Book of Mormon: Laman, Lemuel, And Responsibility (Or Lack Thereof)

Laman, Lemuel, And Responsibility
(Or lack thereof… as was usually the case.)

This was one of Laman and Lemuel’s biggest faults, and there are many examples all throughout. 

Anyway, here’s one of my favorites:

Laman and Lemuel say:
“1 Nephi 17:20 And thou art like unto our father, led away by the foolish imaginations of his heart; yea, he hath led us out of the land of Jerusalem, and we have wandered in the wilderness for these many years; and our women have toiled, being big with child; and they have borne children in the wilderness and suffered all things, save it were death; and it would have been better that they had died before they came out of Jerusalem than to have suffered these afflictions.”

Laman and Lemuel could have stayed in Jerusalem, remember; in fact, they were going to. (Maybe they would have even turned their father in, if necessary.) But they didn’t stay; they chose not to. Wait, had they already sailed across the sea? Were they already miles and miles away? Or, relatively speaking, were they still not too far away? Couldn’t they still have gone back to Jerusalem, had they wanted to? And by an easier route than they had come?

But here’s the fun part… So, *who* chose to make Laman and Lemuel’s wives pregnant? ;) Lehi? Nephi? God?? *Whose* fault was it that Laman and Lemuel’s wives were pregnant all the time? *I* figure they would have understood the birds and the bees by that age, but hey, I’ve been wrong before… And, *whose* fault was it that Laman and Lemuel’s wives had to work so hard?