My name is Chelsea Bowen Bretzke, and I’m excited to be here today.  

 

We have been taught repeatedly that the Book of Mormon is a scriptural book of warning. Yet how often do we approach our Sunday school discussions and personal study treating it more like a book of heroes. We see the good guys (usually the Nephites) and bad guys (the Lamanites), and then as members of the church we often align ourselves with the righteous, the good guys, even though the Nephite and Lamanite nations constantly switch back and forth in the history, between who is heeding the Lord and who is not. It would be much more accurate to view the Book of Mormon as a record of individual disciples striving to follow Christ, even within a society that ebbs and flows in its adherence to true principles.

 

We too often forget that it is the Nephite nation that ultimately destroys itself, whereas it is the Lamanites who are given promises of the gospel being returned to them in generations to come. Why then, we might ask, was it the Lamanites who were spared?

 

There are a lot of contributing factors to the Nephites’ downfall.  One that applies well to our day is the extreme polarization – the othering of those unlike them. Especially when compared to the brief unity the people enjoyed after Christ's visit recorded in 3 Nephi, when there were no manner of "ites" amoung them. 

 

But another reason that has struck me as very significant lately is that the Lamanites knew how to treat women and children. The prophet Jacob tells us that very early on the Nephites struggled to live eternal principles of the family, and yet still considered themselves superior. 

In Jacob 3:5-7 he lovingly but firmly chastises them: 

 

“Behold, the Lamanites your brethren, whom ye hate because of their filthiness and the cursing which hath come upon their skins, are more righteous than you; for they have not forgotten the commandment of the Lord, which was given unto our father—that they should have save it were one wife, and concubines they should have none, and there should not be whoredoms committed among them.

And now, this commandment they observe to keep; wherefore, because of this observance, in keeping this commandment, the Lord God will not destroy them, but will be merciful unto them; and one day they shall become a blessed people.

Behold, their husbands love their wives, and their wives love their husbands; and their husbands and their wives love their children; and their unbelief and their hatred towards you is because of the iniquity of their fathers; wherefore, how much better are you than they, in the sight of your great Creator?”

 

As a non-Indigenous person, I have marveled at how this love Jacob speaks of is still so present in Indigenous families and communities.  Even with generational trauma and the destructive forces of assimilation programs like residential schools that severed family ties, the powerful connections are inspiring.

 

My husband and I recently visited his Tahitian mission companion. I was moved to tears on multiple occasions watching how their ward family really acted like a family: the tropical flowers and island shell leis placed around our necks at our arrival and again at our departure; the traditions of greeting each person with kisses on each cheek, or with the young people a kiss on the top of their head often followed by a warm hug. It was so precious and tender. The food, the laughter, the welcoming spirit, felt like nothing less than Zion. I believe that spirit is the same unity that the followers of Christ in the Book of Mormon kept trying to live. 

 

I think it is significant that many of the women mentioned in the Book of Mormon – Abish, Lamoni's wife, and shortly after, the mothers of the stripling warriors – are not Nephite women. Sister Elaine S. Dalton, former Young Women General President, pointed out that “the people who heard [Abish] testify became a people who ‘were converted unto the Lord, [and] never did fall away,’ and their sons became the stripling warriors!” Yes! These great sister leaders were empowered and thus able to thrive, inspiring their children and generations to come. I love the latter-day Abishes who testify of our Heavenly Mother – our as of yet unnamed Queen. 

 

Eventually the Nephites are guilty of abominable atrocities towards their women and children that lead to Moroni lamenting in Moroni 6 as he witness their destruction: “O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you! Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your loss. O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen!” 

 

Is it coincidence that Moroni mentions their roles within their families?  I do not know if the Nephites seeming struggle to remember the equality of men and women, or the fact that they seem to not empower their women the same degree that the Lamanites did, in fact led to these later tragedies.  But I think we can gather from many places in the Book of Mormon that unity is our Savior’s goal. We can add the clear counsel of modern-day apostles and prophets to know for sure that the Lord endorses full partnership between his sons and daughters and nothing less. In this way, we can read any examples of sexism or racism in the Book of Mormon as part of the warning, instead of using them to justify our own prejudices and incorrect practices. 

