Author: Jonathan Neville

We might think that most people, given the same information and background, would reach the same conclusions. However, our beliefs depend on the filters through which we perceive information. If you put on the filters of someone who has taught the Mesoamerican theory his/her entire life, you would probably see things the same way that person does.

It’s extremely difficult to admit you have taught false theories to thousands of faithful Latter-day Saint youth.

But having done so, you have even greater responsibility to correct the mistake.

Especially when you’re still teaching them!

I propose that a more sympathetic understanding of others’ views could lead to a consensus, so long as people are willing to rethink their positions.
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By now, it is well known that the Mesoamerican theory of Book of Mormon geography is based on the premise that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were wrong about Cumorah in New York.*

In other words, Mesomaniacs disbelieve what Joseph and Oliver taught in Letter VII. That’s why I refer to them as unbelievers.

“Unbelievers” in this context is not intended as a pejorative label. It’s purely a description. And the promoters of the Mesoamerican setting don’t disagree with it.

They openly admit they don’t believe Letter VII.

I’ve outlined the history of Mesomania before, such as here, but today I want to emphasize that we should have sympathy and patience for the unbelievers among us.

Put yourself in their places. They have been teaching the Mesoamerican setting for decades. They have even ridiculed those who accept what Joseph and Oliver taught about Cumorah. For example, John Sorenson, in his oft-quoted and admired book Mormon’s Codex, goes so far as to say that what Joseph and Oliver taught is “manifestly absurd.”

These faithful, well-meaning LDS scholars and educators have taught generations of Latter-day Saints to think the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica. We should not criticize them for what has happened in the past. Indeed, we should be sympathetic and understanding. They thought they were doing the right thing, and their influence is pervasive.

But now they know better. 

Or at least most of them do.

They are experiencing cognitive dissonance, as I explained in this cartoon:

Mesomania scholar encounters Letter VII – h/t Scott Adams

We can be sympathetic and understanding regarding the past, and acknowledge the difficulty of dealing with cognitive dissonance.

But at this point, every time someone teaches the Mesoamerican theory (as well as the “abstract map” at BYU which teaches the Mesoamerican theory by applying the Mesoamerican interpretation of the text to a fantasy map), he or she is knowingly teaching LDS youth that Joseph and Oliver were wrong.

I think it is inexcusable for anyone to continue teaching that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were wrong about Cumorah. 

And anyone who is teaching that the real Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is not in New York is teaching that Joseph and Oliver were wrong.

When fully informed, most LDS students, missionaries, and ordinary members side with Joseph and Oliver instead of our LDS scholars and educators who claim Joseph and Oliver were wrong.

The scholars know this. That’s why they have refused to tell their students and readers about Letter VII and the related context.

If the scholars and educators who teach the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory want to continue to believe that theory, fine. If the people at FairMormon, Book of Mormon Central, BYU Studies, the Interpreter, Meridian Magazine and the rest want to continue to believe Joseph and Oliver were wrong, fine.

But they should no longer impose that theory on their students.

And they should no longer suppress what Joseph and Oliver taught.

They should not seek to skirt the issue by using a fantasy map that incorporates the Mesoamerican interpretation of the text and shows Cumorah outside of the real-world New York.

Every LDS scholar and educator has, at a minimum, a duty of full disclosure.

They should tell their students about Letter VII and its historical context so students can make fully informed decisions. They should tell their students that all of Joseph’s contemporaries, and all of his successors who have discussed the topic, including members of the First Presidency in General Conference, have affirmed that there is one Cumorah and it is in New York.

The Mesoamerican advocates can continue to say the prophets and apostles are wrong, but they should no longer hide the facts from their students.
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*A basic tenet of Mesomania is that Joseph and Oliver were ignorant speculators who misled the Church when they taught Cumorah was in New York. Instead, according to Mesomaniacs, there are “two Cumorahs.” The “real Cumorah” is somewhere in Mexico. The one in New York was named by mistake out of ignorance and speculation by unknown early Church members (possibly Oliver Cowdery) and then Joseph Smith adopted this false tradition. Mesomaniacs think every prophet and apostle who has identified Cumorah as the hill in New York, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference, were also wrong and therefore also misled the Church.

In October 2004, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf first talk as an Apostle reminded us of President Hinkely’s teaching that each has an individual responsibility.

President Gordon B. Hinckley said: “We are here to assist our Father in His work and His glory, ‘to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man’ (Moses 1:39). Your obligation is as serious in your sphere of responsibility as is my obligation in my sphere” (“This Is the Work of the Master,” Ensign, May 1995, 71). And the President asked us to reach out to others and bless the lives of those around us. He said: “Let there be cultivated an awareness in every member’s heart of his [and her] own potential for bringing others to a knowledge of the truth. … Let him pray with great earnestness about it” (“Find the Lambs, Feed the Sheep,” Liahona, July 1999, 120; Ensign, May 1999, 106).

