gadianton robbers among us

“And seeing the people in a state of such awful wickedness, and those Gadianton robbers filling the judgment–seats—having usurped the power and authority of the land; laying aside the commandments of God, and not in the least aright before him; doing no justice unto the children of men; condemning the righteous because of their righteousness; letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money; and moreover to be held in office at the head of government, to rule and do according to their wills, that they might get gain and glory of the world, and, moreover, that they might the more easily commit adultery, and steal, and kill, and do according to their own wills—now this great iniquity had come upon the Nephites, in the space of not many years…” (Helaman 7.4-6)

I invite my readers to consider carefully the Book of Mormon passage that heads today’s Mad State. Though I can’t say when I last read this part of the Book of Mormon, the passage came forcefully and unbidden to my mind as I read an editorial written by Julian Borger of The Guardian. In it, he discusses Caligula’s perverse and shameful conduct in Ukraine, and the undermining of America values in which he is so maliciously engaged.

 
“In less than a year, Yovanovitch’s world had been turned upside down. The state department to which she had devoted her career had been, in her eyes at least, a grand ocean liner of diplomacy. Once its course was charted, everyone knew their role in getting to the objective. Other nations could only look on in awe.
 
“Now, in Ukraine and elsewhere, a shadow foreign policy has emerged, whose true goals are known to the president, his family and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Through that channel, a discredited Ukrainian prosecutor and two obscure Florida businessmen who had become Giuliani’s sidekicks, wielded more influence than the entire state department. They fought to get Yovanovitch removed and they succeeded.
 
“For experienced diplomatic veterans like Yovanovitch, this kind of corruption and dysfunction was all too familiar. They see it every day in the world’s autocracies.
 
“‘This is the sort of stuff we report on, how the president’s family and its hangers-on run everything. Now foreign diplomats are saying the same things about us,’ one US foreign service officer observed recently.
 
“In the space of a few weeks in spring, Yovanovitch went from sending cables back to Washington about her embassy’s uphill struggle in containing to Ukraine’s endemic corruption, to being warned by a concerned Ukrainian minister and oligarch, Arsen Avakov, to watch her back. Things were so bad, Ukraine was afraid of getting enmeshed in Washington’s venality” (“Kafka in Foggy Bottom: Impeachment Transcript Reveals Fear of Trump Tweets”).

 
With full justification, I have referred to the current unworthy occupant of the white house only as Caligula. Certainly, never “president.” He is profoundly unworthy of that title. But this editorial, along with recent reporting on Caligula’s treasonous behavior via Ukraine and its government, reminds me that he is fully worthy of the name, “Gadianton.”
 
Just a few observations.
 

“…seeing the people in a state of such awful wickedness…”
 
Both the ancient Nephite version and the modern American version of Gadianton are social deviants. They will both be judged and condemned at the righteous judgement bar of God. However, neither of them appeared out of nowhere. Neither foisted themselves upon an unwilling public. Both were placed in power by “the people” who were in “a state of such awful wickedness” as can hardly be described, but is evidenced by the vile man’s presence in the White house.
 

“…laying aside the commandments of God, and not in the least aright before him…”
 
In a previous blog post (“Ten Commandment Deviant,” 26 June 2018), I outlined how Caligula is guilty of breaking every single one of the 10 commandments. But that survey only scratches the surface of the man’s deviancy. King Benjamin confessed, “I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin” (Mosiah 4.29). In like manner, I confess… no, I charge that there is no counting the ways that Caligula, the American Gadianton Robber, has sinned against America or against all that is good and holy. But most damning, he has never done “the least aright before” God. No, not once. He is nothing if not consistently evil.
 

“…doing no justice unto the children of men; condemning the righteous because of their righteousness…”
 
We will not list the myriad injustices this evil man has perpetrated upon the American people or upon the children of God residing the planet over. Nor will we list the number of “the righteous” whom he as condemned. Anyone who challenges or resists him in any way becomes his enemy. But, in light of the reporting from and about Ukraine, I will name Ambassador Yovanovitch as one of the righteous whom the Robber, Gadianton, has condemned. Yes, she is righteous. Her entire career is proof that she has tried to do right by her country. Her righteousness threatens to expose the evil of the deviant sitting so blasphemously in the White House. So, he and his hordes—hordes composed of far, far, far too many so-called “Christians”—call light, dark and dark, light; sweet, bitter and bitter, good; good, evil and evil, good. “Surely,” saith God, “your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay” (Isaiah 29.16).
 

“…letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money…”
 
 While the list of “the guilty and the wicked” whom Caligula has not only allowed to go “unpunished” but whom he has actually rewarded is not half so long as the list of his vile wickedness, it is, nonetheless, extensive. But, again, in light of Ukraine, we can mention “America’s Mayor,” Rudy Giuliani. If he isn’t the American Gadianton’s own personal Kishkumen, then the Book of Mormon’s Kishkumen is a figment of Joseph Smith’s imagination. Secret combinations are alive and well in this deviant administration.
 

“…to be held in office at the head of government, to rule and do according to their wills, that they might get gain and glory of the world, and, moreover, that they might the more easily commit adultery, and steal, and kill, and do according to their own wills…”
 
The office that the Robber occupies is nothing more to him than an advertisement that draws money and power and fame to himself. He is unaccountable in his fraud. He could kill someone, his attorney’s recently perversely argued, and he could not be tried or convicted. Certainly, he has not been held accountable for the deaths he has facilitated on America’s southern border—child killer that he is. Lucifer-like, he does his will and his will only, the exact opposite of “Christianity’s” supposed God, who submitted his will to that of the one and only living God.
 
​
“…now this great iniquity had come upon the Nephites, in the space of not many years…”
 
Nope, it didn’t take long. When I consider how quickly the hope that America would be a city on a hill has faded and how thoroughly it has become, rather a snake in the grass, I am reminded of Mormon’s lament.
 
“O how foolish, and how vain, and how evil, and devilish, and how quick to do iniquity, and how slow to do good, are the children of men; yea, how quick to hearken unto the words of the evil one, and to set their hearts upon the vain things of the world! Yea, how quick to be lifted up in pride; yea, how quick to boast, and do all manner of that which is iniquity; and how slow are they to remember the Lord their God, and to give ear unto his counsels, yea, how slow to walk in wisdom's paths!” (Helaman 12:4-5)
 
 
For this Robber, Gadianton—this would-be-emperor, Caligula—to have been elected to any American office, let alone the presidency is a deep, deep stain on America. It is the profoundest of humiliations. It is, indeed, a madness. For him to continue “to be held in office at the head of government” will only produce a deeper and more damning madness.​

“For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; ‘Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them’” (Jeremiah 25.15-16).