Today’s guest post is from commenter Brother Sky.
Lately, there have been a few posts on W & T and elsewhere concerning Mormons and happiness. The W & T one can be found here. This post and others I’ve read have me wondering about the relationship between happiness and the scriptures, specifically the Book of Mormon. Following the writings and teachings of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Church continually teaches, in conference addresses and lessons too numerous to mention, that the Book of Mormon is not only “true,” it’s the “most perfect” book in existence.
The Book of Mormon is often touted (among other things) as a sort of cure-all for whatever ails us, a kind of spiritual self-help book or a scriptural balm that we can apply to our souls in a world full of troubles. In October, 1999, for example, Elder Russell M. Nelson said the following:
Do you want to get rid of a bad habit? Do you want to improve relationships in your family? Do you want to increase your spiritual capacity? Read the Book of Mormon! It will bring you closer to the Lord and His loving power. He who fed a multitude with five loaves and two fishes—He who helped the blind to see and the lame to walk—can also bless you! He has promised that those who live by the precepts of this book “shall receive a crown of eternal life.
The Book of Mormon, in other words, is a gateway of sorts to a kind of elevated eternal life, a joyful and blessed state which I’ve always assumed included happiness.
The question I have then is why our most foundational book of scripture, the text that can lead us to an eternity of happiness and joy, is such a catastrophic tragedy? Although there are inspirational, perhaps even joyful moments in the Book of Mormon, the narrative arc taken as a whole is not merely tragic but devastating. By the time we get to the words of Mormon and Moroni in the latter part of the book, hundreds of thousands (Mormon, Chap. 6) have died as a result of a series of armed conflicts astonishing in their variety and ferocity.
The purpose of the Book of Mormon’s narrative has always puzzled me. We see, in the last few chapters, an exhortation to remember and remain close to Christ. However, that message is preceded by a level of violence almost unprecedented in scripture. What is the purpose of such a juxtaposition? To make the way of Christ seem all the more appealing? Or is it something else? Is it possible to read the Book of Mormon as a blanket condemnation of war and aggression? Does God prefer to teach using negative examples? If yes, why? One wonders how we’d read the Book of Mormon if, for example, it ended with a transcendent moment like the Brother of Jared seeing the finger of the Lord.
These thoughts lead me to a few fundamental questions:
- How do we, as Mormons, reconcile what I would call the Book of Mormon’s tragic mode and our cultural mandate to be cheerful and happy? Are Mormons uneasy with tragedy because we feel the pull of the mandate of happiness so strongly? What are the consequences of avoiding, or seeking to avoid, so-called “negative” emotions or outcomes? What are the costs of constantly trying to tell “uplifting” stories in our educational materials and magazines when we know that often, things don’t work out for the best?
- Are there other, legitimate ways to interpret the Book of Mormon besides the relatively sanitized church party line? Is it possible, for example, to regard the book as a commentary on the relative power that human agency has over the doctrines of Christ? Note that the people in the book last longer before Christ comes (approx.. 600 years) than after he comes (approx. 400 years). Is the book suggesting that the doctrines of Christ aren’t terribly useful when it comes to saving humanity from itself?
- Is it possible that God believes teaching by a negative example is better than a “faith promoting” story? If yes, why haven’t we, as a people, embraced that? Why not have lessons or home/visiting teaching messages that talk about people failing? That talk about loss and despair? Why do we consider negative emotions and outcomes the “tools of the Adversary” when God himself, through Joseph Smith, shares a narrative that is full of these emotions and outcomes?
Questions for discussion:
- What do you think is the relationship between tragedy and truth?
- What can tragedy teach us that other, perhaps more comforting narratives cannot?
- Does the Book of Mormon teach that human agency is more powerful than the doctrines of Christ?
- How has reading the Book of Mormon helped or hindered your spiritual growth?
Wheat & Tares 
I see the message as powerfully anti war.
And an example of how seeking things besides Christ leads to tragic results.
I don’t think “tragic mode” is ever reconciled in a culture of cheerful happiness. We have many more unpleasant emotions than pleasant ones, a culture of cheerful happiness is simply a culture of Pollyanna Denial pretending to be the fruits of righteousness. This is a fake culture because true joy cannot be achieved by ignoring or denying our unpleasant sides instead it comes about by embracing and transcending (via personal growth not obedience) our unpleasant side. This isn’t unique to Mormons it is one of the major problems with modern Christians as well. Carl Jung coined the phrase Shadow to address the undesirable parts of each of our personalities. Religion that bifurcates everything into the polarized judgement of Good vs Bad invites maybe even compels it’s members to suppress, deny or displace their Shadow until it is repressed in the subconscious lying there as if it were a dormant virus just waiting to express itself in an untimely surprise attack! Authenticity simply cannot be achieved with this arrangement.
SRM: I agree about the strong anti-war message. I’m always surprised to see so many Mormons (and really, so many Christians generally) support various war efforts. I’d think that we’d all mostly be like the Quakers on this matter. I wonder if, in the anti-war context, Captain Moroni becomes a more ambiguous figure than we usually think of him as.
Howard: You’re right about the culture of happiness, I think. It’s always struck me that the Book of Mormon contains a great number of despairing moments and not many transcendently joyful ones. Do you think we (Mormons) misread the book? I wonder if the entire narrative is pushing us towards seeing things in a less bifurcated way, as you mention. One could apply that to Christianity in general, yes? Is the God/Satan binary actually more of a symbiotic relationship? Wouldn’t God (the ultimate Good) cease being God if Satan stopped being Satan? And aren’t good and evil therefore inextricable from one another?
