Fortunately prophets have explained the justification in this case a little more, unlike many Old Testament examples that are questionable.InfoWarrior82 wrote:Legion wrote: How did Nephi defend himself by cutting off the head of a passed out drunk man named Laban?
I remember first reading about why Nephi did this when I was just a little lad. He was commanded by God to do so in that specific situation. God and His prophets have that neat ability on a one on one basis. Governments on the earth today, as a bureaucracies, do not have the privilege of receiving commandments like that. I think you using this as an example was weak.
In this case Laban had stolen from Nephi and threatened his life multiple times. Even in the moment Nephi's life was in danger due to threats from Laban and his men. Even in that case it is clearly better to avoid the situation than to confront and kill or injure someone, but in this case Nephi also had a commandment to retrieve some stolen property, and the only way to do that was through such a confrontation.
It's not that violence is never justified, and while it is certainly better to avoid it through retreat or posturing to get the other side to back down (or never step up in the first place) sometimes it is unavoidable.
The problem with using violence to solve social problems is two-fold:
1. no sufficient offense has been committed to justify the use of force
2. among the options for solving the social ills it is not only the least effective, but clearly does more harm than good (which in spite of what politicians say in public, many see this harm as the point of the violence and not the theoretical "good" they use as an excuse)