Author: Jonathan Neville

If they are highly educated.. Chances are they are extremely indoctrinated. They don’t question and they don’t think outside the box. They follow, because they’ve been following for years to become highly educated. Highly educated = Highly indoctrinated

It remains puzzling to me why so many faithful LDS intellectuals reject the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah (and the translation of the plates with the Urim and Thummim that accompanied them). But this tweet explains it pretty well.
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The M2C intellectuals at Book of Mormon Central justify their position by saying that only the “dead prophets” taught the New York Cumorah, but they follow the “living prophets.”

President Ivins

By this reasoning, they were bound by President Anthony W. Ivins’ unequivocal teaching of the New York Cumorah until his death in 1934. 

But then other prophets reiterated the New York Cumorah, so they were bound again. For example, they were bound by President Marion G. Romney’s unequivocal teaching of the New York Cumorah, but President Romney’s death in 1988 liberated them to pursue their own theory of Cumorah in southern Mexico.

It’s an irrational approach that engenders confusion, but this is what passes for faithful scholarship today.

Besides, not a single prophet or apostle has ever repudiated the New York Cumorah. This includes the living prophets today as well as the “dead” prophets.

A better approach might be to accept the consistent and persistent teachings of the prophets unless and until the living prophets specifically repudiate those teachings.
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These intellectuals have “outgrown” the teachings of the prophets and want everyone else in the Church to follow them instead.

Years ago, Elder Neal A. Maxwell made this observation:

No wonder, therefore, “to be learned is good if [we] hearken unto the counsels of God” instead of setting them aside as if we have somehow outgrown them (2 Nephi 9:29).

Our M2C intellectuals have “set aside” the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah. The intellectual ancestry of M2C demonstrates that it requires indoctrination to set aside these teachings in favor of M2C. 

This is how the academic cycle works.

M2C indoctrination from ScripturePlus

Let’s get one thing right and then work on the next one.

Let’s start with the New York Cumorah because it is about to become a more serious issue than ever before, thanks to the M2C editorial position of the ScripturePlus app brought to us by Book of Mormon Central.
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Many years ago. Joseph Fielding Smith warned that the idea of “two Cumorahs” would cause members of the Church to become confused and disturbed in their faith in the Book of Mormon. The fulfillment of that warning is all around us.

These intellectuals don’t like it when I point out they are explicitly repudiating the teachings of the prophets, but rather than deal with the facts, they want their followers to remain ignorant of the facts.

Lately, some M2C intellectuals have been on social media claiming I’m lying and slandering people when I discuss the history of M2C. Of course, they never provide specifics. Some time ago, a well-known former Temple and Mission President sent an email to his friends claiming I was lying. (Fortunately, a couple of his friends were also my friends and forwarded the email to me.)

Well.

We are each entitled to make up our own minds about these issues. I’m not trying to persuade anyone here; I’m just discussing facts and explaining how I interpret them. We are all free to believe whatever we want. I just think it’s important for people to make informed decisions.

The problem of censoring (or de-correlating) information is two-fold.

1. Our M2C intellectuals don’t want people to be informed; they want people to take their word for it because of their credentials and positions of influence.

2. Our critics don’t want people to be informed; they want people to be confused by (i) hearsay-based accounts of Church history and (ii) the M2C ideas that repudiate the prophets.

On one hand, it’s true for most people that facts don’t matter; bias confirmation is strong enough that most of us will filter out facts that contradict our biases and accept only facts that confirm our biases.

But on the other hand, many of us want to know the truth and we’ll consider all relevant facts. In my view, the facts support the teachings of the prophets, starting with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.
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I’ve spelled out the facts before but there are a lot of new readers, so I’ll summarize again.

Church leaders, starting with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, have consistently and persistently taught that the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 was the same hill from which Joseph obtained the plates. You can read about it in Letter VII (http://www.lettervii.com/), which was republished multiple times during Joseph’s lifetime, including by his two brothers Don Carlos Smith and William Smith. Joseph also had it copied into his own journal as part of his life history, where you can still read it in the Joseph Smith papers.

The New York Cumorah has been taught by members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference, by other Apostles, and by books published by the Church including Talmage’s Articles of Faith and LeGrand Richards’ A Marvelous Work and a Wonder.

President Marion G. Romney

The Priesthood Correlation Department was created in 1972 (see history here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priesthood_Correlation_Program). Three years later, President Marion G. Romney spoke in General Conference about the New York Cumorah after visiting there on assignment, specifically reaffirming the long history of teaching about the New York Cumorah.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1975/10/americas-destiny?lang=eng
In 1978 General Conference, Elder Mark E. Petersen also reaffirmed the New York Cumorah.In 1979, President Romney again referred to the Hill Cumorah in New York.

Beginning in the 1980s, the New York Cumorah was de-correlated.

Certain M2C scholars began teaching that every prophet and apostle who taught the New York Cumorah was wrong. They still claim the prophets and apostles were merely expressing their opinions and thereby misled the Church.