The BoM points us in the right direction with the mighty change of heart, this is transcendance and is not some super form of obedience, rather it is a greater understanding, a new paradigm. But the church is far too Mosaic to even understand the mighty change well enough to teach it! The New Testament also points to it with discipleship – sell what you have, give to the poor and follow me. Legalistic Christians and LDS Mormons miss the point with their myopic focus on behavioral obedience. The Good Bad binary appeals to a very early and primitive psychological level of maturity that can be traced to Melanie Klein’s good breast bad breast theory so in some ways it is a lowest common denominator but those who insist on the good bad binary are probably stuck at a very low level of understanding and intolerant of holding much ambiguity.
I think God/Satan should be seen with far more nuance than binary provides. A gray scale with white on one end and black on the other with wonderfully rich nuance in-between.
Brother Sky-
The Book of Mormon provides perspective on three of the major questions about life:
1. Who am I
2 How did I come to be
3. Where am I going
Regarding happiness:
It declares “if there be no righteousness there be no happiness” (2 Nephi 2:13) and “we lived after the manner of happiness” (2 Nephi 5:27).
The message of the Book of Mormon is really simple: follow God and prosper and be as happy as you can be in a fallen world, then you will be resurrected and reap a reward of eternal happiness.
Should you choose to do otherwise misery is the outcome.
The Book of Mormon then provides numerous examples of happiness and misery that came to the children of Lehi as they accepted or rejected the teachings of the prophets.
Jared,
Thanks for your comment. I’m not quite sure I see what you mean about nos. 1 – 3. The B of M has always felt a bit foreign to me, so perhaps I’m not able to personalize it as easily as you seem to be able to, but I’d suggest that the temple, the Pearl of Great Price and the D & C are much more likely to be able to answer those questions than the B of M. I’m also a bit nervous about the “prosper” comment. Can I ask what you mean by prosper? I’m a bit leery of what some folks call the “prosperity gospel”.
Those times in the BoM narrative where a Zion-like atmosphere is achieved (like shortly after Christ comes) tend to be glossed over. The emphasis of the book is the difficulties of living in non-Zion societies and attempting to find peace and happiness in spite of it. For some, it means eschewing war and violence altogether and accepting the risk of death (Anti-Nephi-Lehies). For others, it means taking up arms to defend themselves.
There are very brief allusions that disease and pestilence existed, and I’m sure dumb random tragedies happened to them just like they do to all of us. The book doesn’t focus on those, though. The main thrust of the book are tragedies caused by misuse of human agency. Tragedies we as a society have power to bring upon ourselves (and, as a society, might avoid).
As is stated many times throughout the book, prosperity and blessings come from obedience to the commandments. The book pushes cautionary tales of *societies* who fall in to wickedness. We interpret that as prosperity and blessings coming to each of us *individually* when we are righteous, but that isn’t the message. It’s easy to find examples of righteous people who suffered, sometimes quite horribly. It’s easy to find examples of wicked people who gained power and influence. (Cue Ecclesiastes…)
If anything, the book is saying that righteousness is not easy and requires hard work. But striving to be righteous and supporting others in their kind, worthwhile efforts are worthy goals. They can bring Christlike peace and have the ability to impact society around you positively. Even if you cannot single-handedly turn all of surrounding society into a Zion environment, you can work on building a Zion community in your own corner of the vineyard (and then grabbing all those Zion members and moving to a different spot to keep others from killing them. Happens a few times.).
I think Mary Ann gave a good description.
The word prosper appears 55 times in the Book of Mormon.
The following verses give a good synopsis of the blessings/judgements God uses to bless and teach mankind.
9 Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so be that they shall keep his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their inheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever.
10 But behold, when the time cometh that they shall dwindle in unbelief, after they have received so great blessings from the hand of the Lord—having a knowledge of the creation of the earth, and all men, knowing the great and marvelous works of the Lord from the creation of the world; having power given them to do all things by faith; having all the commandments from the beginning, and having been brought by his infinite goodness into this precious land of promise—behold, I say, if the day shall come that they will reject the Holy One of Israel, the true Messiah, their Redeemer and their God, behold, the judgments of him that is just shall rest upon them.
11 Yea, he will bring other nations unto them, and he will give unto them power, and he will take away from them the lands of their possessions, and he will cause them to be scattered and smitten. 2 Nephi 1:9-11
When my daughter had screaming nightmares from her PTSD following her assault she found that when she read the Book of Mormon before she slept she didn’t have the nightmares.
It was completely unexpected.
Did it put her to sleep?
It allowed her to sleep without nightmares.
A lot of my fellow commenters have really hit on some important explanations/aspects of the BoM (I especially liked Mary Ann’s comment). In my opinion, the idea that you can use the BoM as some kind of self-help manual is a little, well, simplistic.
Can you find happiness in reading and learning and pondering its words? Yes, I both believe you can and have experienced something like that process. But the BoM is so many things, its a cautionary tale, its an historic record of a society almost doomed from the beginning to destruction, and it’s a scriptural account of the teachings of prophets of God and of Jesus Christ Himself. It is violent and joyful and tragic and hopeful–so broad that reducing it to a way to be happy is, just, yeah, kind of misleading.
But here’s the rub, again and again we see people in the BoM stratifying into classes, picking sides, having conflicts, and not forgiving of forgetting injuries suffered in the past. How many times did the Nephites and the Lamanites become one people, just to see that division return and tear their society apart? It tells us, straight up, that the only way to be happy as a society is to erase the -ites, to come together, to listen and support and uplift, and that IS a recipe for happiness.
We Mormons have spent such a long time comparing and contrasting ourselves with outsiders that we’ve fallen into a “you’re either with us or you’re against us” mentality. We need to re-embrace that message of the BoM, to embrace each other and to overcome our own internal conflicts. That’s the real happiness we should be seeking.