And Testing one, two three, testing one, two one two three this is radio free Mormon on the air

broadcasting behind enemy lines tonight's episode nifai's slaying of lab. The Book of Mormon has a number of very

faith-promoting stories, a number of wonderful stories in it, but it also has a

number of stories that are more problematic. Stories about white skin being associated with virtue, dark skin being

associated with wickedness, the violent suppression by Captain Moroni of

political dissidents.

But without a doubt, the single most problematic story

in the Book of Mormon is the slaying of Laban by Nephi.

My experience in studying all the scriptures in the standard works is that I tend to focus

on the stories that are more comfortable to me, the stories that make me feel good, the stories

that I think I understand and that makes sense from my perspective.

But experience has shown me that it is the stories that are problematic, that are the stories that I am most likely to learn from.

And so with that in mind tonight tonight we're going to take a close

look at the story of the slaying of Leven by Nephi and see if taking a close look at this

story provides any additional insight.

The opening pages of the Book of Mormon confront us with the most problematic story in the

entire book, The Murder of a Defenseless Laban by a sword-wielding Nephi in 1st Nephi, chapter 4.

We all know the story.

Nephi has been commanded by God through his prophet father, Lehi, to obtain Laban's brass plate

version of the Hebrew scriptures.

Nephi and his brothers returned to Jerusalem and try everything they can think of to get the plates, with the result that Laban

robs them of all their worldly possessions and tries to kill them.

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