One of the most prominent examples is Mormon’s Codex, which the Foreword describes as the high-water mark for Book of Mormon studies. The book includes M2C material dating back to the 1980s. In the book, the author wrote this about the teachings of the prophets:

“There remain Latter-day Saints who insist that the final destruction of the Nephites took place in New York, but any such idea is manifestly absurd. Hundreds of thousands of Nephites traipsing across the Mississippi Valley to New York, pursued (why?) by hundreds of thousands of Lamanites, is a scenario worthy only of a witless sci-fi movie, not of history.”

John Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex (Deseret Book, 2013), p. 688.

The M2C intellectuals don’t like to be exposed as repudiating the teachings of the prophets, but they all claim the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah are “manifestly absurd.” By definition, and in practice, they’re all saying, “There remain Letter-day Saints who still believe the teachings of the prophets that the final destruction of the Nephites took place in New York, but any such idea is manifestly absurd.”

You can ask any M2C believer and he/she will tell you he/she agrees with Brother Sorenson. They might say something such as “I think he could have said this better,” or “I wouldn’t have said ‘manifestly absurd,’ but the prophets were clearly wrong.”

No matter how they frame this, they are directly and openly repudiating the prophets every time they teach M2C.

I’ve discussed how the New York Cumorah was de-correlated (meaning censored) from the Saints book, which the Church historians admitted. https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-historians-explain-censorship-in.html

I’ve discussed other examples, but some readers want evidence of specific de-correlation.

To see this map, go to the 2017 seminary manual, here:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/book-of-mormon-seminary-teacher-manual-2017/introduction-to-the-book-of-alma/lesson-104-alma-56-58?lang=eng

Scroll down and you’ll see the map in the materials.

Click on it to get a close-up.

Look for Cumorah in the “land northward” above the “narrow neck of land.” It is just to the left of “Ablom.”

You don’t need to know much about geography to know this is not a map of western New York.

This map is a direct, open repudiation of the teachings of the prophets. It teaches that the “real” Cumorah is not in New York; i.e., that there are “two Cumorahs.” According to this map, the prophets and apostles who have taught that Cumorah was in New York were wrong.

Furthermore, it incorporates the M2C interpretation of the text that precludes any possible interpretation of the text that supports the teachings of the prophets.

As this map depicts, the New York Cumorah has been completely de-correlated from Church media, curriculum, visitors centers, etc.

Instead, the New York Cumorah has been replaced with M2C, as this Seminary map illustrates. It’s basically Mesoamerica turned 90 degrees clockwise.

A fun component of the map is the caption at the bottom: “*Possible relationships of sites in the Book of Mormon, based on internal evidence. No effort should be made to identify points on this map
with any existing geographical location. The map spans Jaredite and Nephite/Lamanite periods during which settlements changed over time.”

First, the “internal evidence” does not drive this map; M2C does. There are lots of alternative interpretations of the “internal evidence” that describe features unlike this map–and even some that fit the New York Cumorah.

Second, “No effort should be made to identify points on this map with any existing geographical location” is a direct repudiation of the teachings of every prophet and apostle who has specifically identified the location of the Hill Cumorah in New York.

Third, the warning against comparing to “any existing geographical location” is an admission that the M2C interpretation doesn’t fit anywhere in the real world, which naturally leads to the conclusion that the text is fiction. This is a major cause of the “faith crisis” that so many people talk about.

Millions of Latter-day Saints have been taught this map (and others like it such as the BYU fantasy map) over the last several years. As such, it has become the de facto interpretation of the text. Thanks to this M2C-accommodating curriculum, many if not most members of the Church cannot “unsee” the hourglass shaped geography of the Book of Mormon.
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Some people claim the curriculum, media and visitors centers are “neutral.” We’ve discussed that before. http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/11/non-neutral-in-gospel-topics.html

Mormon and Moroni at the ScripturesPlus Cumorah in Mesoamerica

Any hint of “neutrality” has been entirely destroyed anyway by the actions of the Church-supported M2C organizations such as Book of Mormon Central. The new “scriptureplus” app explicitly teaches that the “real” Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is in Mesoamerica. Book of Mormon Central is spending millions of dollars to spread its M2C message, using attractive videos and graphics, as well as links to its own M2C “Kno-Whys” and other resources.

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There’s an easy solution to at least this one problem: re-correlating the New York Cumorah.

To reaffirm the New York Cumorah and all the prophets and apostles who unequivocally taught it for 150 years would go a long way to restoring faith in the teachings of the prophets and apostles. It would reverse the impact of M2C, which, as Joseph Fielding Smith warned long ago, causes members to become confused and disturbed in their faith in the Book of Mormon.
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Whether the New York Cumorah remains de-correlated or is re-correlated, no one is bound by the teachings of the M2C intellectuals or the teachings of employees, even the employees who prepared the M2C curriculum.

As I wrote at the outset, we are each entitled to make up our own minds about these issues. I’m not trying to persuade anyone here; I’m just explaining how I see the facts. You are free to believe whatever you want. I just want people to make informed decisions.

I’ve found that most Latter-day Saints, once they know what the prophets have taught, side with the prophets vs the intellectuals.

That’s why de-correlating the New York Cumorah has been such a mistake, and why re-correlating Cumorah would be a simple step towards eliminating a major source of confusion in the Church.

