Alma 10

Here’s a summary of his speech—a testimonial, really, to Alma:

It might help you to know my genealogy. I am Amulek, son of Giddonah, son of Ishmael, descended from Aminadi, who you may recall as the man who famously interpreted the writing on the temple wall, inscribed by God’s finger. Aminadi descended from Nephi-ben-Lehi, descendant of Manasseh, son of Joseph, backhanded by his brothers way back when.

I’m a bit of a celebrity around here, an industrialist with lots of family, friends, and money. But those things don’t qualify me on religion. I’ve been an ignoramus about God and meditation and spiritual values and … well, you know me. Why go on about that?

I think I’ve always had an intuition about divine things and certainly felt an innate gratitude for all I have. Call it luck or blessings or whatever. I know I didn’t earn much of what I have. Who’s worthy even to have begun existing in the first place?

But I steeled myself against my intuitions. I insisted on having my own way and seeing only with the jaundiced eyes of a typical heathen businessman. That is, until the fourth day of the seventh month of the tenth year of the judges’ reign.

I was headed to see my extended family and an angel stood right in my path and told me to go home because I was supposed to feed a meal to a prophet, a loner who was virtually starving. This was so completely out of the realm of my experience, let alone expertise, that I had to act on it. I went home and there he was, standing on my porch. The previous speaker today was that man.

How do I know he’s a holy man? An angel told me. What else can I say? An angel predicted this man’s appearance at my door. So why should I question his character evaluation?

Still, since this man stayed with me and my family, I learned what a truly good man he is. He blessed us all in formal ways—laying his hands on our heads, speaking kind words, and foretelling our futures—and in informal ways, about which I can only say there was something about just having him around that made us all feel better, lighter in our hearts, more optimistic and confident.

Well, people were perplexed. Here was a worldly man that they knew well validating someone they’d thought utterly nuts. And his words resonated with light. Totally new to them.

Well, except for some pundits who are always on the lookout for contradictions or other verbal slips, especially in matters that could result in prosecution, incarceration, or even the death penalty. Do I have to say it? They were lawyers, who not only enjoyed this kind of machination, but stood to make some dough if they could land Alma and Amulek in court. When I say lawyers, I mean good lawyers, which usually amount to “good” in inverse proportion to the usual meaning of the word.

They started to cross examine Amulek, as though this were a trial, trying to get him to contradict himself about his past, his beliefs, his friendship with Alma, anything exploitable. But Amulek psyched them out. He knew the routine. He’d seen trials before. So he shot back, “You’re lawyers, aren’t you? If you only knew what contempt I had for the profession, which is somewhere between perversion and pure evil, in my experience. You’re setting traps as if we were wolves. You should be ashamed. If you silence us, people will not hear what God wants them to. And that could mean you personally would be accountable for the spiritual death of your own populace.

“I recall reading that Mosiah, late in his career as king, said that at some point, given democracy, people would inevitably vote for the worst policies and candidates, not to mention electing personal behavior that would have made Lehi jump ship.

“We make a lot of analogies with trees. How about this: some people can ripen, just like fruit, for personal destruction. They grow into it. That sounds just like what I see in you. So I’m not surprised God was so eager to get Alma and me to talk to you one last time. He’ll judge you for how you’re acting towards us. Because what we say is really a well-worn angelic calling card. It reads: Change your lives because God’s kingdom is coming. That’s the message he sends angels to earth with. He can’t do everything himself.

“If good people didn’t pray their hearts out, God would have burned your city down long ago. If you get rid of them, God will get rid of you. He’s had enough and he has his ways: starvation, insects, war, the full gamut.”

This got a rise, obviously. “He’s impugning our whole legal system!” someone yelled.

Alma yelled right back, “How in hell did Satan get such a grip on your souls and tongues? I’m not attacking your law, I’m defending it from your own hypocrisy and legalese. That’s what’s crushing you: the legal profession itself.”

That was the last straw with the naysayers in the crowd, some of whom started chanting, as if at a game, “He’s a devil, he’s a liar, time to light his pants on fire,” or something like that. (So I’ve been told.) Never mess with law school types.

Amulek’s most vocal opponent was Zeezrom,

who had always suffered an inferiority complex because of that name. But he was a heck of a lawyer, as we’ll see.