“They Wear Stiff Necks and High Heads”

Joseph F. McConkie, Robert L. Millet
An apt scriptural description of pride, stubbornness, or spiritual incorrigibility is stiffneckedness. To be stiffnecked is to be resistant to divine counsel. The stiffnecked are unwilling to bow the head in humble reverence toward him from whom all blessings flow. Those with “high heads” view with disdain and condescension the meek and obedient. Possessed of a false sense of independence, they perceive divine restraints as stifling to their exercise of agency and their natural proclivities. Ironically, theirs is a course contrary to the nature of God, and thus contrary to the nature of happiness (see Alma 41:11).

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 1

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