I’m reposting some of the most popular posts in the blog for new readers. This one was originally posted on August 24, 2016. I’ve edited it a little. The post is especially important now that ScripturePlus, the new app from Book of Mormon Central, is explicitly teaching M2C.

Missionary work involves a variety of expectations, but in this post I’m focusing solely on the expectations raised by the missionary edition of the Book of Mormon.

Over the years, the official editions of the Book of Mormon have contained sets of illustrations. I have copies of many of these that I’ll use to make this important point: The expectations of missionaries, investigators and members are set largely by these illustrations.

The illustrations that accompany the official missionary edition of the Book of Mormon are tremendously influential. Far more people look at the illustrations than read the text. We can reasonably assume that 100 people look at the pictures for every one person who actually starts reading the book. Probably 1,000 people look at the pictures for every person who reads the entire text. 

Obviously, the message in the text is ultimately the most important, but unless people read the text, they don’t get the message. If the illustrations convey ideas that contradict the text (and Church history), then they cause confusion.

The fact that these illustrations have changed over the years shows that they can be changed again. At the end of this post, I have a suggestion along those lines.

The history of these illustrations reflects a shift from a hemispheric model (the one that Arnold Friberg apparently intended) to the limited geography Mesoamerican/two-Cumorah model (M2C) that modern scholars support. 

For example, notice that the earlier editions showed both Mormon and Moroni at the Hill Cumorah in New York, while the newer editions show only Moroni in New York.

It is time to shift back to a one-Cumorah model, based on New York.
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I have a copy of a 1961 Book of Mormon that contains the following illustrations at the front of the book:

The caption: When Jesus Christ organized His Church, He called and ordained his disciples.

Caption: The Prophet Joseph Smith. He translated the ancient writings inscribed on gold plates from which the first edition of the Book of Mormon was published in 1830.

Caption: The Hill Cumorah, near Manchester, New York where Joseph Smith obtained the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated.

Caption: The beautiful monument to the Book of Mormon Prophet Moroni was erected on the top of the Hill Cumorah in July, 1935.

Caption: Gold tablet found in Persia in 1961, dating to the time of Darius II (Fourth Century B.C.)…

Caption: Ancient copper and bronze tools dated from the Book of Mormon period.

Caption: Gold plates from Peru fastened together with gold rings. Ancient Americans were skilled craftsmen in gold and precious metals.

Caption: Textiles from Peru, dated from the Book of Mormon period.

Caption: Egyptian-like murals found on temple walls in Mexico.

Caption: Looking across the main plaza of Monte Alban (sacred mountain). This city dates back to 800 years before Christ.

Caption: Temple of the Cross in Mexico. This temple, believed to have been erected during the Maya Classic Period, contains the famous Cross of Palenque. Many archaeologists now agree that these artistic masterpieces date back to the beginning of the Christian era.

In addition to these illustrations, eight of the twelve Arnold Friberg paintings are interspersed in the text.

The exact same set of illustrations are in the 1980 English edition I’m looking at as I write this post.

[Note: I also have a 1973 Spanish edition that contains the same illustrations except it substitutes Machu Picchu for Monte Alban. I suspect the reason is to show a hemispheric model that would appeal to people in South America.]

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The 1981 English edition changed the illustrations to what we have now, both in print and on lds.org here. This is the edition that added the subtitle “Another Testament of Jesus Christ” to the cover.

If I’m an investigator, missionary, or member, here’s what I take away from these illustrations. First, Christ is the most important (the first illustration) and the Heinrich Hoffman painting depicts the traditional Christ accepted by Christianity generally. Awesome.

Second, Joseph Smith. Makes sense.

Third, finding the Liahona in the Arabian desert. One of the best Friberg paintings, set in the right place, and emphasizing a key element of the text. Nice.

Fourth, arriving at the promised land. So long as I don’t realize that Friberg intentionally used a bird species that exists only in Central America, and so long as I don’t notice the high mountains in the background, the painting is ambiguous enough that Lehi could have landed almost anywhere in the Americas. Okay, but not great.

Fifth, the waters of Mormon in the depths of a thick jungle featuring high mountains. Hmm, now it’s inescapable. I have to conclude that the Book of Mormon took place in Central America somewhere (or maybe somewhere in the Andes). Let’s say, not good because it conveys a specific setting the text does not support. Worse, it accommodates the scholars’ two-Cumorah theory that rejects Letter VII and Oliver Cowdery, one of the Three Witnesses.

Sixth, Samuel the Lamanite on the Mayan walls of the city of Zarahemla. Now there’s no doubt about it. As a reader, I will assume the Book of Mormon took place in Central America. But when I read the text, I’ll be seriously disappointed and confused to discover the text never mentions huge stone pyramids and temples. It never mentions jungles. 

Seventh, Jesus Christ visits the Americas by John Scott. This painting combines a variety of ancient American motifs to convey the idea (I think) that Christ visited people throughout the Americas. The text only describes one visit, but it alludes to other visits, so this seems okay.

