Secret Combinations

Reading:   Helaman 6:21-41

This is a topic that can truly stretch into a lengthy discussion but I will try and exercise a degree of brevity in my longwindedness...deep breath...I have often found myself drawn to secret societies and the inner workings of such groups, not to be a part of one but to better understand their genesis and ultimately how they wield such power over people: Scientology, Ku Klux Klan, Opus Dei, Freemasons, Knights Templar, etc.

So to read in the Book of Mormon about Gadianton and his robbers and murderers has always been a fascinating journey for me.  The timing was perfect for this group, wars have ceased between the Lamanites and Nephites, prosperity reigns, faith is abundant among the people and yet there is a steady attraction to Gadianton and Kishkumen who glorify in their ability to create unrest through murder and theft.  The gang steadily grows...

HELAMAN 6:21-23

21    But behold, Satan did stir up the hearts of the more part of the Nephites, insomuch that they did unite with those bands of robbers, and did enter into their covenants and their oaths, that they would protect and preserve one another in whatsoever difficult circumstances they should be placed, that they should not suffer for their murders, and their plunderings, and their stealings. 

22    And it came to pass that they did have their signs, yea, their secret signs, and their secret words; and this that they might distinguish a brother who had entered into the covenant, that whatsoever wickedness his brother should do he should not be injured by his brother, nor by those who did belong to his band, who had taken this covenant. 

23    And thus they might murder, and plunder, and steal, and commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness, contrary to the laws of their country and also the laws of their God. 

Interesting stuff!  Now the Lamanites, growing stronger in their faith, recognize the effect this enticing gang is having on the less-then-faithful and can also foresee the danger of allowing such a mafia to grow in strength.  They promptly seek out and destroy the group from within theirs midst and become ever vigilant to their secret infiltrations.  The Nephites, however, don't seem to find concern and go about there business as the Gadianton Robbers grow ever stronger, even after two successive assassinations of their chief judges.  No one seems to know who might have committed such atrocities, really, they were so blinded by their own prideful desires that the cancer of Gadianton and his secret combination of men goes unnoticed!

Soon the tides have turned in these societies; the Lamanites grow ever faithful and the Nephites fall away and begin to dwindle in unbelief.  The prophesies of so many begin to take shape.  Satan tried and tried to destroy the faithful through external uprisings and attacks and never quite managed but now, through pride, he finds the combination that seems the most viable and wields it masterfully through internal dessension.  The mafioso of the time grows and, as we know, eventually causes the utter destruction of the Nephite people.

~Kipling