How not to respond to the CES Letter
Source: About Central America
"Moroni's America" – The North American Setting for the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon in North America
"Moroni's America" – The North American Setting for the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon in North America
"Moroni's America" – The North American Setting for the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon in North America
Source: About Central America
The problem is the 20% that is driven by M2C and taints the rest.
I completely agree that the primary purposes of the Book of Mormon as stated by the prophets and the Title Page:
Which is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever—And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations…
(Title Page, 2)
Here’s a still image of a “Come Follow Me” lesson from Book of Mormon Central. Like everyone else affiliated with Book of Mormon Central, these two professors are awesome people. I like them personally. They undoubtedly have the best of intentions. (I don’t use names because I’ve agreed not to, and their identities don’t matter anyway. It’s content, not identity, that matters.)
This still image is taken from the time when one of the professors said “We try to be neutral” on the question of geography.
They try.
But as Yoda said, “Do or do not… there is no try.”
He couldn’t say “we are neutral” because they are not neutral. After all, they are standing in front of the BYU fantasy map that teaches M2C.
Nothing prevents these professors or anyone else at Book of Mormon Central from being actually neutral. Yet they insist on imposing only one interpretation of the text–the interpretation created and publicized by the M2C promoters.
In an effort to convey a phony “neutrality” despite their M2C interpretation of the text, they developed this map with directions and distances that, they claim, “match the approximately 550 geography descriptions in the text as closely as possible.” As though no viable alternative is possible.
The result is they are teaching the youth of the Church to understand the Book of Mormon in a fictional setting.
An integral part of the map is showing Cumorah far from any possible western New York.
Had he thought of it, Eber D. Howe would have loved to include such a fictional map in Mormonism Unvailed as part of his “attempt to prove it a fiction.”
As we’ll see in my upcoming video analysis of this episode, the good intentions of the M2C proponents don’t matter one way or the other because they are imprinting an indelible and specific interpretation of the Book of Mormon on the minds of their viewers (and students) that reinforces M2C and SITH.
As a preview, here are some stills from the “neutral” video.
Source: About Central America
https://twitter.com/ProfFeynman/status/1277669286794817537
Source: Book of Mormon Concensus
http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2020/06/rethinking-entry-on-book-of-mormon.html
Today we’ll focus on one aspect of the entry in light of an article in the Interpreter on SITH. For those interested, I posted a peer review of that article here:
http://interpreterpeerreviews.blogspot.com/2020/06/seers-and-stones-peer-review.html
_____
One of the most delightful examples of M2C Groupthink is the Gospel Topics entry on Book of Mormon Geography. I bring this up because the Interpreter article about SITH that I peer reviewed includes a fascinating twist on Joseph Smith as editor of the Times and Seasons.
Here’s what the Gospel Topics entry says:
The Prophet Joseph Smith himself accepted what he felt was evidence of Book of Mormon civilizations in both North America and Central America.
[This is a clever rhetorical sentence. It makes specific factual claims about what Joseph thought, and then diminished his credibility by framing that evidence as merely what he “felt.” The sentence is designed to establish skepticism about what follows next.
When we look at the evidence cited to support the two claims, we see that they are actually quite different in terms of credibility and reliability, although the Gospel Topics entry treats them as equivalent. Notice also that the entry makes a distinction between “North” and “Central” America.]
Here is the evidence cited regarding North America.
While traveling with Zion’s Camp in 1834, Joseph wrote to his wife Emma that they were “wandering over the plains of the Nephites, recounting occasionally the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mounds of that once beloved people of the Lord, picking up their skulls and their bones, as a proof of its divine authenticity.”1
[By any standard, this is direct evidence of what Joseph thought, in his own words. It is a statement of fact; there is no hint that he merely “felt” these mounds were evidence of Book of Mormon civilizations. Instead, Joseph personally declared the mounds and bones in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois were “proof of its divine authenticity.” He does not equivocate or speculate. Words cannot be more unambiguous than this.]
