A Love for Liberty

One of the great qualities of Captain Moroni is that even though he was involved for years and years in a vicious war, he never delighted in the shedding of the blood of his enemies.  Mormon told us that he was “a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery” (Alma 48:11).  We see that this was true in the first battle that he was involved in, or at least that is recorded.  The Nephites fought the Lamanites who were led by Zarahemnah, and eventually the Nephites overpowered the Lamanites to the point that the Lamanites “were struck with terror.”  At that point Moroni could have simply destroyed his enemies who were trying to destroy them, but he instead “commanded his men that they should stop shedding their blood” (Alma 43:53-54).  He offered them the option of giving up their arms and making a covenant to fight no more and their lives would be spared.  There were many who initially accepted this, but Zarahemnah didn’t and kept the fighting going.  Finally when he realized “that they were all about to be destroyed” he cried for mercy to Moroni.  Moroni had every reason to continue and finish them off—he had already offered them their chance for peace.  But Moroni did not delight in the shedding of blood, and he again showed mercy.  He “took the weapons of war from the Lamanites; and after they had entered into a covenant with him of peace they were suffered to depart into the wilderness” (Alma 44:20).  Moroni preferred letting them go free (with the risk that they might not keep their covenant) over slaying them. 

               Two other incidents in the war similarly show Moroni’s love for peace and his abhorrence of the shedding of blood.  When he retook the city of Gid by getting the Lamanites drunk and then secretly arming his prisoners on the inside of the city, he had the opportunity to slay the Lamanites: “They were drunken and the Nephites could have slain them.”  But that was not Moroni’s way of doing things—he did not kill when it could be avoided: “But behold, this was not the desire of Moroni; he did not delight in murder or bloodshed, but he delighted in the saving of his people from destruction; and for this cause he might not bring upon him injustice, he would not fall upon the Lamanites and destroy them in their drunkenness” (Alma 55:19).  Later near the end of the war at the city of Nephihah, Moroni and his men snuck into the city by night and prepared an attack on the Lamanites.  In the ensuing chaos there was fighting and many Lamanites were killed, but Moroni “surrounded many others, and took them prisoners” instead of slaying them.  Then he did a most remarkable thing—he let them go and “join the people of Ammon and become a free people” (Alma 62:27).  Instead of slaying his prisoners he invited them live and be a part of the Nephites.  Clearly, Moroni was not a man of bloodshed but one who did indeed “joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country.”