Alma 39

To Corianton

My letter to you will be a little different. I think you know why. Haven’t you noticed how I favor your brothers? You know, the ones who set good examples? I think you sense where I’m going with this.

I love you, but sometimes I don’t like you. I don’t think you listen to me—you sure didn’t when we were with the Zoramites. You were a cocky upstart, all high and mighty about how smart and buff you were.

And, okay, I’ll say it: you broke rank to go to Siron for your precious whore, Isabel. Trust me, you’re hardly the first. She’s got a file cabinet full of conquests. That’s no excuse. You had responsibilities. Which you shirked like a weasel.

Don’t you get it? Prostitution is number three on Gods list of stuff he hates. Numbers one and two are shedding the blood of innocent people and denying his Spirit. If you deliberately do the latter, specifically after you felt that spirit and lived by it, he can’t forgive that. Murder he’s a little more flexible on, especially after that incident with Nephi and Laban. But it’s still a stretch for him.

I hate that you did what you did. But I’m only harping on it for your own good—better me harping than God. He holds things against people, sometimes for a long time, i.e., eternity.

Learn the art of self-contradiction. You have to put blinders on sometimes, I know. But if you want to inherit God’s kingdom, you’ve got to do it a lot more than you ever have. It’s not natural. But “natural” doesn’t necessarily equal “good.” So, as I say, contradicting oneself can be the only catapult toward heaven. That’s spiritual physics.

Let me add this: ask your brothers for advice. That might be the harder thing, given some of your past relations. But you’re the youngest and we have to learn from our elders. That’s not only tradition, it’s demonstrably effective.

Don’t let yourself be led astray, especially by, shall we say, “ladies of the evening.” Your eyes lead to your heart, and the devil wants the latter, so he works through the former. When the Zoramites saw you walking into Isabel’s house, they doubted the power of our message.

Now God is telling me to curb your behavior because it’s keeping people from the truth and driving them to hell. So, since he, my Father, is telling me what to do, I, your father, am telling you what to do. It’s a chain. Stop sleeping around, turn to God comprehensively (body and soul), quit offending would-be converts, and confess your mistakes. Also, give up your quest to be rich. Another cliché, another truth: you can’t take it with you.

Now, to this favorite—and more high-toned—theme: Jesus. He’s coming to remove the world’s sins. He’s coming with good news for his followers.

This is the message you should have been preaching instead of paying for sex. People not only need to change, they need to prepare their minds for change. They need to know that salvation can come and sooner than they might think.

When is Jesus coming? Well, it’s a long time, yet, I’ll grant you. But don’t think people living then are more precious than the people living now. Don’t everyday people you know deserve good news as much as people living centuries away? Isn’t knowledge of the plan meant for everyone, no matter when they were born or will be? Hey, if an angel comes to us (and he has), that means this must be pretty important.