Here is the evidence cited regarding Central America.
In 1842, the Church newspaper Times and Seasons published articles under Joseph Smith’s editorship that identified the ruins of ancient native civilizations in Mexico and Central America as further evidence of the Book of Mormon’s historicity.2
[By any standard, this is not direct evidence of what Joseph thought. The entry engages in mind-reading when it states, as fact, that “Joseph Smith himself accepted what he felt was evidence of Book of Mormon civilizations in… Central America.”
Worse, this mind-reading is based on compound questionable assumptions: first, that Joseph was the actual acting editor, and not merely the nominal editor, and second, that as “editor” he allowed material in the Times and Seasons only if he personally agreed with it. Both of those assumptions are too tenuous to support the factual claim that he “accepted” what he “felt” was evidence of Book of Mormon civilizations in Central America.
An accurate statement in the Gospel Topics entry would be something such as this: The Prophet Joseph Smith himself identified evidence of Book of Mormon civilizations in the Midwestern United States, and may have approved speculation about additional evidence in Central America.]
We can see from the equivalence given to these two substantially different pieces of evidence that the author(s) of the Gospel Topics entry had an agenda to read Central America into Joseph’s mind. To do so, the entry assigned great weight to the mere assumptions that (i) Joseph was an active editor who (ii) only allowed material to be published if he personally agreed with it.
I bring this up because in the Interpreter article, we see a different agenda–the establishment of SITH (the stone-in-the-hat theory of translation).
One obstacle to SITH (and to M2C) is the Wentworth letter, which was published as “Church History” in the March 1, 1842, Times and Seasons above Joseph’s signature.
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/church-history-1-march-1842/2
In the Wentworth letter, Joseph specifically claims that “Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift, and power of God.” Obviously, that’s a problem for those who claim Joseph didn’t use the Urim and Thummim. As we noted before, the Gospel Topics Essay on Translation handled this obstacle by simply omitting this passage, an astonishing feat of censorship in an essay that purportedly informs the Saints about the translation.
http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2020/06/review-of-gospel-topics-essay-on.html
The author of the Interpreter article used a different strategy to evade the problem of the Wentworth letter. The article questions Joseph’s ownership not only of material published under his “editorship” but of this specific well-known article he separately signed and republished later. Look at what the article says:
First, the description of the stones as transparent in the Wentworth Letter may have not been intended by Joseph Smith… Although the Wentworth letter is printed over his name, it is unclear how involved he was in its composition and how much control he exerted over the text. p. 56
Central American ruins = Book of Mormon
|
Wentworth letter on Urim and Thummim
|
Joseph Smith was a hands-on editor who controlled and personally approved of everything published in the Times and Seasons, including anonymous editorials.
|
Joseph Smith didn’t even control the contents of the Wentworth letter, which he signed separately when it was published in the Times and Seasons that contained the boilerplate naming him as editor, printer and publisher.
|
This form of “situational responsibility” assigns credibility and authorship based not on extrinsic evidentiary factors, but on the degree of agreement with the respective authors’ views.
We see a lot of that in the work of the M2C and SITH citation cartels. Just look at all the credibility assigned to Emma Smith’s “Last Testimony” and David Whitmer’s pamphlet, “An Address to All Believers in Christ.”
In those two examples, our SITH promoters assign credibility to different parts of the same documents based on whether they agree or disagree with the different parts.
The end result is our beloved Ensign referring readers to David Whitmer’s pamphlet that claims Joseph Smith was a fallen prophet who changed early revelations, never received any Priesthood from angelic messengers, etc.
We discussed that here:
http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2020/01/january-2020-ensign.html
In my view, it makes more sense to teach the Saints and the world what the prophets have taught.
Source: About Central America
Source: Book of Mormon Concensus
Despite the Gospel Topics Essay on Translation and the Ensign, there is still at least one page on the Church’s site that claims Joseph translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim.
https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/joseph-smith-translates-the-gold-plates?lang=eng
Let’s see how long that stays up.
