Gaining Hearts by Fraud

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.

Some thoughts about Amalickiah’s flattery and the dangers of “awesome”

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4 And Amalickiah was desirous to be a king; and those people who were wroth were also desirous that he should be their king; and they were the greater part of them the lower judges of the land, and they were seeking for power.

5 And they had been led by the flatteries of Amalickiah, that if they would support him and establish him to be their king that he would make them rulers over the people. (Alma 46:4-5)

This bit about Amalickiah flattering the lower judges struck me recently after I had gone in for jury duty and seen some of the court proceedings involved.  The point that suddenly stuck out to me in the above verses was that these lower judges were there to settle petty disputes in particular regions. Cases they could not settle would have to be sent to higher judges.

So here we essentially have a group of judges who were aspiring for position beyond their expertise, hoping to acquire it by appointment rather than by gradual accumulation of experience and skill.  By promising them future ruling positions, Amalickiah implicitly flattered them into thinking they were ready for the big time, ready to deal with the hard cases when they most likely weren’t.  But in their unprepared state, they would have made a mess of the Nephite justice system.

I think this tells us something about flattery. It is the voice that suggests we possess skills we don’t really have and are ready for greater responsibility when we really aren’t.  Those who follow the flattery and pursue where the rewards aren’t deserved are set up for humiliating, soul-destroying failure.  That’s what Satan wants. He wants to humiliate and crush us by using our ambitions and aspirations against us.  Flattery is how he starts that, so we have to watch out for flattery.

Here’s a question for you to think about—in the context of the above, what do you think is the spiritual difference between humility and humiliation?

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Also connected with this, I want to say a word about the dangers of “awesome” as an overused compliment when we want to say we approve in some manner.

The problem is when messaging of “you are awesome” is thrown around, it becomes increasingly easy to internalize it and believe that not only was the performance awesome, but oneself is awesome in every way, and there is no need for repentance or improvement.  In short, it is too easy for it to feed vanity and pride.  

For us to see past this messaging, we need to have a pretty conscious awareness of all the ways we still need to improve, and we have to have a clear-eyed view of what good was actually done that brought out the approval or admiration.  But if we don’t have that in the first place, how are we to get it without more detailed feedback?  When we need real encouragement, detailed proportionate praise is much more useful.

Suppose I do my duty and then someone tells me I am awesome.  How can I take that at face value?  I know I did just my duty.  Am I to understand that doing one’s duty is so rarely seen that it must be commented on and praised?  I sure hope not.  But if doing one’s duty is widespread, then how were my actions extraordinary?  I have no way of knowing unless more detailed feedback is given.  It would be much more in proportion and helpful to say, “It makes me happy to see you do your duty” or “You’re doing a good job” or even “You’ve been diligent.”

“You are awesome” may seem like a harmless verbal tic of a compliment, but when we remember Nephite history and the trouble that flattering words caused by leading people astray, we see the long-term effects. Consider that pride ultimately was what led to the Nephites’ final destruction, and then these overstated compliments and affirmations can be seen for what they are—a gateway drug.

Since it is likely that this trend of overstating the awesome will not end soon, we need to be aware of it and put in place mental safeguards to keep perspective. We can remind ourselves we are doing our duty. We can remember that we or others may not be in the best position to judge our performance; if it were looked at more closely it might be barely adequate instead of “awesome.”  We can remind ourselves that others may be gushing or flattering us.

So don’t reflexively call people awesome. Use your creativity and fashion more precise ways to express your approval and compliments. Your words will actually mean more to people.

Cunning Devices of Amalickiah

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Yea, we see that Amalickiah, because he was a man of cunning device and a man of many flattering words, that he led away the hearts of many people to do wickedly; yea, and to seek to destroy the church of God, and to destroy the foundation of liberty which God had granted unto them, or which blessing God had sent upon the face of the land for the righteous’ sake. (Alma 46:10)

Cunning device mentioned here, but not elaborated on at all, beyond mentioning flatteries.  It is as though Amalickiah was suspected to have been part of some sort of chicanery, but he did not seem obviously connected to it except in trying to take advantage of it by riding a tide of public feeling.

Perhaps we must look to Alma 47 (the story of betrayal and murder among the Lamanites) for a sample of the kind of cunning device that Amalickiah may have used among the Nephites.  Since Amalickaih was leading away church members and lower judges, he may have staged situations to make it look like church members following him were better than those who didn’t or priests and teachers in the church.  He may have staged court cases to make it look like the lower judges were wiser and fairer than the higher judges of the land.  Or perhaps Amalickiah used some sort of staged atrocity to put the church in a bad light.  Perhaps he used some sort of false flag attack on his people, framing the church and bringing the free government into disrepute to make it look as though choosing him as a leader was the only rational choice. 

