Author: Jonathan Neville

from uncoveredhistory.com

Everyone knows that Mesoamerica features impressive cities and structures made of stone and cement. I’ve visited many of them. Back in the day, many of these sites were completely open, with no guards or even fences. You could climb all over them, and I have.

Mayan culture is fascinating, and we’re learning more and more about it all the time. My kudos to all the Mesoamerican archaeologists and linguists who are helping us understand that culture.

But it has nothing to do with the Book of Mormon.

The M2C intellectuals want people to believe that two brief references in the Book of Mormon describe the massive Mayan stone-and-cement structures throughout Mesoamerica.

Naturally, the Mayans built with stone and cement. In a jungle, wood structures don’t last long.

Which explains how we know the Nephites did not live in a jungle.

The Nephites built with wood and cement, not stone and cement.

One of my favorite articles from Book of Mormon Central explains the M2C cement hoax. I commented on it here:

http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2017/10/only-known-nephite-cement-is-in-new.html

I discussed the cement issue more generally here:

http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2016/11/cement.html

Here are the posts so you don’t have to click through to read them.
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Only known Nephite cement is in New York, not Mesoamerica

I’m getting questions about cement, so I’ll repeat what I’ve said about one of my favorite “Kno-Whys” of all time.

The Temple of the Inscriptions, built hundreds of years after Book of Mormon times– Mesomania in all its glory

You can see it here: https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/when-did-cement-become-common-in-ancient-america

I blogged about it before: http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2016/11/cement.html. I have a few more comments below, but first, let’s talk about the only known instance of Nephite cement.
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The only known Nephite cement was the cement that Moroni used when he built the stone box for the plates, as described by Joseph and Oliver.

Unless by now the Mesomaniacs have talked themselves into disbelieving what Joseph and Oliver said about the box, even they have to admit that Moroni used Nephite cement in New York. There is no other instance of Nephite cement that we can identify with 100% confidence.

“The box in which they lay was formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement.” Joseph Smith-History 1:52.

Oliver Cowdery (who, according to Book of Mormon Central, was an ignorant speculator so you won’t find this in any of their no-wise) described the situation on the Hill Cumorah this way:

“First, a hole of sufficient depth, (how deep I know not) was dug. At the bottom of this was laid a stone of suitable size, the upper surface being smooth. At each edge was placed a large quantity of cement, and into this cement, at the four edges of this stone, were placed, erect, four others, their bottom edges resting in the cement at the outer edges of the first stone. The four last named, when placed erect, formed a box, the corners, or where the edges of the four came in contact, were also cemented so firmly that the moisture from without was prevented from entering. It is to be observed, also, that the inner surface of the four erect, or side stones was smoothe. This box was sufficiently large to admit a breast-plate, such as was used by the ancients to defend the chest, &c. from the arrows and weapons of their enemy. From the bottom of the box, or from the breast-plate, arose three small pillars composed of the same description of cement used on the edges; and upon these three pillars was placed the record of the children of Joseph, and of a people who left the tower far, far before the days of Joseph, or a sketch of each…”

http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/95

This was in New York, not Mesoamerica.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Moroni knew how to work with cement in New York; he and his father Mormon wrote the Book of Mormon while they lived in what is now New York. Moroni told Joseph that the record was “written and deposited not far from” his home.

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The fun part about this no-wise is how the Book of Mormon never mentions the people building with stone (except one wall in Alma 48:8). They built with wood and with wood and cement.

Helaman 3:11 And thus they did enable the people in the land northward that they might build many cities, both of wood and of cement.

That’s right. Wood. Cement.

Not stone.

And yet, all the evidence cited by the no-wise involves ancient Central Americans building with stone and cement.

This might seem like nitpicking, but it’s an essential difference. If we’re looking for the Book of Mormon culture described by the text, we’re not looking for a culture that built with massive stones, engraved their history on stella, etc.

In fact, in a thousand years of history, exactly one engraved stone is even mentioned (Omni 1:20), and that was because its uniqueness made it so remarkable. And it wasn’t even a Nephite or Lamanite who engraved it.

We’re looking for a culture that built with earth and wood, primarily. They only used cement when they needed to let timber grow, because they preferred to build with timber. Only in one instance, Helaman 3, (again, so unusual it deserved special mention) with wood and cement.

IOW, the “cement” requirement describes ancient North American culture and excludes ancient Central American culture.

Of course the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs advocates cite “cement” as a “correspondence” between the Book of Mormon and Mesoamerica. I’d like to know of any human society that did not use a material that could be called “cement.” It’s another illusory correspondence, designed to support the rejection of what Joseph and Oliver taught about Cumorah in New York.
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You can see archaeological reconstructions of ancient wood and cement structures at museums in Ohio.

And they are houses, just as the Book of Mormon describes.

Naturally, we don’t expect much, if any, Nephite cement to exist today. Even modern cement doesn’t last a long time where there is freezing and thawing.

Notice that Moroni knew this when he buried his stone box into the hill Cumorah and kept the moisture from entering.

We all wish Joseph or Oliver had kept a sample of Moroni’s cement. But at least they left us this detailed account of it.