_____
The “Last Testimony” of Emma Smith is frequently quoted lately to support SITH (the stone-in-the-hat theory of translation).
In their Study Edition, the Maxwell Institute put it right after the testimonies of the Three and Eight Witnesses and before Joseph Smith’s testimony. The Gospel Topics Essay quotes it, etc.
It seems bizarre that historians give the “Last Testimony” such deference regarding SITH, when they reject what the document says about plural marriage. Emma’s son wrote the “Last Testimony” for Emma just a couple of months before she died. She never publicly acknowledged it. It was first published six months after she died. The “Last Testimony” mostly focuses on refuting claims made by Brigham Young and the other “Utah Mormons.”
I have an entire chapter about this in my book.
Here’s a brief summary of the problem with relying on Emma Smith.
1. She claims Joseph used the Urim and Thummim until the 116 pages were lost, and after that he used the small dark stone. She never saw the Urim and Thummim.
2. She claims she wrote “day after day” as Joseph dictated with his face buried in the hat with the stone in it. This means she translated after the 116 pages were lost.
3. Lucy Mack Smith reported this:
“After the angel left me’, said he [Joseph], “I continued my supplications to God without cessation; and, on the 22d of September [1828], I had the joy and satisfaction of again receiving the Urim and Thummim; and have commenced translating again, and Emma writes for me; but the angel said that the Lord would send me a scribe, and <I> trust his promise will be verified. The angel He also seemed pleased with me, when he gave me back the Urim and Thummim; and he told me that the Lord loved me, for my faithfulness and humility…
4. This is consistent with Emma acting as scribe after the 116 pages were lost, but inconsistent with her claim that he did not use the Urim and Thummim.
Key point: If Emma started writing the translation in the fall of 1828, the common assumption that Joseph translated the plates in 90 days is wrong. Oliver arrived in Harmony in April 1829, seven months after Joseph received back the Urim and Thummim and began translating.
We assume that, after the 116 pages were lost, Joseph began translating the Book of Mosiah. The original manuscript for the Book of Mosiah was ruined so we don’t know who the scribe was. [The surviving portion of the original manuscript starts with Alma 22.]
Oliver Cowdery said he wrote the entire original manuscript, “save a few pages only.” We have the original manuscript for most of 1 Nephi and part of 2 Nephi, which were written in Fayette. Several chapters of 1 Nephi were written by John Whitmer and another scribe (probably Christian Whitmer). These “few pages” align with what Oliver said.
If Emma really wrote “day after day” and she was writing Joseph’s translation of the plates after the 116 pages were lost, then there are three possibilities:
1. she wrote much of the Book of Mosiah (and maybe Alma) before Oliver arrived in April;
2. she wrote something else;
3. she misremembered, conflated accounts, or was misquoted.
These are some of the issues I address in the chapter in the book.
Source: About Central America
We also encourage people to read the work of those who reject the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah, such as the M2C citation cartel, for contrast. For example, the other day our friends at Book of Mormon Central wrote an article about how ancient societies used parts of human bodies as war trophies. It’s a good point that any authentic history of an ancient society would probably include a history of war, including the use of human body parts as trophies.
https://bookofmormoncentral.org/blog/hands-and-arms-as-trophies-of-valor-examples-from-archaeology
They mentioned examples from Assyrian, Egyptian, and Mayan societies. That’s all great, as far as it goes.
But to our surprise (not) they forgot to mention examples from North America.
This is just the latest in years of examples of how Book of Mormon Central seeks not to educate the Saints, but to indoctrinate them to believe M2C as the only explanation for the Book of Mormon. Their editorial policy is contrary to the Church’s purported position of neutrality, but that has been the case since Book of Mormon Central started a few years ago, even though they mislead their donors by claiming neutrality on their web site. [Book of Mormon Central is merely a nice-looking front for its corporate owner, BMAF.org, a long-time M2C advocacy organization.]
