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naturalmanismyenemy · 3 years

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Bigotry towards Bigots is still bigotry. Jesus taught to love thy neighbor. This includes bigots. Love one another as Jesus loves you, try to show kindness in all that you do.

I’ve noticed that people seem to take pride in tearing people down by calling them a bigot. By doing this you are being a bigot. “Bigot” is actually not a nice word. If your goal really is to change their mind then you should use nice language. The book “How To Win Friends and Influence People” (by Dale Carnegie) proves this is true. In the first section he tells a story about a construction site. On said construction site there would be people that didn’t where there hard hats. When he asked why they complained that they were uncomfortable. He tried getting new hard hats for them so that they would continue to wear them, they didn’t. He would tell them sternly to where there hard hats, he was not very nice about it. He noticed that as soon as he left they would take them back off, clearly his way of approaching it didn’t work. He decided one day to be polite about it. He sat down with them and taught them about the dangers of not wearing a hard hat and the advantages to wearing them. After being taught about why to wear hard hats they were much more compliant and they would wear them even without inquiring of his presence. There is another instance of this a long time ago, before Jesus came to earth. It was here in the Americas. There was a king named King Lamoni. He was of the seed of Laman or Lemuel (likely both). These people are known as the Lamanites, you may know them as the Indians or Native Americans. It was the practice of the Lamanites and their fathers to go to war against each other despite being brothers (despite not being immediate family they were still considered brothers and sisters. It is according to my faith that you, regardless of who’s reading it, are my brother or my sister). There were another people living on the Americas at the time, they were known as the Nephites, they had no such practice of war. The kings of the Nephites was King Mosiah. He had 4 sons (that are noted). The prophet amongst the Nephites was Alma, he had a son who was also named Alma. They were great missionaries (Alma the younger became the next prophet). Ammon, 1 of the 4 sons of Mosiah, went to King Lamoni’s kingdom. He was brought before Lamoni to receive his judgement for trespassing. Lamoni asked what Alma was doing in his kingdom. He answered saying that he wanted to serve Lamoni. Lamoni was very shocked at his response, he had risked his life only to tell him that he would like to serve him. Lamoni respected his wishes and sent him away that he should tend to his sheep. Ammon was tending to the sheep when suddenly a foreign kingdom of Lamanites came and scattered the sheep and attacked the shepherds, including Ammon. Ammons smote off the arms of the foreign Lamanites that they can no longer attack his fellow shepherds or the sheep. By then the sheep were already scattered. The other shepherds were fearing for their lives, for if Lamoni were to learn of his sheep going missing he would have them killed. Ammon wasn’t scared and responded quite calmly. He said that they should collect Lamoni’s sheep so that they may retain their lives. The seep were gathered and they got to keep their lives. The other servants, which Ammon was not among them, went to Lamoni and spoke of Ammon’s great accomplishment. Lamoni, despite being the king, began to fear exceedingly as he thought that Ammon was the great spirit he had learned of by the words of his father, that he was there to smite Lamoni as justice for the many murders of the other servants who tended the sheep. These Lamanites scattering the sheep was a regular activity and many lives had been lost at the hands of Lamoni because of it. He realized that killing his servants who had lost his sheep was wicked and he feared Ammon because of it. He inquired of Ammons presence, he was feeding the horses. He was astonished by Ammon’s great faith, that despite having all of this power he still listened to Lamoni. He asked for Ammon to come to him. Upon Ammon appearing before Lamoni Ammon asked what Lamoni needed. Lamoni didn’t answer for the space of an entire hour. Because of the holy spirit, Ammon knew what Lamoni was thinking. Ammon asked if it was because of what he had done for the flocks that he was astonished. Ammon’s ability to perceive Lamoni’s thoughts only impressed him more. He questioned Ammon asking if he was the great spirit who knows all things. Ammon answered nay. Lamoni asked how he could know what he was thinking. Ammon said that he would be willing to teach if Lamoni was willing to listen. Ammon asked Lamoni if he believed in a great spirit. Lamoni answered positively. Ammon said that the great spirit was god. Ammon was able to teach Lamoni without any hatred in his heart despite what Lamoni had done. This story can be found in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ: Alma 17-19. In both of these instances using kind words has helped convince people to listen. Now not everybody will always listen, but for your efforts to try to help people get better you will be blessed. I want to conclude by saying that if you really want to teach people, use kind words. Using harsh words will only make them feel bad and will harden their hearts against you. If that really is your goal, to make others feel bad and harden their hearts then that will be held against you in the last day which is coming soon... very soon. I tell you all of this because I want you to get better and to be saved. This is but a small part of my testimony and I will share some more later.

#testimony #lds #Book of Mormon #The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints #Ammon #Lamoni

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