The big problem with including this illustration is the inference that Christ is visiting the Nephites in Central America. The painting is incorrectly labeled “Christ teaching Nephites” on lds.org, for example. If the webmaster at lds.org misunderstands the painting, surely investigators, missionaries, and members make the wrong inference as well.

Eighth, Moroni burying the plates. Awesome. Except the caption doesn’t say where Moroni is burying them; it doesn’t mention Cumorah or New York. The Introduction says Moroni “hid up the plates in the Hill Cumorah,” so as a reader, I infer this painting is supposed to be the New York hill. But then how could all the other events take place somewhere in Central America? 

When I read about Cumorah in Mormon 6:6, I’ll naturally wonder where that hill is. If I ask the missionaries, they’ll tell me they don’t know where it is. That seems bizarre, to say the least. If I search the Internet, I’ll quickly discover that Church leaders through the 1970s taught that it was a fact that the Hill Cumorah was in western New York. It was the same hill where Moroni buried the plates. 

So why can’t the missionaries answer the question?

Because intellectuals in the Church have decided Church leaders were wrong about the New York Cumorah. They claim there are “two Cumorahs.” The hill in New York, they say, was falsely named Cumorah by early Church members. They say the accounts of Moroni calling the hill Cumorah were false, that Joseph and Oliver never actually visited the depository of Nephite records inside the New York hill, etc.

These intellectuals have persuaded many members and leaders in the Church today that previous Church leaders (including Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery) were wrong. Now we’re at the point where hardly anyone wants to re-affirm or even support the teachings of the prophets about Cumorah. 

Instead, we have an anonymous Gospel Topics Essay that says the Church takes “no position” on any aspect of Book of Mormon geography.

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My suggestion.

A member, missionary, or investigator who looks at the official edition of the Book of Mormon, online or in print, will naturally turn to these illustrations and take away the message that the Book of Mormon events occurred in Central America. There is really no other feasible conclusion to be drawn from the illustrations.

But the illustrations contradict the text itself in many ways.

The only certain connection we have between the Book of Mormon and the modern world is the Hill Cumorah. People who read the text should not be influenced by depictions of huge Mayan temples, massive stone walls, jungles, and the like. Artistic representations should rely on the text. Some of the Arnold Friberg paintings are set in places that conform to the text; i.e., Lehi in Arabia, brother of Jared on a high mountain, Mormon and Moroni on the New York Hill Cumorah. Others, however, have created expectations among members and nonmembers alike that simply cannot be reconciled with the text or satisfied in the real world.

The sooner they are replaced with text-based illustrations, the better.

Given the existing artwork, here’s what I would like to see in the way of Book of Mormon illustrations:

Awesome.

I’d like to go back to the emphasis on the Hill Cumorah in New York, both because of its central role in the restoration, and because of its importance in the text. This spot, in New York, is where the Nephite and Jaredite civilizations came to an end.

I’d like to see a quotation from Oliver Cowdery’s Letter VII here in the caption. After all, Oliver’s testimony as one of the three witnesses is already in the introductory material. Maybe instead of the statue, we could have a photo of the valley to the west where the final battles took place.

Keep this illustration of Lehi and the liahona because it is consistent with the text; i.e., a Middle-Eastern setting.

Add this one back because it’s an important story and shows the coast of the Arabian peninsula.

Add this one because it is important to show actual sheep from the text instead of the tapirs and agouti in Central America, although the tropical plants are still problematic.

Add this one back because of how important the story is and the setting, somewhere in Asia, doesn’t matter.

Add this one back because it shows both Mormon and Moroni at the Hill Cumorah in New York. This is eliminates any confusion about Cumorah. It reaffirms what Oliver Cowdery wrote in Letter VII.

Keep this one because it shows Moroni burying the plates in New York in the stone and cement box he constructed, away from the repository of the Nephite records that his father Mormon concealed elsewhere in the hill.

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Illustrations that are consistent with the text can help encourage people to read the text and engage with it. Illustrations that are inconsistent with the text–i.e., illustrations of jungles and massive stone pyramids–are confusing and off-putting. When people discover that illustrations in the official editions rely on the scholars’ two-Cumorah theory, it’s even worse. The scholarly theories that the Hill Cumorah is actually anywhere but in New York, and that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were speculating about all of this, are hardly conducive to faith.

If we could have a consistent narrative based on the New York setting for the Hill Cumorah, and eliminate the confusing images based on Central America, the message of the text would be free from distractions, which would enhance understanding and faith. 

There are two levels of M2C to consider. One is harmless; the other is disastrous.

Level 1. There are lots of theories of Book of Mormon geography, and that’s fine. People can believe whatever they want. So long as their belief in the Book of Mormon brings them closer to Christ, it doesn’t matter what they think about the geographical setting and historicity. 

Level 1 is neutral. This is the position taken by the current iteration of the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Geography. This is the level at which the geography “doesn’t matter” to those who accept the Book of Mormon on faith.

All theories of Book of Mormon geography fall into one of two categories, and at Level 1 it doesn’t matter which you believe:

1) The Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is in western New York.
2) The Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is not in western New York. (This category includes those who accept the Book of Mormon as metaphorical; i.e., not a real history of real people in a real setting.)