If you’re new to this issue, and if you’ve relied on the M2C citation cartel for information about the Book of Mormon, consider this advice I saw on twitter recently: “Don’t be embarrassed that you did not know something you were never taught. Be proud that you are now willing to learn.”
_____
For those interested in the human trophy issue, there’s a great book titled The Taking and Displaying of Human Body Parts as Trophies by Amerindians, by Chacon and Dye.
In their chapter on the Hopewell, which many Latter-day Saints consider the society in which the Nephites lived (an idea that works with the New York Cumorah), they review the traditional understanding that the Hopewell were peaceful people. Then they write this: “The development of more accurate aging and sexing criteria has prompted a renewed interest in possible Hopewell trophy taking…. What they [the cited studies] have in common, regardless of interpretation, is the documentation that Hopewell trophy skulls and mandibles come from a narrow segment of the population; they are mainly young to middle-aged adults and the majority are males.”
This is consistent with the description in the Book of Mormon of wars featuring young to middle-aged male adults. This is obviously a ubiquitous human feature of wars, even today, but it’s important to know that the latest evidence suggests the Hopewell were not exclusively a peaceful civilization.
There are other examples in North America of arms as trophies. The illustration here depicts a Florida tribe.
Chacon and Dye discuss a site in South Carolina and say “There is a probability here that the arms were taken as trophies for display.”
Regarding a northern Iroquois tribe, they write “Given the ethnographic record of the removal of both arms and legs during episodes of torture and the taking of arms as trophies (e.g., Biggar 1922-1936, 5:231), the presence of considerable numbers of long bones might also be expected, perhaps more arms than legs.”
To repeat: we don’t insist on any particular setting for the Book of Mormon, but we do believe the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah, and there is abundant extrinsic evidence to support those teachings.
_____
The M2C citation cartel typically commits two logical thinking errors to promote M2C and convince Church members that the prophets were wrong about the New York Cumorah.
First, they use evidence of ubiquitous human activity as evidence for the Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica. E.g., Mayans were farmers, Nephites were farmers, therefore Nephites were Mayans.
Second, they cite “correspondences” from Mesoamerica and omit evidence from North America to convey the false impression that Mesoamerica, and not North America, is the only viable setting for the Book of Mormon. [Some M2C proponents, such as employees of Book of Mormon Central and various Internet trolls, always point out that Mesoamerica is technically in North America, but that’s a ruse and we all know it. M2C means, by definition, that the prophets were wrong about the New York Cumorah.]
Honest scholars who sought to inform instead of indoctrinate would not act this way. On this blog, for example, we frequently refer people to the M2C citation cartel so readers can see alternative perspectives for themselves. By contrast, Book of Mormon Central censors any material that contradicts M2C or that supports the “Heartland” or other theories.
They are especially careful to suppress and censor any material that supports the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.
We wish the M2C citation cartel, their employees and followers would simply present their evidence along with alternative evidence so Church members (and non-members) could make informed decisions. But with the example we discussed here today, it does not look likely that they will shift away from indoctrinating toward informing.
_____
*M2C is the acronym for the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory. M2C teaches that the prophets (including Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery) were wrong about the New York Cumorah because the “real” Cumorah is somewhere in Southern Mexico. M2C is distinct from Mesoamerican theories that accommodate the New York Cumorah.
Source: About Central America
We agree with President Heber J. Grant’s counsel: “If you get on a hobby horse it will ride you right out of the Church.”
To avoid getting on a hobby horse, I always keep in mind what Joseph Smith said in 1839.
“We ought to have the building up of Zion as our greatest object.”
We used to talk about the three missions of the Church. Then President Monson added a fourth. I’ve suggested a fifth mission that incorporates the other four. The fifth mission–the establishment of Zion–is a cause that people throughout the world aspire to. They just don’t know how to do it or where to find it if it exists.
