Helaman 13-16: Spreading Rumors and Contentions Upon all the Face of the Land

Come, Follow Me September 9-15: Helaman 13-16

In 2024, the Maxwell Institute will offer a weekly series of short essays on the Book of Mormon, in support of the Church-wide Come, Follow Me study curriculum. Each week, the Maxwell Institute blog will feature a post by a member of the Institute faculty exploring an aspect of the week’s reading block. We hope these explorations will enrich your study and teaching of the Book of Mormon throughout the coming year.

Spreading Rumors and Contentions Upon all the Face of the Land

By Steven L. Peck

While an undergraduate at BYU, I spent six weeks in a large log cabin called Timp Lodge at Aspen Grove near the Sundance Ski Resort. At this biology camp, I took courses in Ecology, limnology (the study of lakes), and aquatic entomology. We had to do a field ecology project so a partner whose name I have long since forgotten decided to explore mobbing behavior in birds. “Mobbing” is the technical term for an avian behavior in which smaller birds, often a mix of different species, try to drive off large raptors like hawks and falcons.

We found an old stuffed owl in a drawer holding well-used specimens that could be passed round among students to help them understand bird anatomy. It was a ragged and tattered thing, with shabby, musty feathers with its colors fading far from those of a living bird. It had once sported glass black-bead eyes, but these had long ago fallen out, and now the white cotton stuffed into the head leaked out of the eyes in a goulash caricature of a living thing. Rather than talons, it had an old bed lamp clamp to allow the upright display of the poor beast on a podium. Perfect for our uses.

We rigged the bird on a weatherworn wooden sign near the trailhead parking lot. We put the recording of a great horned owl playing on high volume underneath the sign and moved across a meadow into some bracken to observe the mobbing behaviors we hoped to capture for science.

It was early spring, and much of the trail was still closed, so we thought we had the place to ourselves, but a car pulled into the lot, a man got out of the car, opened the truck, and began to unload some high-end camera equipment. A large SLR camera with a six-hundred-millimeter lens attached, film canisters (yes, it was back in the day before digital cameras), and other esoteric photographic paraphernalia. He set off down the trail.

Standing up we tried to wave him down, shouting to let him know he was about to ruin either his birding adventure or our "carefully designed" scientific experiment (such as it was), but he didn’t see us. About thirty yards from our ersatz owl, he goes into a crouch. He begins to stealth forward, and the sound of his shutter click click clicking wildly. He is now fifteen yards away, and he stops to load another roll of film. We began to laugh. We felt bad about it but could not resist. The shutter is again stuttering clicks like a playing card clothespinned to a child's trike. He is now within three feet of the moldering owl. He now lies on his back the camera pointing at the bird with his long lens over the top of his shoulder to capture the owl's image from below. Another roll of film is quickly and professionally exchanged. He again looks through the viewfinder but does not take the shot. There is a slow pause as he carefully turns over onto all fours and moves to squat under the sign. He stops. Then stands. He is frozen for a time looking at the owl at close range. He finally looks around to see two students laughing and waving at him. Faster than we can move to intercept him he scampers to the car. Not bothering to open the trunk, he throws his equipment into the back seat and flees the scene.

Of course, when one encounters a large owl in the forest, the probability that it is not a living bird is low. He was deceived in his expectations. Things were going on he could have never anticipated.

We live in an age where unexpected deceptions are creeping into our world with increasing frequency. The internet is full of false reports, lies, tricks, simulacrum, and other instantiations of inaccurate or outright false information.

I find a type of this in Helaman 13-16. Once again, the Book of Mormon becomes a caution and warning about our day. This section of Helaman opens with the Nephites in a state of wickedness. Samuel, a Lamanite prophet, arrives to call the Nephites to repentance. He notes that the Nephites are obsessed with wealth and power. They have “set their hearts on riches,” which have caused “great pride, unto boasting, and unto great swelling, envyings, strifes, malice, persecutions, and murders, and all manner of iniquities.” This should not feel unfamiliar to any living in our era of social media, entertainment news, and multiple voices all vying for our attention. We know these corruptions well.