Faithful believers in the Book of Mormon can be found in both categories. At this level, M2C is harmless. It’s just one of many theories that claim the Hill Cumorah is not in New York, along with Peru, Chile, Panama, Baja, and even theories in other parts of the world.

Alternatively, people can believe in the Heartland theory, or the New York theory, or any other theory that keeps Cumorah in New York. These are all faith-based theories, supported in some sense by extrinsic evidence but not driven by such evidence.

At level 1, there is no reason to debate the geography issues.

People can consider the evidence that supports the various theories and choose what makes sense for them. What matters is how the book changes their lives and brings them closer to Christ.
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Level 2. Level 2 involves physical evidence, textual interpretation, the teachings of the prophets, etc.

Truth claims are different from beliefs based on faith. 

Most people in the world don’t accept the Book of Mormon on faith. As Moroni 10 teaches, great faith is only one gift of the Spirit. Most active members of the Church, by definition, have great faith. But there are other ways the Spirit can manifest the truth to us, and some of these involve wisdom and knowledge.

In other words, it is appropriate to consider extrinsic evidence in assessing the Book of Mormon. For those without the spiritual gift of great faith, such evidence is essential.

(And those who have the spiritual gift of great faith should never judge or denigrate those who have a different gift, as we should have learned long ago from 1 Cor. 12:21.)

We could say that Level 1 is mostly faith-based, while Level 2 is mostly evidence-based.

At Level 2, M2C is a disaster because it expressly and openly repudiates the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah. This takes it out of the realm of just another theory.

M2C asserts, as a fact, that the prophets are wrong.

(M2C intellectuals like to frame this more smoothly by saying the prophets were merely expressing their private opinions so the fact that they were wrong doesn’t impact their prophetic mantle. They apply this framing even to members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference. Of course, that same reasoning can apply to everything the prophets teach, so while the “opinion” argument may appear more palatable, it teaches the same bottom line; i.e. that the prophets are wrong.)

As Joseph Fielding Smith warned long ago, M2C causes members of the Church to become confused and disturbed in their faith in the Book of Mormon.

In our day, the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah have been “de-correlated,” meaning they have been largely censored. The Saints book, for example, censored the term Cumorah to accommodate M2C by creating a false historical narrative. The 2020 Come Follow Me manual also censors Cumorah.

Anyone who learns Church history by reading Saints or the Come Follow Me manual will never know what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah and why it was such a central point for Church members during the lifetime of Joseph Smith.

But those who study Church history on their own will learn the truth. They will wonder why the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah have been “de-correlated.” In many cases, they will first learn the truth from critics of the Church who pose these obvious questions to missionaries and members.

De-correlating the teachings of the prophets to accommodate M2C is an unmitigated disaster.

M2C is also a disaster at Level 2 because it has become the de facto position of the Church, despite the announced position of neutrality.

M2C on display at Temple Sq

M2C is on explicit display in the Visitors Center on Temple Square. It is being explicitly taught by Book of Mormon Central, FairMormon, and other Church-sponsored organizations.

M2C is portrayed in Church media and manuals, including the illustrations in the 2020 Come Follow Me curriculum.

As we just discussed, M2C is accommodated in the Saints book which de-correlated the term Cumorah from Church history.

ScripturePlus replaces Gospel Library

ScripturePlus, the new app from Book of Mormon Central that uses the official scriptures licensed from the Church, teaches M2C expressly and exclusively. ScripturePlus is designed to entice Church members away from the Church’s Gospel Library, which is (relatively) neutral on the question of Book of Mormon geography.

Soon, even more than it is already, M2C will be enshrined as the only “acceptable” explanation for the Book of Mormon.

Students throughout the Church are being taught the M2C interpretation of the text by the use of so-called “abstract” maps, which are nothing less than fantasy maps. This practice imprints the M2C interpretation as the only “approved” interpretation.

At level 2, M2C presents a “take it or leave it” approach to the Book of Mormon. 

For years, Book of Mormon Central and the rest of the M2C citation cartel have framed M2C as the only plausible and acceptable theory of Book of Mormon geography. That’s why they censor alternative views and evidences, including the teachings of the prophets.

If you don’t accept M2C, you’re not welcome at Book of Mormon Central, or FairMormon, or the Interpreter, or Meridian Magazine, or even BYU Studies.

Not only are you not welcome, but employees and followers of the M2C citation cartel will ostracize you and criticize you on social media and in person.

Now that M2C has infiltrated Church media, manuals, and visitors centers as the only acceptable interpretation, the M2C message is expanding beyond the M2C citation cartel to the Church as a whole. I’ve received reports from faithful Church members being openly criticized and ostracized at Church meetings solely because they don’t accept M2C.

That alone would make M2C a disaster.

But that is not the only reason why Level 2 M2C is a disaster.
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At Level 2, when M2C is presented as the only acceptable setting for the Book of Mormon, M2C invites close scrutiny.

For those outside the M2C bubble, whether inside or outside of the Church, such scrutiny exposes M2C as a hoax.