In that same 1839 sermon, Joseph said, “When wars come we shall have to flee to Zion, the cry is to make haste. The last revelation says ye shall not have time to have gone over the earth until these things come. I will come as did the cholera, war and fires, burning, earthquakes, one pestilence after another &c until the Ancient of Days come, then judgment will be given to the Saints.”
That passage seems pertinent to the present day, doesn’t it?
The establishment of Zion requires a firm foundation. The hymn to that effect, which was included in the 1835 hymnal, includes this stanza:
“What more can he say than to you he hath said?”
In my view, “he hath said” plenty regarding the translation and historicity of the Book of Mormon, but certain scholars, along with their employees and their followers, have largely rejected those teachings in favor of their own theories. And that is fine–everyone can believe whatever they want–so long as they don’t impose their opinions on others or withhold important facts necessary to make informed decisions.
Related to the establishment of Zion, I think of an agenda item in a meeting of the High Council in Far West in 1837: “8. Shall any intelligence relative to the building up of Zion be withheld from the Council of Zion.”
My purpose in writing these blogs is to compensate for the withholding of “intelligence relative to the building up of Zion.” In my view, members of the Church cannot make informed decisions about the foundation of the Church–Church history and the historicity of the Book of Mormon–because critical, relevant information is being withheld.
Today I’ll use the Gospel Topics Essay on Translation as an example. It is relevant to this blog because SITH–the stone in the hat theory–is the intellectual progeny of M2C, as we’ve discussed before.
_____
Two quotations to frame the problem.
Old Soviet dissident saying: the future is known, it’s the past that is always changing.
Unknown origin, but frequently cited
Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.
George Orwell
_____
Lately there has been a lot of focus on the translation. The Gospel Topics Essay is at the core, so I’ll start there.
The following is my review of the Gospel Topics Essay on Translation. It’s in the appendix of the second edition of my book titled A Man that Can Translate: Joseph Smith and the Nephite Interpreters. In the book I propose a revised essay, but we can’t see the need for a revision until we see the problems with the existing one.
On this blog, the original essay is shown in blue. I’ve retained the original footnotes but renumbered them to incorporate my own footnotes. My comments are subject to revision as I get more input and information, so I welcome comments (email to lostzarahemla@gmail.com).
_____
Source: About Central America
https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/elder-pearson-independent-voices-needed-sustain-faith
He noted that about half of the 1 billion people on Earth who have heard of the Church have an unfavorable impression. But he also offered some good news.
Revisionist history as taught by Joseph’s critics and modern scholars |
Traditional history as taught by JS and OC, the scriptures, and the prophets |
At great sacrifice, Mormon preserved ancient Nephite records and abridged them. Moroni deposited the abridgment in a hill in western New York. |
At great sacrifice, Mormon preserved ancient Nephite records and abridged them. Moroni deposited the abridgment in a hill in western New York. |
Joseph didn’t even use the plates. |
Joseph Smith translated the abridged plates. |
Joseph didn’t use the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates; instead, he read words that appeared on a seer stone in a hat. He didn’t really translate anything. |
Joseph translated the plates into English through the medium of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates |
The Book of Mormon tells the history of either (i) a small group of Israelites among Mayan societies in Mesoamerica or (ii) unknown former inhabitants somewhere in the Western Hemisphere. |
The Book of Mormon tells the history of the aborigines of this country; their descendants are the Indians that now live in this country. |
The Hill Cumorah in New York had nothing to do with the Book of Mormon; i.e., the scene of the final battles of the Jaredites and the Nephites is somewhere in southern Mexico. |
The Hill Cumorah in New York is a Book of Mormon site; i.e., it was the scene of the final battles of the Jaredites and the Nephites. |
Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Lucy Mack Smith, Heber C. Kimball, Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt and others created a false narrative about the New York Cumorah. |
Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Lucy Mack Smith, Heber C. Kimball, Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt and others told the truth about the New York Cumorah. |
D&C 128:20 reflects Joseph Smith’s adoption of the false narrative about the New York Cumorah. |
D&C 128:20 explains that glad tidings came from the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 in western NY. |
I’m just an ordinary member of the Church, but seems to me that the Ensign would be more effective if it supported the teachings of the prophets instead of the teachings of the intellectuals who say the prophets were wrong.