Which, in any rational world, would be enough evidence to tell us where the Book of Mormon actually took place.

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Cement

I’ve commented about this before, but the issue keeps resurfacing.

Advocates of the Mesoamerican theory claim the text describes cities made with stone cement, but there are three references to cement in the BoM, and none of them mention cement in connection with stone. 

Helaman 3:7

7 And there being but little timber upon the face of the land, nevertheless the people who went forth became exceedingly expert in the working of cement; therefore they did build houses of cement, in the which they did dwell.

Helaman 3:11

11 And thus they did enable the people in the land northward that they might build many cities, both of wood and of cement.

Helaman 3:9

9 And the people who were in the land northward did dwell in tents, and in houses of cement, and they did suffer whatsoever tree should spring up upon the face of the land that it should grow up, that in time they might have timber to build their houses, yea, their cities, and their temples, and their synagogues, and their sanctuaries, and all manner of their buildings.

The only mention of cement with stone is in Joseph Smith’s testimony:

Testimony of JS-“Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up. I looked in, and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate, as stated by the messenger. The box in which they lay was formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these stones lay the plates and the other things with them.

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Joseph uses the term “cement” to describe how the stone box was constructed–in New York. Besides Joseph’s own description (and the even more detailed description by Oliver Cowdery), there is abundant evidence of the North American Indians using cement. Some of the mounds were covered with cement, to the point that they were difficult for farmers to tear down. People used jackhammers to break up the cement. Even today, at Cahokia, archaeologists have recreated a portion of the ancient wall around the city to show what it looked like anciently. It consists of tall timbers, covered with cement.

Granted, much of Cahokia was built during the Mississipian period, which is after Book of Mormon time frames, but the manner of construction matches what the text actually says. 

One thing is for sure: In North America (north of the Rio Grande), we don’t see cities made of stone and cement. We see construction with wood and cement. In Mesoamerica, by contrast, we see cities made of stone and cement, not wood and cement. True, Mayans built houses out of wood, and built wooden structures on top of their stone temples, but the primary construction method was stone and cement.

We see this in the logos of the various Mesoamerican advocacy groups, including Book of Mormon Central, BMAF, and the Ancient American Foundation:

The inspiration for the Mesoamerican advocacy groups was the Arnold Friberg painting of Christ visiting the Nephites, which featured the massive stone stepped pyramid with the long staircase up the front and the big temple on top. This is some of the evidence of Mesomania. 

You know when an organization chooses a stone pyramid as their logo, they are focused on the Mesoamerican setting and not on the Book of Mormon text itself.

The scripture says they built houses of cement, and cities “both of wood and of cement.” While there may have been Mesoamerican cities made of wood and cement, the ones cited in the 1842 Times and Seasons articles that started the Mesoamerican theory are all stone and cement (referring to Teotihuacan and the cities discovered by Stephens and Catherwood). Maybe the Book of Mormon says they built cities and pyramids out of stone and cement, but not in the version Joseph translated. 

Alma 38:8 says they built walls of stone around the cities, but look at the verse in context:

Alma 48:8

8 Yea, he had been strengthening the armies of the Nephites, and erecting small forts, or places of resort; throwing up banks of earth round about to enclose his armies, and also building walls of stone to encircle them about, round about their cities and the borders of their lands; yea, all round about the land.

They built banks of earth and also walls of stone–which is what the Hopewell in North America did, including the mounds Joseph described as Nephite. 

It’s important to remember that they only built with cement because the lacked enough timber. This was a one-time exception. In the entire text, the only time they mention building with cement and wood was in Helaman 3.

Consequently, in my opinion these cement references in the text exclude Mesoamerica as a potential location described by the text.

There’s nothing wrong with people believing a hoax if it works for them. There are lots of members of the Church who believe the M2C hoax and feel it increases their faith. That’s fine with me. I’m not addressing them.

Millions of dollars are being raised from members of the Church to promote M2C. Employees of Book of Mormon Central are being paid right now to promote M2C aggressively in social media. That’s all fine with me. Go ahead and donate to M2C if you want.

What’s not fine with me is the way these groups censor the teachings of the prophets and tell people who discover those teachings on their own that the prophets are wrong. That, IMO, is a misguided, short-sighted and ultimately disastrous effort.

There are a lot of Church members–and the vast majority of the world’s population–who don’t believe M2C. 

Because M2C has managed to establish itself as the default position of the Church (portrayed in the visitors centers, media, art, curriculum, etc.), members and investigators who see M2C as a hoax are confused.

They deserve to know there are alternatives to M2C.
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In my view, the teachings of the prophets about the Hill Cumorah in New York are consistent with the text of the Book of Mormon and with known archaeology, anthropology, etc.

I think members of the Church deserve to hear all the facts so they can make informed decisions. 

In most cases, once they hear all the facts, members of the Church recognize M2C for the hoax it is. But not in all cases. And, as I said, that’s fine with me.

BYU mythology map of the Book of Mormon

Our own Articles of Faith let us believe whatever we want, and the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Geography emphasizes that freedom.

But we cannot make informed decisions when the M2C citation cartel controls the narrative and insists on censorship.

