Helaman Six And Immigration

A protest sign that says “Immigrants make America great!"

So today I’m dipping my toes into political waters a little bit. But don’t worry. I’m not going too far. 

*wink*

I want to talk about the book of Helaman, especially chapter 6, and its implications for our views on immigration. 

The thing is, it truly astounds me how people can read the same scriptures I read and then support some of the policies they do. Mass deportation? Family separation? Kids in cages? How do we not only endure, but sometimes even celebrate these things?

And it’s not that my scriptural interpretations are particularly insightful or unique. Quite the opposite, in fact. The scriptures are just so plain about this stuff. Perhaps the problem is this: we aren’t really taught to translate faith into politics, and that’s a shame, as the scriptures provide us with guidance on so many current issues. They don’t consistently side with any given party, and it would be a mistake to claim that any political party is divinely approved, or that its platform is equivalent to the principles of the gospel. 

But the scriptures do make plain what positions on moral, humanitarian, and social issues are directly supported by the teachings of Christ. They provide us with stories that illuminate the social and political issues we are facing in our day. There’s room for disagreement and debate, of course, but we so often find ourselves in a situation where any discussion of these things is viewed as contentious or missing the spiritual point. 

My brothers and sisters, we are called on to build the kingdom of God here on earth, which brings with it certain political realities. The early saints recognized this. Just read the Doctrine and Covenants. The Book of Mormon is the story of a people’s struggle to structure their society around the teachings of Christ. It shows us how hard it is, what challenges we will face in attempting it, and what it looks like when we’re successful.

Which brings me back to Helaman 6.

This chapter picks up after a long period of intense warfare, shortly after the introduction of the Gadianton robbers, and right after the mission of Nephi and Lehi to the Lamanites, some of whom were in possession of Nephite lands. After being converted due to a dramatic experience, the Lamanites went back to their own lands, allowing the Nephites to reclaim their homes and possessions. 

BUT THAT’S NOT THE LESSON!!! Don’t stop there and think that when everyone is righteous, everyone stays in their own country. Keep reading.

Verse 3: “…the people of the church did have great joy because of the conversion of the Lamanites…And they did fellowship one with another, and did rejoice one with another, and did have great joy.”

Verse 4: “…many of the Lamanites did come down into the land of Zarahemla… and did exhort them to faith and repentance.” 

Verse 7: “…there was peace in all the land, insomuch that the Nephites did go into whatsoever part of the land they would, whether among the Nephites or the Lamanites.”

Verse 8: “…the Lamanites did also go whithersoever they would, whether it were among the Lamanites or among the Nephites…”

Verse 9: “…they became exceedingly rich, both the Lamanites and the Nephites; and they did have an exceeding plenty [of all kinds of riches].”

Going on in the chapter, we learn that it wasn’t just money. They grew rich in food. They were industrious, doing all kinds of impressive craftsmanship and other work. The men and women were employed, each contributing to the success of the continental economy. 

In verse 10 we learn that they even stopped thinking of their lands in the same way: “Now the land south was called Lehi, and the land north was called Mulek.” It’s easy to miss, but this represents a major change! For basically their entire history up to this point, both groups labeled those lands differently. The Lamanites lived in the land of Nephi, from which the Nephites had fled for their lives. The Nephites lived in the land of Zarahemla after uniting with the people of Mulek. This history of being displaced is one of the major points of contention throughout the book. But now, after this change in Helaman, that issue is erased. 

And what brings it about? Immigration. The “free intercourse” (verse 8, meaning borderless travel and trade) the people have with each other leads to the erasure of the nationalistic identities that have divided them for hundreds of years, and that leads to peace, wealth, and joy.  To the point that they even change the way they refer to their country. 

This easily overlooked detail is, to my mind, one of the greatest signifiers of just how peaceful things were. They literally gave up the geographical labels that divided them, and adopted new ones that unified them. It’s hard to overstate how huge a change that was, given the previous few centuries.

So how good was it? According to verse 14, they had “great joy and peace, yea, much preaching and many prophecies concerning that which was to come.” It occurs to me that maybe the prophecies could be more future focused and less “repent, or be destroyed” focused because they’d finally gotten more of the here and now stuff figured out.

Unfortunately, this time of righteousness and unity only lasted a couple years, at which time murder and wickedness in the government disrupted the peace and equality of the people again. But it was a powerful preview of the peace that would come a few decades later, after the visit of Christ (this, of course, is the other time they gave up their nationalistic identities and lived in unified peace, though for much longer).

Let me say again how important it is to note that Mormon seems to ascribe the prosperity of the people in Helaman chapter 6 more or less directly to the free migration of peoples back and forth from land to land, so much so that the previous distinction between the lands becomes meaningless. 

This isn’t the only incident of immigration in this part of the Book of Mormon. It seems to be a minor theme. In the last chapter of Alma, Mormon tells us of Hagoth, the famous builder of ships that carried colonists northward (and maybe elsewhere) to new lands. In other parts of Helaman we read of mass migrations to and from the lands of the north, and these are not described as dissensions or desertions. They are expansions, or perhaps explorations, and once they’re established, the people have trade and other interactions with each other regularly. Even Corianton, the righteous preacher and son of Alma, goes north in a ship. And, though they’re earlier in the book, we can’t overlook the Anti-Nephi-Lehies, who came to the Nephites not just as immigrants, but as refugees, and were a great strength to them. 

What I’m saying is that it’s hard for me to read this book, and especially Helaman 6, without getting the message that immigration is a good thing. Not just that we have an obligation to care for immigrants, but that having immigrants come to us is actively beneficial for us, not just for them. 

I’m not the first one to make this observation. Our country is kind of founded on the idea of welcoming immigrants. My friend Sam also regularly comments on this, using his specialized knowledge as a professor of tax law to debunk the idea that immigration is bad for the economy or the social systems of the host country, in addition to making moral and religious arguments in favor of it.  

If we consider the Nephites as the people in the book we as church members are supposed to identify with, which I think most Latter-day Saints do, it’s hard to think of a single instance in which an influx of immigrants, or a group of people from outside trying to unite with the Nephites, was anything but a blessing to them. It’s true that disaffected Nephites going over to the Lamanite lands frequently stirred up trouble, but they were often going there for that purpose, not just to live. It’s not quite the same thing. 

So maybe this is one of those “too political” posts, but I don’t think it’s twisting anything to say that Helaman 6 gives us glimpses of the political, economic, and religious good of embracing immigration as part of a healthy, functioning society. To do so leads to understanding and peace, builds wealth, and flows from a commitment to the teachings of Christ. In other words, it helps fulfill the fundamental promise of the Book of Mormon: “Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land.”