Surveys, social media, and anecdotal data indicate that two of the top reasons why people “choose a different path” are loss of faith in (i) the historicity of the Book of Mormon and (ii) Joseph Smith’s role as a prophet. Both topics are directly related to Church history.
M2C teaches LDS students from an early age to disbelieve the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah. Once that concept is firmly imprinted, it is much easier for students to reject the teachings of the prophets on other topics, including Joseph Smith’s use of the Urim and Thummim to translate the plates. Some of our LDS intellectuals are now teaching that not only did Joseph not actually use the plates, but Joseph didn’t really translate anything. Instead, the Book of Mormon is the product of an unknown translator (or composer) from the 1600s who arranged to have the words appear on the supernatural teleprompter known as the stone in the hat.
SITH, the stone-in-the-hat theory of Book of Mormon translation, is one of the intellectual descendants of M2C.
Let’s look at how the July 2020 Ensign approaches Church history. Tomorrow we’ll look at the Gospel Topics Essay on the Translation to see how these themes have developed.
_____
Excerpts from the Ensign.
How do we know if a source about Church history is reliable?
I’ve seen the attitude of our General Authorities with relationship to our history. The conversations are not about “How do we hide or censor history?” Rather, the conversations are about “How do we make history accessible, available, and understandable?”
This is awesome. Everyone wants history to become accessible, available, and understandable, without hiding or censoring history.
Here’s another excerpt from the July 2020 Ensign:
What role did the Urim and Thummim play in the translation of the Book of Mormon?
Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God.
This is a recent meme we’re seeing more and more. For decades, prophets have testified that Joseph Smith translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim. But that’s not what our intellectuals are teaching today. Instead, they are teaching SITH, which, until a few years ago, only Joseph’s critics and enemies taught.
The Urim and Thummim, mentioned in the Book of Mormon, was buried with the plates. When Moroni gave Joseph the gold plates, he also gave him the Urim and Thummim.
So far, so good.
The seer stone, which Joseph also used to translate, was not buried with the plates.
Now you see the problem. The historians are stating as facts what some observers claimed, much of it hearsay.
It’s very simple. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery consistently and persistently taught that Joseph translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates. The Book of Mormon itself, as well as the Doctrine and Covenants, teach the same thing, as have the prophets starting with Joseph’s contemporaries.
Other observers (and critics) claim that Joseph merely put a seer stone in a hat [SITH] and read words that appeared.
[I think the historical evidence shows that both groups were telling the truth about what they observed, but that SITH is the product of (i) hearsay and (ii) an incorrect inference made by the SITH observers.]
The two alternatives [SITH vs. the Urim and Thummim] were well known in 1834. They were spelled out in the book Mormonism Unvailed, a book critical of Joseph Smith. In response, Joseph and Oliver reaffirmed that Joseph translated with the Urim and Thummim.
But today, our intellectuals say Joseph and Oliver were wrong, or at least didn’t tell the whole truth. They say Joseph used “both” the Urim and Thummim and the seer stone.
Here’s how the Ensign article justifies this:
It [the seer stone] was something that Joseph had found on his own years earlier that helped him to feel in tune with spiritual revelation. So he used both.
We won’t take the time here to assess the evidence for this claim, but everyone can read both Emma Smith’s so-called “Last Testimony” and David Whitmers “Address” to see whether or not they are better sources than the teachings of the prophets.
This analysis explains why we are left wondering what to do. We ask again, do we share the Ensign with our nonmember friends? Do we tell them the narrative in the left column above?
Source: About Central America
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.
_____
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.
_____
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.
_____
Here are a few more illustrations of “Nephite” culture to go along with the Friend cover.
Artwork from https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nQLLne
Source: About Central America