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2004/10/the-opportunity-to-testify?lang=eng

As we continue to learn more about Church history and the Book of Mormon, especially the New York Cumorah, I hope we will see opportunities to bring others to a knowledge of the truth. 

In his final sermon in General Conference, Elder Neal A. Maxwell gave some highly relevant advice:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2004/04/remember-how-merciful-the-lord-hath-been?lang=eng

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It’s never too late for any of us to be reminded of our standards and possibilities and to correct the course we’re on when necessary. 

https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/why-were-the-plates-present-during-the-translation-of-the-book-of-mormon

This is clever sophistry. BOMC posits a particular theory as a fact, and then notes some people are “surprised” to discover this fact.

Let’s look at the sentence more closely.

“People [Naive, ignorant LDS people, presumably, but not LDS scholars and anti-Mormons, both of whom have been claiming this all along] are sometimes surprised [other times they’re not surprised?] to discover [one “discovers” truth, which BOMC will announce next] that the plates of the Book of Mormon were not regularly used during the process of its translation.”

Notice how this is framed as a fact–a reality–not merely as one interpretation of many possible interpretations based on a variety of inconsistent, second-hand sources.

Worse, BOMC never even cites relevant scriptures.

Instead, BOMC cites the book From Darkness unto Light which I also very much enjoyed the first time I read it. But then I read it again and reached a different conclusion.*

Basically, BOMC and other Mesoamerican advocates are promoting the same narrative as the CES Letter, summarized in this meme:

I don’t think the historical sources require this theory.

And I think the revelations refute this theory.
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In D&C 10:41, the Lord told Joseph “Therefore, you shall translate the engravings which are on the plates of Nephi.”

This verse is critical because it informs us that Joseph translated specific engravings from specific plates. The BOMC/CES Letter theory would render D&C 10 moot. 

I’ve pointed out before that Joseph didn’t have the plates of Nephi at this point; he didn’t get them until he arrived in Fayette.

Aside from that, consider the implications of the BOMC/CES Letter theory.

If Joseph translated the plates without looking at them, without studying them, and without even turning the plates as he went, then there was no reason for the Lord to even refer to the plates of Nephi.

For that matter, Joseph and Oliver never would have considered going back to the beginning to re-translate the Book of Lehi.

They wouldn’t have known where to begin or end–and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because, according to the BOMC/CES Letter theory, all Joseph did was read from the stone in the hat.

Joseph wouldn’t have known–or cared–which part of the plates contained the Book of Lehi or any other part of the Book of Mormon.

He and Oliver would have had no idea they had reached the end of the plates unless the stone told them, and it would not have been up to them to decide whether to re-translate the Book of Lehi.

It would have been up to the stone.

No need for D&C 10 and the plates of Nephi.

Joseph would have just kept reading from the stone in the hat.

There’s a lot more to discuss on this topic. Maybe another time.
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BOMC notes a problem with their theory here: “There is also some indication that Joseph was at least occasionally aware of the relationship between the plates and the words he was dictating. He once explained that “the Title Page of the Book of Mormon is a literal translation, taken from the very last leaf, on the left-hand side of the collection or book of plates.””

Are we to infer from this that the Title Page was the reason why Mormon and Moroni went to such effort to abridge the Nephite records and preserve them?

Apparently so.

At BYU Education Week this year, I attended a Church history class in which the instructor taught us the BOMC/CES Letter theory that Joseph never actually used the plates. He said, “Somehow, though, Joseph knew the Title Page was on the last leaf of the plates.”

He said this with a slight look of puzzlement, like how could Joseph have possibly known where the Title Page was when all he did was look at the stone in the hat?

He didn’t discuss the obvious follow-up question; i.e., how could Joseph know the English version of the Title Page was “a literal translation” if he wasn’t translating the actual engravings?
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Mesomaniacs such as BOMC have to promote this CES Letter theory that Joseph didn’t really translate the engravings because otherwise, their two-Cumorahs theory collapses.

If, as D&C 10 states, Joseph actually translated the engravings, and he had to translate the engravings on the plates of Nephi (which he didn’t have in Harmony, as we know from the Title Page itself), then Mormon’s depository was actually in New York, as Joseph and Oliver taught (and which others confirmed).

When Joseph Fielding Smith warned that the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory would cause members of the Church to become confused and disturbed in their faith in the Book of Mormon, I wonder if he anticipated that Book of Mormon Central would align itself with the CES Letter this way.

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*This book will be the subject of my first Kindle book review, which will be released in October. (By popular demand, I’ve written reviews of several LDS books that, to be useful, have to be long and detailed, so they are in small book format.)

