And the army which pursued after
them returned, having pursued after them in vain; and thus Amalickiah, by his
fraud, gained the hearts of the people. (Alma 47:30)
And it came to pass that Amalickiah
sought the favor of the queen, and took her unto him to wife; and thus by his
fraud, and by the assistance of his cunning servants, he obtained the kingdom;
yea, he was acknowledged king throughout all the land, among all the people of
the Lamanites, who were composed of the Lamanites and the Lemuelites and the
Ishmaelites, and all the dissenters of the Nephites, from the reign of Nephi
down to the present time. (Alma 47:35)
Mormon points out that Amalickiah gained the hearts of the
people and the Lamanite kingdom by fraud.
What is fraud? The dictionary has two definitions. One is
about wrongful deception for personal or financial gain. The other is about
deceiving others by unjustifiably claiming accomplishments or characteristics, or
in other words, by claiming to be what you are not or claiming you can do what
you can not.
In what ways did Amalickiah gain the hearts of the people by
fraud? Lots of ways, but in just the verses above, he arranged for the Lamanite
king to be assassinated, blamed the king’s innocent servants for it, and then,
in a show of patriotic outrage, instigated a manhunt for those servants. He
pretended loyalty to the king when his true actions were anything but.
How did Amalickiah gain the kingdom by fraud? He sought the
favor of the queen and married her, and thereby became her consort. He made
himself appear to be a fit husband for a queen to help keep the kingdom
together. He may have pretended affection for her or served her enough that she
thought he’d be faithful. But it is notable that once he marries her, we hear
nothing about the queen ever again, and it is always Amalickiah who is in
charge. As for keeping the kingdom together, he starts a propaganda campaign of
lies against the Nephites and plunges his people into an unsuccessful war. That’s
not the actions of a good king.
I think this fraud is an important thing to notice because
we may see people trying to gain favor and win our hearts with fraud. How do we
keep from being taken in? I think it is important to be observant, to notice
the little things people do, to notice how they act when they think nobody is
watching, to see what they say when they aren’t “on” in public, to see if they
will sincerely help those who can’t do anything for them, to see if they keep
confidences or keep small promises or tell the truth kindly even if it is a
painful truth. Big public frauds are built on small private frauds.
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