At Level 1, we don’t care whether M2C is a hoax because it’s just another faith-based theory that works for some people. Facts and evidence are irrelevant; people believe the Book of Mormon is true purely because they received a spiritual witness. And that’s wonderful.

But at Level 2, now that M2C has become the quasi-official position of the Church, it matters a great deal that M2C is a hoax.

Before discussing the hoax problem, let’s look at a fundamental theological problem with M2C.

Once M2C is established as the only acceptable setting for the Book of Mormon, one’s faith in the Book of Mormon requires one to accept three premises that many members of the Church find unacceptable.

Premise 1: the prophets who taught the New York Cumorah misled the Church.
Premise 2: there is only one way to interpret the text, and that is to make it fit M2C.
Premise 3: the extrinsic evidence supports only M2C.

Premise 1. The problems with Premise 1 should be obvious. We already saw how M2C has led to the de-correlation of the teachings of the prophets, but that’s not the only, or even the most serious, impact.

Once the M2C intellectuals persuade Church members (and nonmembers) that Church leaders misled the Church about the New York Cumorah, it is easy to persuade people that the prophets could be wrong about lots of things.

Currently, the most glaring ramification of repudiating the prophets is the peep stone-in-a-hat narrative, which, like M2C, claims that Joseph, Oliver and all their successors misled Church members. In this case, the intellectuals say Joseph and Oliver were wrong about the translation of the Book of Mormon.

Now we’re expected to believe that, instead of translating the engravings on the plates with the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, Joseph simply read words that appeared on a peep stone he put in a hat. The words were provided by an unknown “intermediate translator” and the peep stone acted as a metaphysical teleprompter. Joseph didn’t even use the plates. When he and Oliver consistently said that Joseph used the plates and the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates, they misled the Church, just like they did with the New York Cumorah.

The peep stone theory originated in the early 1830s and was expressly contradicted by Joseph and Oliver, but, as with M2C, certain intellectuals in the Church have persuaded people to accept the peep stone theory anyway.

For many faithful Church members, this is a big problem. For others, it’s not a problem because their spiritual testimony trumps everything else; they put questions “on a shelf” and proceed as if the questions didn’t exist. And that’s fine. That’s the same approach taken by most people in the world who adhere to their beliefs. But fewer and fewer people (especially younger generations) are satisfied with putting obvious questions “on a shelf” to be ignored.

For skeptical Church members (as well as almost all non-members) the peep stone theory requires an enormous leap of faith that few are willing to make. The peep stone theory is, in a word, unbelievable. It undermines everything the scriptures teach about the importance of the plates and introduces this mysterious “intermediate translator” that supplants Joseph Smith as translator.

Premise 1 of M2C has other ramifications that we’ll discuss in upcoming posts.

Premise 2. The M2C claim that there is only one way to interpret the text is absurd on its face. Biblical students have long known there are many ways to interpret passages of text. The legal system daily confronts different interpretations of statutes and regulations. Interpersonal communications are complicated by misunderstandings of common language.

There are always multiple interpretations of a text. I’ve written this long post to clarify my previous writings and to put them in context, but surely some critics will take even this post out of context or interpret it to mean something other than what I’ve intended.

While the M2C proponents claim there is only one way to interpret the text (i.e., to make it fit Mesoamerica), they also claim the “intermediate translator” made mistakes by Americanizing the original Mayan references. That’s why the text refers to horses instead of tapirs, for example, and towers built in a day instead of massive stone pyramids. The “intermediate translator” also forgot to mention volcanoes, jungles, jaguars, and jade.

Not to mention the Mayans themselves.

And yet, the M2C proponents claim the “intermediate translator” was perfect when it came to references about geography that (they claim) describe Mesoamerica. Except that he/she made a mistake by using different terms for the same feature; i.e., there was only one “narrow neck of land” even though the text refers to a narrow neck, a small neck, and a narrow neck of land in different places.

When you read a book such as Mormon’s Codex, the contorted M2C interpretations are all too apparent to anyone outside the M2C bubble. The book is riddled with logical fallacies as well, and yet the Foreword was written by one of the most famous intellectuals in the Church today, who claimed this book represented the high water mark for Book of Mormon studies.

Sadly, he was correct.

M2C has become the de facto position of the Church only because the M2C intellectuals, their employees and their followers, have persuaded so many Church members that there is only one way to interpret the text, and that interpretation fits only M2C. It’s circular reasoning at its worst, reinforced by Church media, manuals and Visitors Centers (not to mention the Saints book and Come Follow Me manual that de-correlated Cumorah completely).

Those of us outside the M2C bubble are not saying the M2C interpretation is irrational or insupportable.

We’re saying it’s not the only, or even the best, possible interpretation.

We’re saying that the M2C intellectuals should stop censoring other ideas about Book of Mormon geography and historicity.

We’re saying that the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah should be re-correlated in Church media, manuals and visitors centers.

We’re saying that M2C should not be established as the de facto position of the Church.

Otherwise, those who reject M2C will tend to also reject the Book of Mormon and the Church itself, as we’ll see below. That’s a worst-case scenario that is already playing out, and will become even worse the more entrenched M2C becomes.