Under the supposition that Amalickiah tried to make the church look bad, Captain Moroni would have to do something to demonstrate that the church was not responsible.  The Title of Liberty would make obvious to everyone what values the church members espoused. 

The words of those wanting to maintain that title as they rent their clothes and made a covenant was very specific—“We covenant that we will be destroyed if we fall into transgression.”  The covenantal acceptance of destruction as a penalty for sin seems very strange… unless you see it in the context of a group publicly declaring under oath that they had nothing to do with some evil act that may have been attributed to them.  This oath would also make Amalickiah’s followers doubt the justice of their own cause, especially if their arguments were based on supposition that the church and the free government were bad.

Thoughts on Amalickiah’s Rise to Power Through Treachery, Alma 47-48

--> In Alma 47:1- 48:3, we see how Amalickiah rose to power among the Lamanites, and it is mostly through betraying people’s trust in him.

1)   He was trusted with the loyal part of the Lamanite king’s army.  He betrayed the army by making a secret agreement with Lehoni by which he tells Lehonti how to conquer the army.

2)   He betrays Lehonti’s trust by having him poisoned by degrees, even when Amalickiah was second in command.

3)   He betrays the Lamanite king by having him murdered.  This also betrays the part of his army that loves the Lamanite king.

4)   He betrays the trust of the part of the army that didn’t want to fight by having speakers of propaganda stir the Lamanites up to anger against the Nephites so that they want to go to war.

Clearly Amalickiah was an equal opportunity betrayer.  Being this guy’s friend was dangerous.

I used to have this idea that uniting his army with Lehonti’s automatically made the army united in purpose, but now I don’t think so.  I suspect that much of Amalickiah’s shenanigans after Lehoni’s death were efforts to keep the army together.  He had to play each side off the other and take turns giving each side what they wanted.  

I suspect that he promised Lehonti a united army would be more effective at resisting the Lamanite king’s command to fight.

He probably used the pro-war part of his army to administer poison to Lehonti, making them think this was all part of the plan to remove the anti-war resistance.

For the march back to the Lamanite capital, he probably assured the pro-war faction that they had succeeded, and then soothed the anti-war faction into compliance with the return by suggesting that assassinating the Lamanite king would be the perfect means of ensuring that they would not be subjected to go to war.

When the Lamanite king was assassinated (most likely by the anti-war faction of Amalickiah’s army), Amalickiah’s pretended anger and gave the pro-war faction opportunity to get revenge by allowing them to go after the supposed culprits, the king’s servants. 

The escape of the Lamanite king’s servants to Zarahemla was probably  a great excuse for Amalickiah to start war.  He could accuse the Nephites of planting assassins in the palace and make avenging the death of the king the reason why the Lamanites should go to war.  And the anti-war faction would have to go along with it or risk having their crime exposed.

Amalickiah is a very true type of Satan. Just like Amalickiah was not loyal to those who allied themselves with him, Satan does not support those who trust in wickedness.  A lot of people think they can break the commandments, keep the evil consequences under control, and have evil serve them, but Amalickiah’s treatment of Lehonti shows how Satan prefers to make us think we’re in control while his other forces take control and destroy us.

Another thing we learn about Satan from watching Amalickiah is that Satan’s forces are not united.  Satan uses this by playing each part off the other until he gets what he wants.  He gives side A chance to destroy side B for a while, then gives side B chance to destroy side A for a while, then vice versa.  Each side thinks they are the favored ones, but Satan’s only concern is to get more power and to destroy.

And notice, Amalickiah never does the dirty work himself; he only incites others to do it.  Likewise, Satan might argue he’s not personally responsible for the evil of the world; he doesn’t have a body, but he tries to influence people by giving them the bad ideas.  He tries to make those ideas look attractive and like they will give them what they want. 

Reading about Amalickiah, I always find myself wondering how Lehonti could ever have known Amalickiah was a bad guy.  How could he have protected himself?  John Bytheway has noted that Lehonti should never have come down from his mountain to talk to Amalickiah, yet something about that bothers me just a little bit.  What if it had been Captain Moroni with an army that was asking for a parley?  To me, to refuse to come down and even listen to a proposal before you even know what it is sounds close-minded. 

Eventually I realized that Amalickiah tipped his hand when he offered to betray his own army to Lehonti.   While this sounded like a very attractive offer to Lehonti, it should have been a big red flag that Amalickiah was not a man to be trusted.  A man who betrays his own people as a goodwill gesture to make friends with someone will think nothing of eventually betraying the new friend when advantage is to be gained elsewhere.