{"id":32703,"date":"2016-04-14T11:16:13","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T17:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=32703"},"modified":"2016-04-14T11:16:13","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T17:16:13","slug":"bom-alma-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/04\/bom-alma-3.html","title":{"rendered":"BOM Alma 3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
Ancient Egyptians were well aware of ethnic differences
(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three quick comments about\u00a0Alma 3<\/a>, the reading for today:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This chapter raises the issue of dark skin color as a supposed sign of God\u2019s curse. \u00a0Which, for many critics, immediately brands the Book of Mormon as racist, and particularly as a product of nineteenth-century\u00a0American<\/em>\u00a0racism.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We believers sometimes respond quite defensively to this charge. \u00a0But there may be a middle ground:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Could ancient\u00a0Nephites have been racists, by putatively enlightened twenty-first century standards?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of\u00a0course<\/em>\u00a0they could have. \u00a0If Nephite culture wasn\u2019t \u201cracist,\u201d it was probably the only ancient culture in world history that\u00a0wasn\u2019t. \u00a0<\/em>Probably, a few might tend to be believe, the only non-racist culture prior to the emergence of certain universities and upper-class urban areas of the American northeast during\u00a0the Kennedy administration. \u00a0Heck, some racial progressives in the United States continue to sniff out alleged racism virtually everywhere, even today.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Could that have left its mark on the text of the Book of Mormon?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Easily.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the\u00a0only<\/em>\u00a0relevant teaching of the Book of Mormon about race and prejudice.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve argued for years<\/a>, the\u00a0prophetic preaching of Samuel the Lamanite can be read, in part, as a polemic against assumptions of racial superiority. \u00a0And 2 Nephi 26:33 seems to be\u00a0an implicit response to racial prejudice: \u00a0The Lord, says that passage, \u201cinviteth\u00a0<\/span>them\u00a0<\/span>all<\/span>\u00a0to\u00a0<\/span>come<\/span>\u00a0unto him and partake of his goodness; and he\u00a0<\/span>denieth<\/span>\u00a0none that come unto him, black and white,\u00a0<\/span>bond<\/span>\u00a0and free, male and female; and he remembereth the\u00a0<\/span>heathen<\/span>; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Note that, although Alma 3 says that God placed a mark upon the Lamanites, it also suggests (in verse 9) that the curse was acquired and transmitted in the normal way that genetic traits are acquired and transmitted. \u00a0My personal suspicion is that the distinct color of Lamanite skin came about through intermarriage with darker-skinned indigenous peoples, which the Nephites would surely (and reasonably) have viewed as a sign of indifference toward, and abandonment of, the Abrahamic covenant.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Compare verses 14-19, where the text seems to view the mark of the Amlicites as both God-imposed and self-imposed. \u00a0These may simply be two different ways of viewing and interpreting the same thing, on the analogy of\u00a0Alma 44:1-10<\/a>, where Moroni explains Nephite military success in supernatural or religious terms while his opponent Zerahemnah quite plausibly explains it in completely naturalistic terms.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Royal Skousen argues that the Book of Mormon\u2019s Amlicites and Amalekites are the same group, with the variation in spelling being the result, merely, of dictation or scribal error:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

https:\/\/onoma.lib.byu.edu\/onoma\/index.php\/Amlicites_\/_Amlikites_Variant<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Three quick comments about\u00a0Alma 3, the reading for today: \u00a0 1. \u00a0 This chapter raises the issue of dark skin color as a supposed sign of God\u2019s curse. \u00a0Which, for many critics, immediately brands the Book of Mormon as racist, and particularly as a product of nineteenth-century\u00a0American\u00a0racism. \u00a0 We believers sometimes respond quite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBOM Alma 3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Three quick comments about\u00a0Alma 3, the reading for today:   1.   This chapter raises the issue of dark skin color as a supposed\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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