Alma 10: 13, 19, 27, 32

In this chapter Alma has returned to Ammonihah and now with Amulek, they have gone out to preach. In these particular verses, Amulek is speaking. This is his community and he knows well the corruption that will destroy them if they do not repent and make some serious changes.

Verse 13: Nevertheless, there were some among them who thought to question them, that by their cunning devices they might catch them in their words, that they might find witness against them, that they might deliver them to their judges that they might be judged according to the law, and that they might be slain or cast into prison, according to the crime which they could make appear or witness against them.

Verse 19: Yea, well did Mosiah say, who was our last king, when he was about to deliver up the kingdom, having no one to confer it upon, causing that this people should be governed by their own voices -yea,  well did he say that if the time should come that the voice of this people should choose iniquity, that is, if the time should come that this people should fall into transgression, they would be ripe for destruction.

Verse 27: And now behold, I say unto you, that the foundation of the destruction of this people is beginning to be laid by the unrighteousness of your lawyers and your judges.

Verse 32: Now the object of these lawyers was to get gain; and they got gain according to their employ.

All four of these verses address the problem of corruption in government. It is sad when we cannot trust those in authority to do the right thing.

This week my husband and I watched the movie "Just Mercy". It is the true story of a black attorney from Baltimore who goes to Alabama to work for a nonprofit whose goal is to help people on death row.  The attorney discovers the corruption of the legal system in that community where whites used their position of power to keep blacks "in their place". The gain they sought was not monetary - it was the power to support their racism.

Oh, that our world would live by the principles we read in D&C 121!

No power or influence can or ought to be maintained . . . only by persuasion, by long-suffering, gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; by kindness, and pure knowledge, which will greatly enlarged the soul without hypocrisy and without guile. . .

Oh, that every leader was a king Benjamin who lived to serve his people!  Mosiah 2: 17-18

And behold, I tell you these things that you may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God. Behold, ye have called me your king; and if I, whom ye call your king, do labor to serve you, then ought not yet to labor to serve one another?

Today's scripture story takes place in 82 BC and tells about corruption in government.  "Just Mercy" tells a similar story only it is 1988! Are we ever destined to repeat the same sins over and over? Will mankind never learn lessons from the past?

Oh, that the principles that Jesus taught could govern the world and bring the "peace on earth, goodwill to men" that His gospel promises!  

But the Lord can't do it for us. The hearts of men must change before God's peace can never be found on Earth. 

"The more we allow the love of God to govern our minds and emotions—the more we allow our love for our Heavenly Father to swell within our hearts—the easier it is to love others with the pure love of Christ. As we open our hearts to the glowing dawn of the love of God, the darkness and cold of animosity and envy will eventually fade.". Deiter F. Uchtdorf, "The Merciful Obtain Mercy" April 2012