Korihor only appears in one chapter of the Book of Mormon, Alma Chapter 30, though his influence resonates throughout the rest of the Book. He arrives immediately after a major national emergency, the deadly war between Lamanites and Nephites that left victims too numerous to even be counted. Following that war, Nephite society, exhausted and devastated, rebuilds on two seemingly contradictory foundations: the Law of Moses, and their shared belief in Christ. (That’s the defining peculiarity of Nephite society: Christians before Christ, non-Talmudic Torah-followers). In the seventeenth year of the reign of judges, Korihor shows up, preaching against Christianity. Alma makes a point of explaining that this was not against their legal code. People were punished for crimes committed, not for their beliefs.

Korihor is called Anti-Christ. And in verses 13-18, Alma gets specific. Here’s the gist of Korihor’s message (I’m paraphrasing):

Vs. 13: Believing in Christ is foolish and vain. Prophecy itself is impossible; no one can know what’s going to come.

Vs. 14-16: Prophecies are nothing but foolish traditions. You can’t know what you can’t see. You look forward to a remission of sins. That’s just insanity. You believe in things you cannot know; your doctrines and prophecies are nothing but a mass delusion.

Alma foregrounds these accusations of Korihor’s, presumably because they sting the most. After all, Alma himself is being called a deluded fool. (And some variant of the word ‘foolishness’ is used three times in these descriptions). But vs. 17 gets more interesting. This is where we begin to get a larger sense of Korihor’s teachings.

Vs. 17: There’s no atonement. None is needed: “every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime.” There’s no atonement because there’s no overarching morality. You prosper according to your strength, your will, your ambition, your work ethic and the way you apply your native wit.

Vs. 18’s also interesting. We’re told that the result of these teachings is ‘whoredoms.’ ‘Whoredom’ suggests prostitution. But I’m not sure that’s what Alma means by it. It makes sense, though, that sexual license would follow a program based on the rejection of all moral norms. But there’s an interesting phrase Alma uses: they ‘lifted up their heads in wickedness.’ In other words, they reveled in it; they distinguished themselves by it. Am I reading too much into this if I suggest an element of male privilege and sexual exploitation? We’re told that Korihor’s movement included both men and women, which might suggest consensual open sexuality. But there’s so much emphasis on power, on taking what you want and can fight for, it suggests, to my mind at least, a variant on rape culture. In any event, Alma has already told us ‘adultery’ was considered a crime in the Nephite legal code. Was marriage part of what Korihor’s followers rejected? Are we talking about the sexual mores of a hippie commune–theoretically, though not always actually, open and free and non-judgmental? Or something closer to a Playboy mansion: exploitative and woefully sexist, though presumptively built on equality?

Anyway, Korihor made what appear to have been tactical errors, taking his crusade to the two most rigorously pious Church strongholds in Nephite society, the people of Ammon (converted former Lamanites turned pacifists), and the people of Gideon (badly burned in the past by Noah’s priests). Both of whom tie him up and kick him out.

We are given what appears to be an excerpt of his examination by a Gideon high priest, Giddonah. Verse 23-28 are pretty much entirely in Korihor’s voice. Asked why he’s preaching Anti-Christian views, Korihor responds:

Because I do not teach the foolish traditions of your fathers, and because I do not teach this people to bind themselves down under the foolish ordinances and performances which are laid down by ancient priests, to usurp power and authority over them, to keep them in ignorance, that they may not lift up their heads, but be brought down according to thy words. Ye say that this people is a free people. Behold, I say they are in bondage. Ye say that those ancient prophecies are true. Behold, I say that ye do not know that they are true. Ye say that this people is a guilty and a fallen people, because of the transgression of a parent. Behold, I say that a child is not guilty because of its parents. And ye also say that Christ shall come. But behold, I say that ye do not know that there shall be a Christ. And ye say also that he shall be slain for the sins of the world. And thus ye lead away this people after the foolish traditions of your fathers, and according to your own desires; and ye keep them down, even as it were in bondage, that ye may glut yourselves with the labors of their hands, that they durst not look up with boldness, and that they durst not enjoy their rights and privileges. Yea, they durst not make use of that which is their own lest they should offend their priests, who do yoke them according to their desires, and have brought them to believe, by their traditions and their dreams and their whims and their visions and their pretended mysteries, that they should, if they did not do according to their words, offend some unknown being, who they say is God—a being who never has been seen or known, who never was nor ever will be.

The rhetoric is interesting here. Priests ‘keep (people) down.’ The people are in bondage. They’re not allowed boldness, or the free enjoyment of rights and privileges. They can’t ‘make use of that which is their own.’ Korihor’s message is one of liberation and self-improvement and empowerment. Priests are using the rhetoric of obedience and prophecy to keep people from honestly enjoying the fruits of their labors. I can see why it would be compelling.

It’s a rhetoric of freedom, a world-view in which any restrictions, moral, religious, ethical or legal are keeping people ‘down.’ Instead, Korihor urges his followers to look ‘up,’ to liberate themselves from bondage. And yes, Korihor is an atheist–something a sturdy Christian priest like Alma can barely wrap his head around. But I know lots of atheists who are perfectly moral people, who act charitably and kindly and show consideration for others and live the Golden Rule. And I know Christians who don’t do any of those things. Korihor, though, isn’t just an atheist. He wants to liberate everyone from all rules, all norms. He wants people to feel free to exercise their economic power, certainly, and also to use wealth to seize political power. Strong men will prosper. Who cares about anyone else? That seems to be Korihor’s ideology.

In short, he’s an Ayn Randian libertarian. To be continued.