“…she truly had mourned because of us. For she had supposed that we had perished in the wilderness; and she also had complained against my father, telling him that he was a visionary man…” Sariah. The first woman mentioned in the Book of Mormon. What can we learn from her story? For those who haven’t read the beginning of the Book of Mormon 30 times more than the rest of it, here’s a quick background. Sariah is the wife of the Jerusalem prophet, Lehi. She is the mother of Nephi, whose written account is well-known perhaps because it is the first one in the Book of Mormon. The first few chapters Nephi’s record summarizes the state of Jerusalem shortly before its capture and destruction around 587 B.C. His father, Lehi, has a vision informing him of the coming destruction. After his preaching is rejected and the people seek to kill him, he is told to take his family and quit Jerusalem. However, it’s not all easy riding into the bliss of a promised land. They sp...
Musings on the tension between faith and reason; agency and law; empathy and justice.