Things have become slippery, an apt word for what’s happening on social media and other sources of internet information. Truth itself has become slippery, hard to hold onto, and likely to change due to fashion, political bent, or the constant search for wealth and power continued in clicks and likes on stories, reels, or other videos. Integrity is being compromised. We are tempted to embrace the many "shabby owls" set up to lead us into bad information, untruths, and even lies.

Our Church, under direction from the First Presidency, has made this change in the handbook in an effort to inspire the Saints to take better care in today’s world of slippery truths:

"In today’s world, information is easy to access and share. This can be a great blessing for those seeking to be educated and informed. However, many sources of information are unreliable and do not edify. Some sources seek to promote anger, contention, fear, or baseless conspiracy theories (see 3 Nephi 11:30; Mosiah 2:32). Therefore, it is important that Church members be wise as they seek truth.

In matters of doctrine and Church policy, the authoritative sources are the scriptures, the teachings of the living prophets, and the General Handbook 38.8.41."

This comports with many of my feelings as a scientist about the state of information on the internet, where conspiracy theories abound. False and misleading reports and advice are abundant. This warning in the handbook is much like Samuel the Lamanite shouting from the walls. Sadly, however, Samuel the Lamanite was largely ignored. The Nephites, in their arrogance and prejudice, dismissed his warning so thoroughly that by the time of Christ’s appearance, this prophet was all but forgotten, and were it not for Christ, after examining the records, pointing out that Samuel the Lamanite's words had not been included and demanded that they be given their place in scripture, we might have lost his words.

In Helaman, the observations about the Nephites and their ripening for destruction continues through chapters 13 through 16. The narrative recounts the reasons they don’t want to believe the prophet, suggesting the ultimate conspiracy theory that he was using the power of the devil.

… Take this fellow and bind him, for behold he hath a devil; and because of the power of the devil which is in him we cannot hit him with our stones and our arrows; therefore take him and bind him, and away with him. (Helaman 16:6).

That it is not reasonable that such a being as a Christ shall come; if so, and he be the Son of God, the Father of heaven and of earth, as it has been spoken, why will he not show himself unto us as well as unto them who shall be at Jerusalem?

Yea, why will he not show himself in this land as well as in the land of Jerusalem? (Helaman 16:18-19).

We see now the use of poor reasoning in the very claim, “it is not reasonable.” Nothing screams conspiracy theory like the widespread use of well-known logical fallacies. And then the book of Helaman uses the Nephite reaction against Samuel the Lamanite as a condemnation of the Nephite obsession with wealth and power and hits back against one of the most persistent features of our internet culture, “spreading rumors and contentions upon all the face of the land.”

And many more things did the people imagine up in their hearts, which were foolish and vain; and they were much disturbed, for Satan did stir them up to do iniquity continually; yea, he did go about spreading rumors and contentions upon all the face of the land, that he might harden the hearts of the people against that which was good and against that which should come. (Helaman 16:22)

The Book of Mormon has prepared us for this age of disinformation. The handbook's comment to embrace “credible, reliable, and factual sources of information” means to use the best information available to construct our webs of belief. Look to the best methods to construct facts: science, reliable reporting, avoiding those who spread false information, lies, and contention, checking sources, and comparing them with the words of the scriptures, including modern revelation.

So, don't get tricked into today's equivalent of confusing shabby stuffed owls for real ones. No matter how badly you want to see one of these magnificent birds of prey!

Images

Gerald Romanchuk, Great Horned Owl, 2022. Macaulay Library. https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/406701211

Jerry Thompson, [Samuel Teaches about the Star], c. 1978. The Book of Mormon Art Catalog, [bookofmormonartcatalog.org/catalog/samuel-teaches-about-the-star/].

Jorge Cocco Santángelo, Samuel en la muralla (2), 2008. The Book of Mormon Art Catalog, [bookofmormonartcatalog.org/catalog/samuel-en-la-muralla-2/].

KBAFourthtime, Samuel the Lamanite Mug Phase 3, 2015. The Book of Mormon Art Catalog, [bookofmormonartcatalog.org/catalog/samuel-the-lamanite-mug-phase-3/].