Alma 21

(April 2, 2014)
Mormon, it seems clear, is particularly hostile against those practicing the religion of Nehor.  For a long time, I breezed right past that without concerning myself with it but lately I have been seriously giving thought to what it meant to be of the order of Nehor.  It is something different from the secret combinations that led to the destruction of the Nephites, but it is something just as damaging and destructive in its own right.

What I think the grand problem with the Nehorites is that they are close enough to the true religion that they can cause others to mistake what they preach for the truth.  But where the true faith requires our desires to bend to the doctrine, the order of Nehor bends doctrine to our desires.  It isn’t that it is wholly untrue, but rather that there is enough true that it becomes particularly deceptive to those who hear it.

The Amalekite who contended with Aaron correctly pointed out that the Lord loved the Lamanites as much as He loved the Nephites.  But, atop that true doctrine the Amalekite piled on false doctrine – there was no need for an Atonement, that Christ would not come, and that they had no need to repent.

We see that in our modern society.  Those who advocate for gay marriage will use the same deceptive reasoning.  Doesn’t the Lord love gays just as much as He loves anyone else?  Yes, of course.  Then why are we so hateful as to stand in the way of the happiness of gay people who want to marry (as if wickedness ever led to happiness)?  And, in a moment, they have taken true doctrine and bent the doctrine to conform with their desires rather than vice versa.

Nehors are dangerous to the community of believers, they are dangerous to our society at large, and they are dangerous to us as well.  Each of us can easily become a Nehor when we tried to make the doctrine conform to our own wills and become laws unto ourselves.