Anti-Nephi-Lehies

According to the Book of Mormon, the Anti Nephi Lehies ('/æ//n//t//aɪ// /'/n//iː//f//aɪ// /'/l//iː//h//aɪ//z/) were an ethnic group of Lamanites formed around 90 BC, after a significant religious conversion. They made a covenant that they would not participate in war, and buried their weapons. Eventually they changed their name to the people of Ammon, or Ammonites. During a later period of warfare, the young men of the group who had not made the pacifist covenant became a military unit known as the two thousand stripling warriors, and were protected by divine intervention. Most Latter Day Saint movement denominations, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints (LDS Church), believe the Anti Nephi Lehies to have been an actual ethnic group living in the western hemisphere in the first century BC. The Community of Christ allows for varying beliefs regarding the historicity of the Anti Nephi Lehies. Among non Mormon researchers across the archaeological, historical, and scientific communities, a consensus exists that the Book of Mormon is not a record of actual historical events. The story of the Anti Nephi Lehies and particularly that of the stripling warriors is iconic in the Latter Day Saint movement. Some have criticized it for perpetuating negative stereotypes of Native Americans from a eurocentric viewpoint.

According to the Book of Mormon, around 600 BC, several families of Israelites were led by God from the Jerusalem area to the western hemisphere. Shortly after arriving, the group split into a righteous faction called the Nephites and a wicked faction called the Lamanites. To distinguish between the two, God cursed the Lamanites, causing "a skin of blackness" so they would "not be enticing". Around 92 BC, four sons of the Nephite King, named Ammon, Aaron, Omner, and Himni, went on a mission with a small group of others to the Lamanites to convert them to Christianity. A significant number of Lamanites converted to Christianity, banded together and took the name Anti Nephi Lehies, rejecting the name Lamanite. The king of the newly formed people died, and his son becomes king, changing his name to Anti Nephi Lehi (note: the pronouns in the English translation make it unclear if Anti Nephi Lehi chose this name for himself or it was given him by his father). Fearful of returning to their past sins and as a sign of their covenant with God, they gathered their weapons, buried them, and committed to being pacifists and friendly with the Nephites. God then lifted their curse of dark skin. The wicked portion of the Lamanites attacked Anti Nephi Lehies, but they did not attack back, instead allowed themselves to be killed while prostrate in prayer. After 1,005 had been killed, the Lamanites felt guilty and stopped attacking. Many of the Lamanites then joined the Anti Nephi Lehies. When an anti Christ named Korihor tried to teach atheism to the Ammonites, they bound him and took him to the high priest.

In a subsequent war between the Nephites and Lamanites, when the Ammonites saw how the Nephite army suffered in defending them, they considered breaking their oath to lay down their weapons and defend themselves; a Nephite prophet named Helaman persuaded them not to break their oath. Two thousand of their sons (who had been too young at the time to have made the pacifist covenant) volunteered to fight for the defense of the Nephites and the Ammonites. The young men asked Helaman to be their commander. The young stripling warriors fought alongside the Nephite army and were one of the Nephites' most effective military units. Though every soldier was wounded at one time or another, there were no fatalities among the warriors. Helaman attributed this to the upbringing provided by their mothers and the great faith they exhibited. The original 2,000 "sons of Helaman" were later joined by sixty more, making a total of 2,060. The last time the people of Ammon are mentioned in the Book of Mormon, a large portion of them migrated to the "land northward" sometime between 49 and 39 BC.

The Anti Nephi Lehies are a well known and popular example of faith within the Latter Day Saint tradition, particularly the story of the stripling warriors, which has become iconic, celebrated in Latter Day Saint artwork, toys, song, and literature.

The Anti Nephi Lehi pacifism story was barely referenced in the first fifty years of the LDS Church. In 1880s, during the height of the United States government crackdown on the LDS Church practice of polygamy, church leader George Reynolds gave the first serious interpretation, by using the Anti Nephi Lehi story of passive submission to Lamanite armies as an object lesson to support the church's policy of civil disobedience being both moral and effective. His writings were later incorporated into education materials. In 1935, the official Sunday School curriculum said of the Anti Nephi Lehies that "there is a suggestion in the Record that it is better to take a pacific stand in time of war," and concluded with "our attitude, then, toward war should be to avoid it when and if we can." The 1939 manual, on the eve of World War II advocated clearly for pacifism,

"There is no place in a Christian life for war If one should question the wisdom of the decision of the people of Anti Nephi Lehi made on the occasion of this lesson, let him remember that they did as a nation what Jesus did as an individual when he gave his life for mankind there was something 'godlike' in the decision of both Jesus and the Lamanites to sacrifice their mortal existence that the standards of righteousness might be preserved. The people of Ammon would rather be slaughtered than to take the life of another in their own defense. The Nephites on the other hand justified their defense of their
families and liberties on the ground that it was the will of God that these things be preserved. However the readers of these lessons might feel on this subject, it seems clear that if war has any justification at all in the eyes of God, it must be a war of defense, not aggression—a war where the right to worship, and to live in family units, and in safety are being fought for." After the beginning of World War II church manuals commended Anti Nephi Lehies for their righteousness, but did not imply pacifism as being superior, instead using the story as part of the definition for what constitutes a just war. The LDS Church translated Berrett's book into several languages, and it became the Melchizedek Priesthood manual in 1962, and appointed Berrett as vice president of Brigham Young University, giving him responsibility over high school and college age church curriculum's. The Anti Nephi Lehi vow of non violence came to be seen as an anomaly, applicable only in rare circumstances, and discussion of the topic in manuals usually included examples that justified armed self resistance. The critical interpretation of the Anti Nephi Lehies decision to be killed rather than fight was notable in that it coincided with the a significant segment of the church that opposed the Civil Rights Movement and the tactic of civil disobedience in particular. In the 1950s, artist Arnold Friberg was commissioned to paint 12 scenes from the Book of Mormon for children, and chose for one of his scenes the stripling warriors. His interpretation became enormously popular and for many decades "tended to sweep aside alternative artistic concepts". His painting of the young men became iconic, and has been printed in millions of copies of the Book of Mormon, and remains popular in Latter Day Saint culture. In 1983, the LDS Church commissioned artist Del Parson to paint the story of the Anti Nephi Lehies burying their swords, and widely distributed it in educational material. The painting was at the forefront of the shift towards the metaphorical usage of the story, depicting an Anti Nephi Lehi man kneeling and raising his sword toward heaven, as though presenting an offering of his sins to God. In 2016, LDS Church owned newspaper the Deseret News printed an editorial using the story of the Nephites accepting the Anti Nephi Lehies into their country to promote the ethic of assisting refugees migrating to Europe. The story of the Ammonite mothers teaching their stripling warrior sons is frequently used as an example of the importance of Motherhood in instilling faith in their children.