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[This is an abstract for a paper I proposed to the Society for Military History and their theme of transformative warfare.]
The Book of Mormon primarily serves as a spiritual witness in the
religious realm. But almost one third of the book is devoted to warfare. Some sociologists have also described Mormonism
as a new world religion.[1] Yet the book, particularly its military
passages, remains woefully understudied.[2] At least in part this is due to the enormous
spiritual baggage and bitter polemic debates that accompany the book. But new research, such as that by Grant
Hardy, has tried to bracket the claims of its truthfulness to better understand
the complexity, beauty, and message of the text.[3]
In particular, the Book of Mormon contains a dense series
of chapters that follow a great war between the two principle groups, the
Nephites and Lamanites. Both groups descended from two brothers, Nephi and
Laman, who left Jerusalem around 600 B.C. [4]
After journeying to the new world they split into two groups that frequently
warred with each other until the Nephites were destroyed in the 4th
century A.D. Living in the first century B.C., Moroni is described as leading
the Nephites during a 14 year long period of intense conflict covered in a
dense narrative section called the “war chapters.” His actions included creating
a standard of liberty to rally his people, giving powerful political religious
speeches that increased support for the war, merciful treatment of surrounded and
surrendered soldiers, many outstanding battlefield victories, brilliant
strategy and pre battle tactical maneuvers, and a respect for the rule of law.
But his actions also included things that are not as sterling or had unintended
consequences. This included the use of
preemptive warfare, increased use of (expensive) armor for his soldiers, increased
use of fortifications, an expansion of the size of armies, execution of
defectors, aggressive pursuit of decisive battle, a completely
counterproductive negotiating strategy, using rhetoric that threatened a war of
extermination against his enemies, and a threatened coup against the
government.
A careful reading of the war
chapters suggests that Moroni initiated a series of actions that inaugurated an
imperial period within the book, led to their eventual destruction as a
political entity, and can be used by modern readers to justify an aggressive
and interventionist American foreign policy. Examining the unintended
consequences suggests a need for added caution in considering the merits of
military action. A relatively short time before Moroni assumed military
command, King Benjamin served as a “yeoman” ruler who boasted that he farmed
with his own hand.[5]
The Nephites ruled a relatively small area around their capital and had a
single army. Yet a generation later, the Nephite people led by Moroni
preemptively seized land during a time of peace, and preemptively sought to
attack an enemy leader. Moroni changed
their armor and fortifications that made their military more effective in the
short term, but more expensive to maintain in the long run. The Nephites also
fielded multiple armies capable of operating in different theatres with Moroni
as the chief captain. The necessary tax base to fund the armor and
fortifications required more extensive territory, protection of trade routes
and a larger military; these actions led to deeper debts and an overextension
of their military. Even though the Nephite armies explicitly fought under a
banner of liberty, they faced continued political unrest, increasing social
stratification, oppression of the poor, and a growing insurgency they had
trouble subduing.
Battlefield losses often inspire
great soul searching and political, military, and cultural reform, while
winning a war brings a whole new set of problems. From Rome to Britain, to American policy
after World War II, the burden of hegemonic leadership is often assumed vigorously
after outstanding military victory, but often unravels from within due to the
demands of money and men and a slow decay of society’s ability, and desire, to
furnish them. The Book of Mormon is a
uniquely American text,[6]
from a uniquely American religion that informs the voting habits of millions of
Americans. Thus a study of the war
chapters suggests that Moroni initiated a series of actions that inaugurated an
imperial period within the book, and can be used to justify an aggressive and
interventionist American foreign policy, while at the same time shows a
transformation that has been missed by military historians.
[1] Rodney
Stark, The Rise of Mormonism (New
York: Columbia University Press, 2005).
[2] Stephen
D. Ricks, William Hamblin Eds. Warfare in
the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS Press 2001), is
the only academically substantive book dedicated to warfare in the Book of
Mormon. Patrick Mason, David Pulispher,
Richard Bushman, ed. War and Peace in Our
Time: Mormon Perspectives (Draper UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2012), is a more
recent addition but it has very few chapters on the Book of Mormon and only one
from a military historian.
[3] Grant
Hardy, Understanding The Book of Mormon:
A Reader’s Guide (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).
[4]
Bracketing truth claims I can either report the dates and actions of the
characters with the Book of Mormon faithfully, or add a “supposedly” or
“reportedly” in front of every fact in the book. For the sake of brevity I will simply report
what the book said. Serious skeptics and non believers of the book can feel
free to add those qualifiers and keep in mind that the entire volume is a
fantasy fiction of Joseph Smith.
[5] Scott,
G. St. John. “King Benjamin and the Yeoman Farmer” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 39 (1988), 1-26.
[6] This
is due to its focus on at least some part of North or South America being type
of “promised land” similar to the land of Israel described in the Bible.
