96: 21st Century Gadiantons
Their predecessors were loathsome things,
Scurrying from hovel to hole.
Believing themselves the “masters of all”,
They plotted and planned for “control”.
“Control” of the fruits of the labors
Which the honest created and owned.
And in all their meetings and hidden trysts,
They were sure they were quite unknown.
Modern “caves of power” are opulent
And rich carpets caress their feet.
They are swathed in the suits of “leaders”,
Riches flaunted for all to see.
And still they plot and plan for control--
But their goals have grown it seems
For their Master, they would steal men's souls
In a world that cries out to be free.
With a word, their threats may cover the earth,
With a snap, minions rage and burn,
And through it all, they still recall
The scorn which their forefathers earned.
For they neither sowed, nor toiled, nor spun,
They just took what their betters had earned,
These secret conspirators in secret haunts,
Using secrets the wicked may learn.
Despite the world’s adulation,
Regardless of power and wealth,
They remain the children of robbers,
Who steal victims’ lives and health.
They claim to be above the law,
Yet One much greater, unseen,
Knows all their plans in every land,
And champions our liberty.
In every place, in every time,
The reports are legion, and true.
How the Great God of Heaven will succor His own,
Despite what the wicked may do.
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Helaman 2:13
“And behold, in the end of this book ye shall see that this Gadianton did prove the overthrow, yea, almost the entire destruction of the people of Nephi.”
2 Nephi 26:22
“And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.”
Ether 8:24
“Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you; or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who built it up.”