The Sin Next to Murder?

The last Mormon "general authority" who had access to GOD was Joseph Smith. All of the others apparently cannot read well. Not that they cannot read, but the cannot read closely for comprehension. If a verse of sacred text does not spell it all out with one verse (max of 2) then Mormon leadership does not possess the attention span necessary to figure out what it means.

The best example of this is Alma the Younger (Alma 2) counseling his son Corianton about his failed mission to the Zoramites in Alma 39. Verse 5 is where the trouble starts. Read it for yourself. It is understandable to leap to the conclusion that sexual sin is almost as bad as murder. It is not acceptable to stop with verse 5 and think you are right. The verses that follow spell out what is actually murder adjacent.

Alma lists the top 2 sins as denying the Holy Ghost and Murder. The number 3 sin requires some close reading. Too many people think that because a hormone filled Corianton went to a brothel, that the "sin next to murder" is breaking the law of chastity. I might agree if Corianton was married. Adultery is spelled out quit clearly in the 10 Commandments, and I am not here to lessen the damage of that sin. Corianton is a fornicator to use my Mother's terminology. That is a serious sin, but it is not #3 on the list. I am not encouraging wanton sex among the unmarried, but comparing it to murder is ludicrous. 

I guess child molestation, rape, torture, and making covenants with Satan do not make the top 3. You can probably think a lot worse things than fornication. To be clear, fornication is a sin, it is just not an automatic way to get yourself damned like the top 2 sins.

I will tell you what is number 3 on the road to perdition. Leading a person away from CHRIST through your false doctrine or your sinful behavior. This is what merited the lecture that Corianton received. The Zoramites were probably thinking "why should we believe this Nephite missionary who goes to prostitutes like all the other knuckleheads in the land?"

Fascinating that Alma, who actually did get his important information from GOD, sent Corianton right back out into the mission field to try and rectify his top 3 sinfulness immediately. He was not asked to wait one year, or not permitted to return at all. What better way to motivate someone than with love. Alma does NOT think he is better than his child, because he committed the same sin! Alma knows that he personally deserved to go to Hell, but JESUS saved him anyway. 

LDS Inc. has a different policy that seems to follow the logic of sending out only non-fornicators. In this way the unblemished can tell all the sinners, "Hey, I do not need JESUS, but the rest of you do." Obviously everyone needs JESUS so this statement would be flawed.

If the modern Mormon church had a policy of only sending only people who knew CHRIST had saved them from an awful fate, their numbers would almost certainly increase instead of stagnating. It is probably best that they do not possess this kind of common sense.

The only way Corianton was going to escape Hell after leading people away from JESUS, was to get right back into a hostile environment and try and lead people back to CHRIST. I suspect there was a lot of public confessions to the Zoramites. Something along the lines of, "Yes, I did go to brothels and I am a sinner, but JESUS can save even me."

As an aside, that is vastly superior to telling the Bishop. Modern Mormons having to get up and confess before their congregation would either cut down on sin, or increase lying.

Corianton spent the rest of his life attempting to bring people to the only Being capable of saving them...JESUS. His mission did not last only 2 years. I can imagine a few self-righteous Mormons arriving in the next phase of existence and being shocked that former fornicator Corianton is now in the Kingdom of His GOD and Savior.