A Mayan picture is worth more than the teachings of the prophets

We love our Church magazines, but sometimes we wonder if the right hand knows what the left hand is doing because of the mixed messages.

For example, some of us thought the entry on Gospel Topics about Book of Mormon geography meant what it said; i.e., the position of the Church was neutral.

Some believe that the history depicted in the Book of Mormon—with the exception of the events in the Near East—occurred in North America, while others believe that it occurred in Central America or South America. Although Church members continue to discuss such theories today, the Church’s only position is that the events the Book of Mormon describes took place in the ancient Americas.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/book-of-mormon-geography?lang=eng

Apparently we were wrong.

Either the editors of Church magazines haven’t gotten the memo, or they have an internal version of the Gospel Topics entry that reads like this:

The Church’s only position is that the events the Book of Mormon describes took place somewhere in Mesoamerica.
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Wouldn’t a truly “neutral” position include teaching the youth what the prophets have taught about Cumorah for a change?

Here’s an example: http://www.lettervii.com/p/byu-packet-on-cumorah.html

How about offering members an explanation about why some Church members still believe what the prophets have taught about Cumorah?

But no. Instead, neutrality means we get nothing but M2C.
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Friend: Alma was a Mayan

Behold what your little ones are learning.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/friend/2020/07/cover?lang=eng

This image on the cover of the July 2020 Friend magazine features distinctive and specific Mayan architecture (see more examples below). The Friend indelibly teaches the children in the Church throughout the world that Alma was a Mayan.

No children or youth in the Church today know what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah. Instead, they get a steady diet of M2C.

This is no surprise. The same M2C message has been taught for many years by CES and BYU. Despite the Gospel Topics entry, CES and BYU still teach the Nephites = Mayans message through the fantasy maps and references to the M2C citation cartel.

Nephites = Mayans is still being taught by Book of Mormon Central, Fair Mormon, the Interpreter, and the rest of the M2C citation cartel.

This cover is only the latest in a long line of M2C images that Church magazines have featured over the years. We discussed this last year.

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2019/04/the-m2c-hoax-part-7-when-science.html

There, I mentioned “The book The Next Mormons reports that only 50% of LDS Millennials are confident that the Book of Mormon is a literal, historical account, and the percentage is declining.”

The Nephites = Mayan narrative will insure that this percentage will continue to decline.
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Here are a few more illustrations of “Nephite” culture to go along with the Friend cover.

Artwork from https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nQLLne