Today is the 190th anniversary of the day when Joseph obtained the Harmony plates from Moroni. The plates were in a stone box on the Hill Cumorah in western New York. This was in a department of the hill separate from the depository of Nephite records (Mormon 6:6).

Maybe by the 200th anniversary, in 2027, everyone in the Church will accept what Joseph and Oliver taught about Cumorah in Letter VII.

Actually, I hope that day arrives sooner. Maybe in 2023, the 200th anniversary of the date when Joseph first saw the plates?

Or 2020, the 200th anniversary of the First Vision?

But why wait? How about this year, in 2017?

Think of what a difference it would make int he Church and in the world if all of our LDS scholars and educators decided, finally, to embrace what Joseph and Oliver and all of their successors taught?

What started as a small understandable error that could have been easily corrected has, by now, misled thousands of people, LDS and otherwise.

FairMormon actively teaches its readers that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were wrong about Cumorah being in New York. 

FairMormon teaches that Joseph and Oliver ignorantly speculated and thereby created a false tradition that misled the entire Church for 100 years.

Except the mistake was FairMormon’s, not Joseph’s and Oliver’s.

That simple mistake has brought FairMormon to the point of claiming that Brigham Young falsely confirmed what Joseph and Oliver taught.

FairMormon claims that every prophet and apostle who has spoken about Cumorah, including members of the First Presidency in General Conference, were wrong.

Fortunately, there’s still time for FairMormon to change course.

Unfortunately, there’s almost zero chance that they will.
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President Uchtdorf’s first talk as a member of the First Presidency, delivered in April 2008, was titled “A Matter of a Few Degrees.” You can read it here: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/04/a-matter-of-a-few-degrees?lang=eng

It’s a classic that people still remember and discuss.

President Uchdorf related an account of a passenger jet that crashed in Antarctica because “someone had modified the flight coordinates by a mere two degrees.” He explained that “The difference of a few degrees, as with the Antarctica flight … may seem minor. But even small errors over time can make a dramatic difference in our lives.”

This drawing depicts the problem.

The longer you stay on the wrong course, the harder it is to get back to the correct one.

This is why FairMormon, BYU Studies, and the rest are unlikely to change course.

They would rather crash into the mountain of confusion and disturbing the faith of the members, as Joseph Fielding Smith put it, than admit error and change course.
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Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery put the Church on the correct course regarding Book of Mormon historicity and geography. They taught that Cumorah–the Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 specifically–was the hill in New York where Joseph obtained the plates.

The Church kept this course for about a hundred years before scholars from the Reorganized Church changed course and decided Cumorah was actually in Central America. LDS scholars embraced this approach, rejected what Joseph and Oliver taught, and led the Church on a different course.

The different course has led to great confusion, thanks to Church media, publications, and artwork that all depend on–and teach–the idea that Cumorah is not in New York.

Now we’re at a point where a serious course correction is needed.

What would a course correction look like?

First, you’d see a handful of BYU faculty come out in support. Then you’d see more BYU faculty, and probably some CES people, shift to the New York Cumorah. You’d have local Church leaders saying they knew all along that Cumorah was in New York.

Which is where the vast majority of Church members are already.

It’s really only among the intellectuals that the two-Cumorahs theory persists. Most members, as soon as they learn what Joseph and Oliver taught in Letter VII, embrace that teaching and reject the sophistry of the LDS intellectuals who continue to promote their Mesoamerican ideology.

A big course correction could come from BYU Studies. Maybe they would publish an article about Letter VII and the evidence that supports and corroborates what Joseph and Oliver taught.

Maybe even FairMormon would give readers an honest explanation of the North American setting.

I realize that seems unlikely, and it probably is so long as the current management of FairMormon remains in place, but hope springs eternal.

As I’ve mentioned before, the real tragedy is that FairMormon has so much good material on its site that most innocent members (and investigators) who go there don’t realize how deeply misleading FairMormon is when it comes to Church history and Book of Mormon geography.

The Interpreter would never go along, of course, but soon enough they would be on their own island, abandoned to their fate. The Interpreter is a tragic story, as well, because they do publish some good things there. But they are even more intransigent than FairMormon, if that’s possible.
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I often get reports from people who have tried to talk to the LDS intellectuals who promote the two-Cumorahs/Meosamerican theories. The response is always the same. They couldn’t care less about what you think. They won’t discuss Letter VII and related aspects of Church history. They won’t even consider a North American setting for the Book of Mormon.

You can let these LDS scholars and educators know what you think, but they don’t really care what you think, so you’re wasting your time.

It is far better for you do learn all you can. Don’t rely on LDS intellectuals for information because they are pushing a specific agenda that repudiates what Joseph and Oliver taught, as well as the Church’s neutrality position.

The course correction that matters most is the one we make individually.