Give War a Chance: Moroni as a Peacemaker

      

 There are several exciting projects on which I'm working. This the introduction of my piece on Moroni as a peacemaker. I'm not quite sure where to submit it but I think its unique and incisive:  

        One of the major arguments from peace advocates against the use of force concerns the supposed “cycle of violence.” I first heard this sitting next to John Scott Graham who saw Gaza in the Book of Mormon.[1] In their book, Patrick Mason and David Pulsipher discussed how the constant warfare between the Nephites and Lamanites represent a cycle of violence.[2] While not using the exact phrase, Eugune England clearly expressed the idea when he discussed a nonviolent ethic that furthered peace and built trust instead of fueling the threat of war.[3] In one particularly ridiculous case, Connor Boyack conflated two different cliches to say, “cycle of blowback.”[4]

        The theory sounds attractive on its face. It says that in response to encroachment on boundaries, the violated side often responds with fear, anger, and selfishness which is then often expressed in violence. In turn, this leads to what philosopher Terry Warner called “mutually provocative collusion” in which both sides have narratives they tell themselves that justify an increasing cycle of violence against the other.[5] Both sides feel the others are the aggressor and they are the justified defender. Martin Luther King summarized the danger of escalatory violence when he said “the line between defensive violence and aggressive or retaliatory violence is a fine line indeed.”[6] The belief in retaliatory violence forms a core argument for reading of the Book of Mormon as a pacifist text that warns us about the reliance on force, and turns our attention away from the clear support in the text for military leaders like Moroni and instead turns our attention towards Ammon and his brethren that supposedly changed that narrative.

        Yet there is another path that shows how Moroni’s military success in Alma 43 and 44 led to the Lamanite desire for peace in Alma 47:2. It wasn’t the preaching of the word and turning away from the supposed cycle of violence that secured peace. Moroni’s righteous desire to protect his people and inspiration from the Lord led to his decisive victory in battle. That victory was so decisive that he made the murderous dissenters like Zarahemnah depart with an oath of peace (Alma 44:20), and it made many other Lamanites reconsider their murderous ideology to the point that they refused the next call to war (Alma 43:53-54; Alma 47:2). This lesson suggests we should reject interpretations based on theories about the cycle of violence and Ammon’s missionary service and instead give war a chance by considering how Moroni’s battlefield victories created peace.[7]

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[1] John Stott Graham, “Reading Gaza in the Book of Mormon?”, War and Peace in Our Time: Mormon Perspectives? Claremont Graduate University March 18-19, 2011.

[2] Patrick Mason and David Pulsipher, Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Answer to an Age of Conflict, Maxwell Institute, Deseret Book, 2021),74-80.

[3] Eugune England, “A Case For Mormon Christian Pacifism.” In Wielding the Sword While Proclaiming Peace: Views from the LDS Community on Reconciling the Demands of National Security with the Imperatives of Revealed Truth, Kerry Kartchner and Valerie Hudson eds.,166-167 (163-168).

[4] Connor Boyack, Sunday Musings, October 15^th, 2023, 11:30. https://youtu.be/dXw9KjOpUFI?si=6-NaEwd1meXQeWwh&t=690 at 7:53 it should be noted he also used the anti-Semitic slur, “pound of flesh.”

[5] Terry Warner, “The Path to Peace is a Peaceful Path,’ lecture delivered at “Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Peace is Possible.” 26^th Annual Conference of the LDS International Society, April 6^th, 2015, BYU, Provo, Utah.

[6] Martin Luther King Jr., “Nonviolence: The Only Road to Freedom,” in I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches that Changed the World, ed. James Melvin Washington (San Francisco: Harper Press, 1992), 130.

[7] I recognize Ammon travelled with a group of missionaries, but for ease of reference I will only refer to Ammon.