 

I love the Book of Mormon. It has been the catalyst in my conversion to Christ. I believe it is the most correct book, but not because the people it speaks of are perfect any more than we as current covenant people are perfect. Seeing the record as exposing the downfall of discrimination has helped me long even more for the unity achieved after Christ’s visit – the one heart, one mind, Zion state I feel so deeply is our goal. I believe one of the true principles that needs further restored in these latter days, is that of unity, the equality and valuing of all ages, races, and genders. And I believe Indigenous ways of being hold helpful truths to this goal. 

 

My cousin who had Indigenous heritage passed away three years ago. We were invited to the traditional feast held at the one-year anniversary of his death. There was a traditional sweat lodge that I arrived too late to participate in, but was honored to observe.

 

I have never felt anything so like a temple in sacredness! I watched the participants emerge from that Mother Earth womb, glistening, truly looking like newborns, like fawns, walking a little shaky. 

 

I literally sat at the feet of the women elders overseeing the day and listened as they shared. I was told that often they do women-only or men-only sweats. Why? Because the women are so powerful, they said. The men get weakened in the sweat, they lose their physical strength they rely so heavily upon, but women – the women can reach intense clarity and power.

 

Seeing those women elders, those leaders so respected and honored, was very healing for me. 

 

I was at our local museum with a school group learning about the way of the buffalo. I asked the elder teaching there about the yearly powwows and the Sundances I had driven by my whole life, curious if it was appropriate for me to attend. 

 

She said, come. 

“Come.

Watch.

Listen.

Learn.

Come sit by me.” She smiled. 

 

What a beautiful invitation: “Come sit by me.”

In my home. 

At church. 

In the temple. 

Come sit by me. 

 

Such Christlike invitations.

 

Our local theater recently played a movie about the restoration of buffalo herds to their natural habitat. I manage the social media and wanted to record some of the audience reactions to the film. 

 

I found myself in a circle of woman from the Blood tribe. I have sought my whole life for strong women role models, and here I was surrounded by them. They shared what they knew and what they felt about the need for the buffalo to come home, for us to come home to the land. It was so powerful my knees quivered. And in the midst of all that power, all that wisdom, was also so much laughter. This joyfulness interspersed with the power made it more powerful. 

 

We walk so close to other spirits – our ancestors, the spirits of animals and plants, the land itself – and of each other, our fellow brothers and sisters; all these children of God, wandering in this lone and dreary world under the weight of mortality, but of divine origin. 

 

And yet when we feel, when we acknowledge the spirits all around us, the spirit within us, like those women so clearly did, we can laugh. We can sing. We can gather and hold space for one another, really mourn with those that mourn, like our baptismal covenants implore. 

 

Gabrielle Roth has quoted: “In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions: ‘When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories?’”

 

Sisters, many of our latter-day women don't dance. They sing but not loud, not with drumming and abandon or joyful laughter. We need to be enchanted. We need someone to remind us. 

 

This is not an assignment, a burden, or an ask, because all the invitation is, is to be yourself. 

Like Abish and Queen Lamoni. Don't assimilate. Don’t add to the erroneous assumption that we are a homogenous group within the church. That causes still, stale waters. We need some angels to stir the waters, to signal the healing. Stir the pot; shake things up. The scriptures tell us daughters of Zion need to awake and arise! To sing and dance!

 

In Exodus 15:20-21 we read: “And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.

And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.”

 

In 1 Nephi 21:13-16 the Lord describes a similar day, when we enter our eternal promised land:

 

“Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; for the feet of those who are in the east shall be established; and break forth into singing, O mountains; for they shall be smitten no more; for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.

But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me—but he will show that he hath not.

For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.”

 

Interesting that when Christ is the one speaking, he offers a female metaphor. 

 

If you feel forgotten, sisters, forsaken, I testify that you are not. God counts our tears, sisters, and I believe He loves our laughter as well. Our Heavenly Parents love us. They love you. 

 

Christ will not forget. He will heal, a healing that will cause us to sing and dance again.

 

Thank you for showing me what that looks like. 

 

In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.