become very disturbed by how we handwave the violence of the scriptures and justify it as ok.. My oldest daughter who is 9 has already been asking some very probing questions about why things are the way they are in our church and scriptures. I’ve long gotten out of trying to apologize for the scriptures and God. I get really tired of orthodox explanations as to why violence is ok–as if God, supposedly omnipotent and omniscient, has only one recourse when people choose wickedness–to destroy them. Come on! Surely the person who created the universe in all its diversity is capable of thinking outside the box a little more when it comes to this. I mean in 3 Ne 9, you supposedly have God justifying all the destruction of people, yet two chapters later you have Jesus coming, healing and blessing people which just by him being there changes their hearts because of his love. Why not take that second option more? Not only does it spare people, but it changes them for the better. Is that not the real goal of all this?
This is one reason why I haven’t gone to Sunday School—the judginess of some members and some who came right out questioning my parenting over comments I made.
I fear the problem now is not so much us living in a wicked society but rather how many in our country and yes, the church have embraced a man that is the very antithesis of what Christ taught. That feel God chooses this individual to lead our country. The scripture Matthew 7:16 comes to mind: By their fruits ye shall know them. It’s been sad and frustrating to see what has happened.
It was very interesting reading the Book of Mormon with my adult children. At one point we had a deep discussion about Mormon. He was a military leader from a young age and clearly admired the military leaders in the books of Alma and Helaman, but also felt that the story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis was very important: a group of people who shunned all violence and would no longer fight. Was Mormon for or against violence? We felt he thought it was necessary, but not desired. I personally felt he wished he could be like the Anti-Nephi-Lehis and just … stop.
Thank you for your thoughts, eloquence, and details. I, too, have shifted so much in my tolerance of violence as I have aged and learned, especially religious-justified violence. I cannot watch many shows I used to love, I skip portions of books or give up on them, I no longer sing the “war” hymns in church, I mourn for the people in all the scripture stories you mentioned above (and skip many/most of those readings)…I just can’t unsee all the associated grief and sorrow.
“An omnipotent God doesn’t need humans who are prone to bias and tribalism TO METE OUT HIS WILL or to cheer on His punishments as good news.” – my emphasis – This is a whole line of thought for me that would be a really long comment, so maybe I’ll just submit it as a guest post. HA! What got me to turn the corner was seeing a post by a really lovely and kind and gentle woman that was quoting Sheri Dew (presumably also lovely and kind and gentle), something about women being the Lord’s secret weapon. It hit a nerve – why am I a WEAPON?!?! And it went on from there, so now I no longer sing war songs in sacrament meeting, I refuse to use terminology like “the Lord’s battalion,” and I’m completely turned off by attitudes and statements in church along those lines. My testimony of loving Heavenly Parents and a kind Savior (who also has a exceptionally gruesome story) does not align with concepts and sentiments about violence and punishment AT ALL.
Here’s violence that really hit me hard this year (and I’m 52, so when realization hits, it hits!): how do you explain Christ’s paternity, if we believe that he is literally the son of God? Anyway the story of the virgin birth is told, there is non-consent. If it happened the way Bruce R McConkie surmised, we can go head and call it rape. Even if you don’t want to imagine a physical exchange, pregnancy was forced on a young woman. There’s so much to unpack here. And it’s not easy. Do I believe in Christ? Yes. Do I believe in the impact conception? No. I’m still grappling with what all of this means to me, personally. But I can no longer ignore the violence inherent in the Christmas story. It matters.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. I made a lot of enemies last year when I posted “Mary did not consent” on a Christmas time post on social media. But it’s true, at the very most generous interpretation we’d say coercive manipulation which is still rape. It isn’t called out enough.
Allie, I feel this too. It was statutory rape, at least. She was told what was going to happen and she said ‘okay’, but can you really say ‘no’ to an all powerful god who can damn you to hell for eternity? I’d love it if you wrote a guest post. Our community needs this conversation.
https://exponentii.org/submit-a-guest-post/
Also, I think you’d appreciate the Facebook account ‘Kaitlin Shetler Poetry’. She wrote ‘Sometimes I Wonder’ as she was deconstructing teachings from the Church of Christ.
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=952311223425794&set=a.491930792797175
Her latest poem, ‘Mary and Bright’ talks about consent as it applies to Mary.
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=953417956648454&set=a.491930792797175
All of this! The writer of the article and all of these thoughtful responses are so outstanding. I just had an email pop in that shared the next RS lesson. It’ll be based on Oaks’ talk in conference about “Avoiding Contention.” I will be avoiding the class. There is so much complacency in the church about avoiding speaking up and speaking out because the brethren are apparently too delicate to handle it. As a church, we are so off-track of Christ’s teachings. Our church is a church that has fully embraced violence as necessary. One GA even spoke one time about being in a meeting with Japanese and German priesthood leaders, and how he’d commented about WWII being the necessary catalyst to more fully open all of these countries for the spreading of the gospel. But hey, nothing says Prince of Peace like a world war.
As a pre-teen in the late 2000s I was taught about the blood atonement AS CURRENT DOCTRINE in Sunday School. I remember thinking it sounded extreme and harsh, but I just kind of thought, “Guess I won’t murder then.” It was only years later as an adult that I thought, “Wait. What?!?!” So that was fun to unpack.
Sometimes having a lay ministry is cool, but the shadow side sometimes means 12 year olds are taught explicitly that some sins require blood to stone for them….
*atone
Watching the 2014 movie Hollywood depiction, Noah, changed my view of Christian-sanctioned violence in scripture. Maybe that was the point of the movie? Idk. But it was ghastly and shocking to see that kind of human to human and god to human violence. Didn’t read or see the scriptures the same after that. If we have a Creator, we by would They want to tortue and destroy Their children? If my children make poor decisions, I work to heal our relationship not destroy it. No logical sense in violence in the scriptures.
*why would They
We have been extremely careful in not having violent media in our house. My 7 year old has only recently seen Incredibles and honestly, while we were watching it I regretted it. I feel that my kids are already living in a reality of violence. They practice at school what to do if a person comes on and starts shooting. When we started reading the Book of Mormon this year, I just skipped the violent parts. I didn’t have an explanation for why this was justified because it didn’t seem justified to me. I truly don’t know how we right these wrongs. There was a formal BYU professor on the Follow Him. Podcast that talked about the story where all the women and children are burned and she said it’s important to witness and sit with the uncomfortableness of that because it is real and happens in our world. She talked about the importance of women and children and how genocide always starts there and it was such a good episode because for once it wasn’t like- they get heaven- it was- this is horrific.