There is no One True Way*
Apr. 4th, 2011 05:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bladesparkI couldn't sleep, and something started running through my mind that had a bit of that inspiration and hopefully also a bit of the uplifting feeling that I was lacking earlier today. I thought I might as well write it down.
I'd like to share a story from the Book of Mormon. I'm going to summarize it, and put it into my own terms, it's a long and complicated story, and not all of it has much bearing on the point I'd like to make. You can read the whole thing if you like in The Book of Mormon, in Alma, chapters 17-28 (I said it was long!)
The story starts with two cultures, the Nephites and the Lamanites. Their relationship varies throughout the thousand year history of the book, but at this point they are bitter enemies. The kind of bitter emnity that only happens between those who were once brothers, as Nephi and Laman once were. Now their descendants hate each other. But the Nephites are, at this period at least, somewhat the better people. They are a military nation, but they are focused on defense, seeking mostly to keep from being overrun by their more numerous enemies. The Lamanites are more aggressive, and it's quite possible they only failed to conquer the Nephites at this point because their love of bloodshed caused them to fight amongst themselves as much as with their enemies. The Nephites were also Christian. The Lamanites were not.
Enter Ammon. Ammon was a Nephite who converted a Lamanite king to Christianity. And this prompted the conversion of many of the king's people, as is not uncommon in history. But this king and his people, in the process of their conversion, became horrified at what they had been and what they had done. They ceremonially buried their weapons and declared themselves pacifists. They would lie down and die rather than raise a hand in self-defense. And many of them did die, because the unconverted Lamanites considered them traitors, collaborators with the hated enemy, and very much deserving of death. Eventually they were forced to flee the Lamanite lands or be completely wiped out.
The Nephites welcomed them with open arms, gave them land to settle in, and defended them when the Lamanties tried to invade those new lands and kill them all. The Nephites called them the People of Ammon, and considered them brothers, and eventually the two groups became pretty much one nation, with little difference between them.
The Book of Mormon calls the Nephites at this period a righteous people. The Ammonites also, are called righteous. And yet they are very different peoples, at the time of which I speak. One a military nation, proud of the quality of their military technology to the point of boastfullness about how much better their weapons and armor were than those of their Lamanite enemies. They raised huge armies to defend themselves with, they idolized their military heroes to the point of near-worship, and they praised fierceness in battle and clever military strategy very highly. While the Ammonites were utter pacifists, refusing to so much as lift a sword. How then are both of these totally different philosophies and cultures called righteous?
Because there is no One True Way. There may be one cosmic Truth-with-a-capitol-T about the nature of God and the destiny of Man, but that doesn't mean there's only one way to live, or one kind of person to be. This world is a huge place, with many niches, and there's room in it for pacifists and soldiers, for vegans and vegetarians, for republicans and democrats, even for christians and atheists. We are not all alike, we do not all have the same choices, and we do not all live the same lives. We each have to find our own paths.
And perhaps what matters most is not whether we are Right or Wrong, but how we treat those who are not like us. The Lamanites rejected the Ammonites as traitors for daring to live and believe differently. The Nephites could have done the same, and rejected the Ammonites for being hated Lamanites, the blood of their enemies, or for being pansy pacifists who couldn't stand up for themselves, or for any number of other reasons, but instead they choose to ignore what was different, and see what they had in common, that they were both Christian. And so they welcomed the Lamanites as brothers, despite all the reasons they had to do otherwise.
Perhaps the real lesson of this story, then, is the same lesson Christ taught when he told the tale of the Good Samaritan, a man who loved his neighbor by aiding a stranger, a foreigner, and indeed an actual enemy of his people. He saw not a hated Jew, but a fellow human, a neighbor in a neighborhood that includes all the world.
May your neighborhood be just as large.
*The title of this is the religious motto of Valdemar. :D Yes, I am a geek. But if I were to live in a fantasy setting, that's the one I'd pick. For one thing the most modern period is well into the renaissance and maybe even the very early industrial, as far as technology goes, and for another, I very much like that motto. It works very well for me. :) Also, Companions. 'Nough said.
