Support We Owe To Our Wives and Children

One of the great tragedies of war is the suffering of women and children, and we see that in particular in the stories of the wars between the Nephites and the Lamanites recorded in Alma. In the first war with the Lamanites and Amlicites, we read, “Now many women and children had been slain with the sword, and also many of their flocks and their herds; and also many of their fields of grain were destroyed, for they were trodden down by the hosts of men” (Alma 3:2). Despite the fact that wars are being primarily between men, women and children are far too often killed. This verse highlights the fact as well that those who aren’t killed almost always suffer during war from lack of food that inevitably accompanies it. In the great war many years later, after Moroni obtained the city of Mulek, Mormon described how “he did no more attempt a battle with the Lamanites in that year, but he did employ his men in preparing for war, yea, and in making fortifications to guard against the Lamanites, yea, and also delivering their women and their children from famine and affliction, and providing food for their armies” (Alma 53:7). This suggests that indeed the innocent were suffering from famine. The greatest horror, though, is when women and children are taken captive during war, and this is what the Lamanites did: “Now the Lamanites had taken many women and children” (Alma 54:3). They were prisoners of war and surely treated terribly. After a later battle that the Lamanites lost, “The armies of the Lamanites did flee out of all this quarter of the land. But behold, they have carried with them many women and children out of the land” (Alma 58:30). Moroni summarized to the government what was happening to these innocent women and children: “But behold, now the Lamanites are coming upon us, taking possession of our lands, and they are murdering our people with the sword, yea, our women and our children, and also carrying them away captive, causing them that they should suffer all manner of afflictions, and this because of the great wickedness of those who are seeking for power and authority, yea, even those king-men” (Alma 60:17). His letter to the government was motivated by his love for the suffering women and children, particularly those who had just been slain and taken captive by the Lamanites in Nephihah. Though he may have been mistaken about Pahoran’s activities, he was not wrong about the great suffering that the innocent were enduring because of the war.

                While the Lamanites captured the women and children and inflicted terrible suffering among them, the Book of Mormon is very clear that one of the main motivations for the righteous Nephites was to protect them. Mormon described, “And now the design of the Nephites was to support their lands, and their houses, and their wives, and their children, that they might preserve them from the hands of their enemies; and also that they might preserve their rights and their privileges, yea, and also their liberty, that they might worship God according to their desires” (Alma 43:9). They fought to support their wives and children. As Moroni stood face to face with Zerahemnah, he declared, “And now, Zerahemnah, I command you, in the name of that all-powerful God, who has strengthened our arms that we have gained power over you, by our faith, by our religion, and by our rites of worship, and by our church, and by the sacred support which we owe to our wives and our children, by that liberty which binds us to our lands and our country; yea, and also by the maintenance of the sacred word of God, to which we owe all our happiness; and by all that is most dear unto us” (Alma 44:5). The Nephites considered it a sacred duty to support and protect their children and their wives. That is why Moroni included this in the Title of Liberty: “And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it—In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole” (Alma 46:12). The memory of their women and children motivated them to stand boldly against their enemies. Mormon later described Moroni’s activities this way: “And thus he was preparing to support their liberty, their lands, their wives, and their children, and their peace, and that they might live unto the Lord their God, and that they might maintain that which was called by their enemies the cause of Christians” (Alma 48:10). His preparations were meant to support their wives and children. Mormon explained further why the Nephites had to fight: “Nevertheless, they could not suffer to lay down their lives, that their wives and their children should be massacred by the barbarous cruelty of those who were once their brethren, yea, and had dissented from their church, and had left them and had gone to destroy them by joining the Lamanites” (Alma 48:24). The tragic stories of war in Alma remind us that we must stand firm in our commitment to protecting, both physically and spiritually, innocent women and children.