The Church’s policy of neutrality is the only one that makes sense at the present time, but it is not being followed by Church employees, or else we wouldn’t see the teachings of the prophets being de-correlated, M2C presented in the manuals, media and visitors centers, M2C taught in the Church Educational System, etc.

Premise 3. M2C intellectuals claim the extrinsic evidence (archaeology, anthropology, geology, geography, etc.) leads only to the Mesoamerican setting for the Book of Mormon. Then they rationalize that Mesoamerica is too far from New York for the Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 to be located in New York, so the “real” Cumorah must be in southern Mexico, contrary to the teachings of the prophets.

Re-read that last paragraph and you’ll see how nonsensical the whole M2C idea is. It’s nothing but a hoax.

Not long ago I spoke with a well-known General Authority about this. He told me his own brother, who is an actual expert in Mayan studies, left the Church over this issue because he knew there was nothing in Mayan culture that even resembled the Book of Mormon, but the Church teaches M2C so therefore it couldn’t be true.

I replied that his brother was correct about the first two points, but not the final conclusion.

There is nothing in Mayan culture that fits the text of the Book of Mormon. It is only the M2C interpretation of the text that fits. Because that interpretation is driven by the prior assumption that the text must describe Mesoamerica, it is pure circular reasoning.

This brother’s belief that the Church teaches M2C is a rational conclusion based on the manuals, media, and visitors centers, as well as the de-correlation of the actual teachings of the prophets about Cumorah.

But this brother’s conclusion about the truthfulness of the Church was not correct because (at least so far) M2C has never been taught in General Conference or explicitly by any of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve. Instead, every one of them who has addressed the issue has reaffirmed that the Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is in western New York.

(Teachings that current inhabitants of Latin America have Lamanite ancestry are irrelevant to the Book of Mormon setting because of migrations post 400 AD).

This example is one of many we could cite of people who have become confused and disturbed in their faith in the Book of Mormon because of M2C, just as Joseph Fielding Smith warned.

Hence, the disaster of establishing M2C as the de facto position of the Church on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, as Book of Mormon Central has done.

Most people in the world, and more and more people in the Church, are being driven away because, on a Level 2 basis, they don’t accept M2C.

Hence, M2C is a disaster at Level 2.
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Now, let’s discuss how M2C is a hoax.

In the early days of the Church, everyone knew the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 was in western New York because of Letter VII and other teachings, such as Oliver’s account of multiple visits to the depository of Nephite records inside the hill Cumorah in New York.

Some early Mormon writers assumed that any evidence of ancient civilizations in the Western Hemisphere was evidence of the Book of Mormon.

For example, a popular book by Alexander von Humboldt, published in English in 1806, referred to Panama as a “neck of land.” Naturally, early Church members (but never Joseph Smith or Oliver Cowdery) equated Panama with the “neck of land” mentioned in the Book of Mormon.

Orson Pratt spent several pages of his 1840 missionary pamphlet describing how the native people in Central and South America were Lamanites. When Joseph wrote the Wentworth letter, he borrowed from this pamphlet, but when he came to Orson’s description of the Lamanites, Joseph replaced it with the statement that “The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country.”

(This passage was de-correlated (censored) in the Joseph Smith manual because it contradicts M2C, especially when we compare it to the Orson Pratt pamphlet. See http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2017/07/editing-wentworth-letter.html)

It’s easy to see why early members jumped to their conclusions. They had no idea that many of the ruins in Central America that they claimed were “Nephite” actually dated to well after 400 AD. They also had no idea about the sophistication of the earthworks created by the Adena and Hopewell Indians in North America. They didn’t even know there were two separate ancient civilizations in North America that corresponded in time and space to the Jaredites and Nephites. Those distinct civilizations wouldn’t be identified until decades after the Book of Mormon was published.

Throughout the 1800s, there were lots of opinions about Book of Mormon geography, but everyone admitted they were speculative with the exception of one spot: the Hill Ramah/Cumorah in western New York. Everyone agreed on that point. Heber C. Kimball even visited the site after he joined the Church and reported he could still see the embankments at the hill.

M2C originated with RLDS scholars in the late 1800s. Coincidentally, President Joseph F. Smith at the time was seeking to purchase the Hill Cumorah in New York. The RLDS were in an ongoing theological battle with the LDS in Utah over polygamy and other issues. The Cumorah issue was one of several sources of conflict.

M2C proponents relied on anonymous 1842 articles in the Times and Seasons, while they completely ignored Letter VII, which was first published in 1836 and republished at the direction of Joseph Smith in all LDS and LDS-related newspapers through 1844–including the Times and Seasons. It was intellectually dishonest to suppress Letter VII while promoting the anonymous articles that didn’t even mention Cumorah, but their tactics were successful.

These RLDS scholars moved Cumorah from New York to southern Mexico.

In the early to mid 1900s, LDS scholars began accepting the RLDS ideas about M2C, despite the objections of LDS leaders including Joseph Fielding Smith, James E. Talmage, and LeGrand Richards. The debates continued throughout the 1900s. In the 1970s, President Marion G. Romney and Elder Mark E. Peterson reaffirmed the New York Cumorah in General Conference, just as LDS intellectuals were becoming more vocal about M2C.

