A Deep Dive on War

Review of Morgan Deane, To Stop a Slaughter: Just War and the Book of Mormon (Middletown, DE: Morgan Deane, 2024). 138 pages. $14.99 (paperback).

Abstract: Morgan Deane’s To Stop a Slaughter: Just War and the Book of Mormon defines and discusses the concepts of war in the Book of Mormon and places “just war” within a larger context. The various aspects of just war and its impact are compared to the teachings and writings of scholars and philosophers from the early Church Fathers to Chinese military strategists. This interesting and informative book helps Latter-day Saints understand when war is necessary and justified.

William Tecumseh Sherman, a Union army general in the Civil War, is credited with saying, “War is hell.”[1] War is hell, but according to Morgan Deane in To Stop a Slaughter: Just War and the Book of Mormon, there are times it is necessary. Indeed, war at times is not only needed, but it can and should be just. The purpose of To Stop a Slaughter is to discuss a “powerful, animating, Christlike love that motivates the use of force” (p. 5) at times when it is truly needed.

With that said, I’m going to do what I haven’t done in any previous book review—I’m going to start with the negatives of the book. Deane’s book, which is self-published, needed an extra set of editing [Page 104]eyes, or perhaps two. There were noticeable grammar and punctuation errors that could have been avoided with some professional editing. And, incomprehensibly, there was no printed pagination. I went through and manually wrote page numbers for the purpose of this review. Page numbers could have and should have been added to the text, and an index would have been helpful.

These few negatives are literally my only complaints, and these quibbles should not dissuade any potential reader. The book, which isn’t long, was an enjoyable and interesting read as the author discusses the concept of “just war,” defined as “love compelling the reluctant use of arms to stop a slaughter” (p. 6).

Morgan Deane, a military historian and former U.S. Marine, demonstrates an excellent knowledge of the literature pertaining to war, the philosophical and theological reasons for war, and the conduct of war. This is not surprising, given that some of his earlier publications include Offensive Warfare in The Book of Mormon and a Defense of the Bush Doctrine (2011) and Bleached Bones and Wicked Serpents: Ancient Warfare in the Book of Mormon (2014). In To Stop a Slaughter, he equally quotes and analyzes the writings of early Church Fathers and Chinese and other philosophers as he interweaves the writings of Book of Mormon prophets and warriors like Captain Moroni.

Among the chapters in the book are some provocative topics that encourage fascinating and meaningful discussion. These chapters include “Loving Your Neighbors by Standing Up to Their Slaughter,” “More than Angry: The Debates in Moroni’s Letter,” “Waiting for Revolution: Gideon’s Lessons,” “Kishkummen’s Dagger, Helaman’s Servant, and First Strike,” and “Renounce Peace and Proclaim War, Mormon 4 and Doctrine and Covenants 98.”

Near the beginning of the book, Deane succinctly sets the parameters of the discussion:

Just war flows from two central impulses that people recognize to varying degrees but rarely articulate. Most people understand on a fundamental level that some situations justly demand the use of force. At the same time, most [people] instinctively realize that war is an evil that should be avoided [altogether]. This seeming contradiction is at the heart of just war. (p. 6)

Deane notes how the Book of Mormon cuts through the war of words regarding the controversial topic of war and answers questions [Page 105]about “importance of the heart, when and how a nation should use force, the intent of people making war, preemptive war, [and] insurgency” (p. 9).

Deane sagaciously notes, “Once the pattern that a person can renounce war in their heart while wielding the sword is recognized, it becomes clear that it permeates the Book of Mormon” (p. 16). This concept is repeated throughout the book as Deane discusses Captain Moroni, Helaman, Mormon, and others. The heart of the warrior is of utmost importance, a concept echoed by modern Church leaders who encourage soldiers to “go with love in their hearts for all God’s children, including those on the opposing side.”[2]

In the chapter “Loving Your Neighbors by Standing Up to Their Slaughter,” Deane explains the requirements to make punishment warfare righteous. He notes that punishment war has “fallen out of favor with modern thinkers because it is too often abused and manipulated to the point that any leader can wage war against any state at any time for unjust reasons” (p. 51). This is a concept with which just war theorists have struggled, and it is found in the Book of Mormon. While arguing, as Alma did, that love cannot rob justice, Deane notes that the “Book of Mormon took a concept of punishment warfare that seems abandoned and archaic. It adds theological depth to punishment warfare, or the concept that violation of rights and other injustices must be rectified through warfare” (p. 55).

Throughout the book and in discussions of topics such as punishment warfare, preemptive war, and asymmetric war, Deane shows where he stands on these and other issues.[3] While discussing Moroni’s preemptive war in Alma 46:30, Deane explains that if “an [Page 106]enemy shows intent, means, and imminency,” then there is “a right to strike first with preemptive and even preventive war. When faced by a charging assailant with sword in hand, an assassin with a dagger, people have the God given right to preemptively stop the attack” (p. 104).

Near the end of the book, Deane brings the discussion back around to the state of the heart of not only the warriors but the people or nation in general. He uses the Nephites’ last war as an example. While it was, as he described, their most justified war, their hearts were filled with hate and bloodthirst because of their wickedness. Thus, God would not fight their battles nor give them protection and, ultimately, they lost and were destroyed.

This powerful discussion about the imperative of a loving, peaceful heart that sometimes calls for renouncing peace and proclaiming war continues into the final chapter of the book, “The Just War.” In justifying “just war,” Deane writes, “While many modern theologians seek another Moses or Martin Luther King, Jr., society still needs a Joshua” (p. 127). In other words, there are times when our love should “motivate us to wield the sword” (p. 135). Thus, “Latter-day Saints can and should support warfare when it is an outgrowth of love and protection of rights” (p. 135).

In conclusion, Morgan Deane has taken an important and intriguing little-discussed topic and produced compelling arguments for “just war,” not only in the Book of Mormon, but in general. I heartily and strongly recommend To Stop a Slaughter: Just War and the Book of Mormon. Readers will find it thoughtful and thought-provoking.

1. “I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.” “William T. Sherman,” American Battlefield Trust (website), accessed 13 September 2024, battlefields.org/learn/biographies/william-t-sherman.

2. “War,” Topics and Questions of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, accessed 9 September 2024, churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/war.

3. For example, on page 114, Deane discusses with approval “what some LDS national security professionals have called the Teancum option,” as discussed by Ryan Chavez, “The ‘Teancum Option’ and Modern LDS National Security Thought,” in Wielding the Sword While Proclaiming Peace: Views from the LDS Community on Reconciling the Demands of National Security with the Imperatives of Revealed Truth, ed. Kerry M. Kartchner and Valerie M. Hudson (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2004), 87–100. “The Teancum option is one that targets enemy leaders instead of enemy armies.” While the thought of assassination seems terrible, “it is both justified by international law and can be considered moral.” It certainly was used in the Book of Mormon not only by Teancum but also by Helaman’s servant and, quite frankly, makes sense in terms of winning war without the high cost of lost lives and destruction.

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