I'd like to share a story from the Book of Mormon. I'm going to summarize it, and put it into my own terms, it's a long and complicated story, and not all of it has much bearing on the point I'd like to make. You can read the whole thing if you like in The Book of Mormon, in Alma, chapters 17-28 (I said it was long!)
The story starts with two cultures, the Nephites and the Lamanites. Their relationship varies throughout the thousand year history of the book, but at this point they are bitter enemies. The kind of bitter emnity that only happens between those who were once brothers, as Nephi and Laman once were. Now their descendants hate each other. But the Nephites are, at this period at least, somewhat the better people. They are a military nation, but they are focused on defense, seeking mostly to keep from being overrun by their more numerous enemies. The Lamanites are more aggressive, and it's quite possible they only failed to conquer the Nephites at this point because their love of bloodshed caused them to fight amongst themselves as much as with their enemies. The Nephites were also Christian. The Lamanites were not.
Enter Ammon. Ammon was a Nephite who converted a Lamanite king to Christianity. And this prompted the conversion of many of the king's people, as is not uncommon in history. But this king and his people, in the process of their conversion, became horrified at what they had been and what they had done. They ceremonially buried their weapons and declared themselves pacifists. They would lie down and die rather than raise a hand in self-defense. And many of them did die, because the unconverted Lamanites considered them traitors, collaborators with the hated enemy, and very much deserving of death. Eventually they were forced to flee the Lamanite lands or be completely wiped out.
The Nephites welcomed them with open arms, gave them land to settle in, and defended them when the Lamanties tried to invade those new lands and kill them all. The Nephites called them the People of Ammon, and considered them brothers, and eventually the two groups became pretty much one nation, with little difference between them.
The Book of Mormon calls the Nephites at this period a righteous people. The Ammonites also, are called righteous. And yet they are very different peoples, at the time of which I speak. One a military nation, proud of the quality of their military technology to the point of boastfullness about how much better their weapons and armor were than those of their Lamanite enemies. They raised huge armies to defend themselves with, they idolized their military heroes to the point of near-worship, and they praised fierceness in battle and clever military strategy very highly. While the Ammonites were utter pacifists, refusing to so much as lift a sword. How then are both of these totally different philosophies and cultures called righteous?
Because there is no One True Way. There may be one cosmic Truth-with-a-capitol-T about the nature of God and the destiny of Man, but that doesn't mean there's only one way to live, or one kind of person to be. This world is a huge place, with many niches, and there's room in it for pacifists and soldiers, for vegans and vegetarians, for republicans and democrats, even for christians and atheists. We are not all alike, we do not all have the same choices, and we do not all live the same lives. We each have to find our own paths.
And perhaps what matters most is not whether we are Right or Wrong, but how we treat those who are not like us. The Lamanites rejected the Ammonites as traitors for daring to live and believe differently. The Nephites could have done the same, and rejected the Ammonites for being hated Lamanites, the blood of their enemies, or for being pansy pacifists who couldn't stand up for themselves, or for any number of other reasons, but instead they choose to ignore what was different, and see what they had in common, that they were both Christian. And so they welcomed the Lamanites as brothers, despite all the reasons they had to do otherwise.
Perhaps the real lesson of this story, then, is the same lesson Christ taught when he told the tale of the Good Samaritan, a man who loved his neighbor by aiding a stranger, a foreigner, and indeed an actual enemy of his people. He saw not a hated Jew, but a fellow human, a neighbor in a neighborhood that includes all the world.
May your neighborhood be just as large.
*The title of this is the religious motto of Valdemar. :D Yes, I am a geek. But if I were to live in a fantasy setting, that's the one I'd pick. For one thing the most modern period is well into the renaissance and maybe even the very early industrial, as far as technology goes, and for another, I very much like that motto. It works very well for me. :) Also, Companions. 'Nough said.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-05 07:49 pm (UTC)Thank you for this summary. I think it would be a good one to use if/when people start talking about how, say, Mitt Romney isn't a real christian because he belongs to the Latter-Day Saints.