In 1990, the First Presidency reaffirmed the New York Cumorah in a letter written to a Bishop who had raised the question, but M2C intellectuals continued to assert M2C through the Church Educational System.

The tipping point was in the early 1980s when M2C was published in the Ensign and more M2C books appeared. Over the next 40 years, LDS students throughout the Church have been taught to understand the Book of Mormon through the M2C lens.

Once M2C has been imprinted on a person’s mind, especially in the context of the Church Educational System, that person is inside the M2C bubble. He/she has difficulty interpreting the text and the evidence in any way contrary to the M2C interpretation.

I know because I was inside that bubble for decades myself.

This ad from Book of Mormon Central exposes the M2C bubble.

It features the Mayan logo, conveying the message that you have to believe M2C. It claims the “evidences are clear and convincing,” yet the evidences for M2C are neither clear nor convincing to anyone outside the M2C bubble.

To adherents of every religion, the evidences are “clear and convincing” or they wouldn’t adhere to their religion. It’s a nonsense claim to anyone who doesn’t already accept the belief.

Worse, the slogan make a promise that M2C can’t keep.

Instead, the M2C evidences are transparent circular reasoning, based on tortured interpretations of a text that is anything but Mayan in nature. The M2C evidences aren’t even convincing to many who believe the Book of Mormon is an actual history. These evidences are completely unconvincing to actual Mayan experts or the world at large who can compare Mayan civilization to the descriptions in the text.

Outside the M2C bubble, the extrinsic evidence points to anything but M2C.
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We would like to leave M2C alone. At Level 1, we would ignore it and let people believe whatever they want, no problem.

But at Level 2, now that M2C is entrenched and ScripturePlus is about to supplant the Church’s own Gospel Library, and with the ongoing de-correlation of the teachings of the prophets about Cumorah, it is important for those who cannot accept M2C to know there is an alternative.

Those who see the logical and factual fallacies of M2C should not reject the Book of Mormon or the Church on that basis.

Whether you are inside or outside of the Church, you don’t have to accept M2C to accept the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. 

There are many of us who accept the Book of Mormon but reject M2C.

I’ve discussed the M2C evidence in some detail before, and we’ll do so again, but as long as M2C continues to be the default take-it-or-leave-it position of the Church, we can expect to see more of what Joseph Fielding Smith warned: Saints will become confused and disturbed in their faith.

And the rest of the world will find the Book of Mormon less and less credible.

As I write this, I’m looking out at a city of over 8 million residents (about the same as New York City). The sky above the tall, modern buildings is blue and cloudy. There are trees everywhere. People ride electric vehicles, use fast public transportation, and walk, staring constantly at their smart phones.

Everything is awesome.

Except…
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Last year, Elder Pearson said at the FairMormon conference that only about 1 billion out of the 7.5 billion people on Earth have ever heard of the Church.

This is fortunate, IMO, because there is a lot of confusion and discord in the Church today that needs to be resolved before the people of the world can take the truth claims seriously.

Certain intellectuals in the Church are rewriting Church history to satisfy critics and repudiate the teachings of the prophets. In so doing, they are replacing a firm foundation with one built on sand.

Other intellectuals, congregated at Book of Mormon Central, are spending millions of dollars to promote both the revisionist Church history and the inherently dubious theory that the “real” Hill Cumorah is somewhere in southern Mexico and that the events of the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica.

Elder Pearson noted that about half of the people who have heard of the Church have favorable impressions. This means 500 million people in the world have favorable impressions of the Church, yet baptisms continue to decline and we all hear about people leaving the Church because of the revisionist Church history and M2C theory.

I had hoped to take 10 months off from discussing Church history and Book of Mormon historicity. I have other projects to work on, completely unrelated to Church topics.

Plus, I wanted to observe, from a distance, the imminent disaster of ScripturePlus, the new app from Book of Mormon Central designed to entice Church members away from the Gospel Library to imprint revisionist Church history and M2C on the minds of the Saints, starting at a young age.

Book of Mormon Central is embarking on a fascinating social experiment. It seems obvious to me that embracing the ideas of William E. McLellin instead of the teachings of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery will cause people to become confused and disturbed in their faith in the Book of Mormon.

The intellectuals at Book of Mormon Central justify their experiment because they live in a bubble of delusion that causes them to read M2C into the text of the scriptures, to the point that they expressly reject not only the teachings of those they refer to as the “dead prophets” but also the Church’s policy of neutrality as expressed in the odd, anonymous Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Geography.

With this in mind, I figured that, 10 months from now, we’d see how well the revisionist Church history and M2C are working out. The final Hill Cumorah pageant next summer, along with the remodeled Visitors Center there, would pretty well erase all remnants of what Joseph and Oliver taught, except for what remains in the never-cited Letter VII and other early Church documents.

But then, in my first Sunday meetings here, people discussed how close family members have left the Church. One person described how many former Church members were encountered while on a mission to Idaho. Plus, I still get emails from people relating these experiences.

And, I have a lot of material I’ve never posted or published.

I’ll post probably once a week.

Stay tuned.