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I had Chauncey Riddle for Honors Book of Mormon my freshman year at BYU (1971-72), and he raised the same point there. I’ve wrestled with this ever since. Thanks for this wonderful discussion.
Thanks, Daniel Peterson, and thanks Chauncey Riddle for the initial observation that we are not our brother’s keeper in the sense of taking full control of others’ lives–as does a zookeeper. In our society, there are too many who surrender their agency and their personal sense of self-reliance–to whatever degree that is possible–in order to be fully “kept” by others.