Alma 23

As I started to say, the Lamanite king sent a proclamation telling people to steer clear of Ammon, Aaron, Omner, Himni, or any others with them that were preaching. Hands off. No more dragging them to jail or the executioner. Also: no ropes, no spitting, no punching, no ostracism, no whips, no rock throwing. If they show up at your door, let them in—houses synagogues, temples, whatever.

In other words, bah with Lamanite traditions, out with the old, in with the even older. This is the fresh doctrine from holy men. So dump over your buckets of tradition, pour your ill-will toward change into the sewer. And clean up your respective acts. No murder, thievery, rape, cheating (sexual or otherwise), or anything else on the forbidden list you’ve been ignoring for decades.

Well, you can imagine with a decree like that the conversion numbers shot up like geysers. Thousands of new believers, all hungry to learn from the old books and recollections of less scruffy times on the banks of the New World.

Now this part you will find hard to believe: no one who converted in this wave of proselyting ever fell away. None turned back. Unprecedented. Mass cultural change. No more stabbing God in the back. Or front. And no more stabbing each other, which also helped.

Converts included Lamanites from the cities of Ishmael, Middoni, Nephi, Shilom, Shemlon, Lemuel, Shimnilom. They not only dropped their aggression toward God and divine teachings, they destroyed their armaments and weaponry. And remember, these were Lamanites.

Amalekites, on the other hand, didn’t buy it. Only one convert. One. These people were so entrenched in misbehavior they couldn’t budge an inch to save their eternal necks.

Given the weirdly inapplicable designation of “Lamanite” anymore, insofar as it connoted roughness and crudity,

the king brainstormed with the missionaries for a new term. They came up with “Anti-Nephi-Lehies,” which didn’t make a whole lot of sense. But that’s what they decided. They made friends with Nephites and by their newly increased work ethic, outperformed the Nephite economy. No one could have seen that coming.