The youth of the Church cannot make informed decisions when they are taught through CES and BYU that the Book of Mormon took place in a computer-generated fantasy map instead of the real world.
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So far, I’ve focused on Church history to show how M2C is a hoax.

That’s not persuasive to M2C intellectuals and their followers, however. With one exception, the M2C intellectuals don’t think accounts in Church history have any relevance to Book of Mormon geography.

They recognize that Joseph and his contemporaries all believed and taught that the Hill Cumorah was in New York, but they reject these teachings because they think the prophets were ignorant speculators who misled the Church.

Their explanation is that the accounts in Church history, such as Letter VII and Lucy Mack Smith’s history, as well as the General Conference addresses by Presidents Ivins and Romney of the First Presidency, should be used “with caution.” This is a euphemism for saying we should not believe these accounts.

The Church historians who wrote the book Saints agree with the M2C intellectuals. They deliberately falsified Church history to erase Cumorah from the record.

Ironically, what they want us to believe instead of the explicit, consistent and persistent teachings of the prophets about the Hill Cumorah are a handful of anonymous articles published in the Times and Seasons in 1842. These articles claimed that ruins discovered in Central America were evidence of the Book of Mormon.

Here is the key point that most LDS people still don’t understand.

None of those articles said anything about the Hill Cumorah. 

Whoever was responsible for those articles did not claim the ruins in Central America impacted the New York Cumorah in any way. In fact, Letter VII was published in the Times and Seasons itself in 1841 by Joseph’s brother Don Carlos at Joseph’s request.

D&C 128:20, which references Cumorah in connection with Moroni and the founding events of the Restoration, was originally published in the same issue of the Times and Seasons that contained one of the anonymous articles about Central America.

And in 1844, Joseph’s brother William published Letter VII in the Church newspaper in New York City titled The Prophet. This was in June, just two days after the martyrdom.

Since then, every prophet/apostle who has ever publicly addressed the topic has reaffirmed the New York Cumorah.
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Why do the M2C intellectuals claim that these anonymous articles demonstrate that Joseph changed his mind about the New York Cumorah?

Because of their own interpretation of the text of the Book of Mormon!
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The M2C intellectuals claim they rely on “the text” of the Book of Mormon and on “correspondences” between the text and archaeological discoveries in Mesoamerica.

In my view, this is a hoax because they are not relying on the text. They are relying on their interpretation of the text, which they developed to fit Mesoamerica. It’s pure circular reasoning, driven by anonymous articles published in the Times and Seasons in 1842.

In coming days, we’ll take another look at these correspondences.

Now we have fine young scholars (employees of the M2C citation cartel) using social media to promote M2C among their peers. We have the M2C citation cartel spending millions of dollars every year promoting M2C.

And yet, the whole thing is a hoax.

We are observing, in real time, an effect called “illusory truth.”

Wikipedia has a good definition here. The illusory truth effect (also known as the validity effect, truth effect or the reiteration effect) is the tendency to believe information to be correct after repeated exposure…  familiarity can overpower rationality and repetitively hearing that a certain fact is wrong can affect the hearer’s beliefs.

M2C not only contradicts the teachings of the prophets and apostles, but it persuades faithful members of the Church to disbelieve those prophets and apostles by repetitively teaching that they are wrong about the fact that Cumorah is in New York. It’s a fascinating psychological study.
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Long-time readers know that M2C is based on what I call “illusory correspondences” between Mesoamerican history/culture and the M2C interpretation of the Book of Mormon. These illusory correspondences take the form of this logic:

Mayans were farmers
Nephites were farmers
therefore Nephites were Mayans.

If you read John Sorenson’s Mormon’s Codex or any of the publications by the M2C citation cartel, you see the same logic applied.

Mayans had large stone pyramids
Nephites built towers
therefore Nephite towers were large stone pyramids

Mayans experienced volcanic eruptions
Nephites experienced earthquakes, darkness, whirlwinds, etc.
therefore Nephites lived in a volcanic area

You see how this goes.

It’s all a hoax because anyone can read the text and see the Nephites never once mentioned building with stone and cement. They never mentioned pyramids or anything remotely resembling such structures. They never mentioned volcanoes. And so it goes.

These logical fallacies and circular-reasoning interpretations of the text are transparently obvious to most of the world. Only those within the M2C bubble don’t realize how they’ve been fooled by this hoax.

We wonder, how do people get inside the M2C bubble, and why do they stay inside there?
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There’s a related concept labeled “cognitive ease.”

Iconic M2C image

This term means we tend to accept as true and good any information that is familiar. Here’s a reader-friendly discussion of it: http://farthertogo.com/what-is-cognitive-ease-and-why-should-you-be-wary-of-it/

This eight-minute video explains it well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cebFWOlx848

You can get people to believe almost anything–even M2C–if you repeat it often enough.
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This is my favorite graphic of the last week. It shows the symbol of M2C – the logo of Book of Mormon Central featuring a Mayan glyph – superimposed over the world.

The M2C citation cartel is raising and spending millions of dollars every year to persuade the world that the prophets and apostles are wrong about the New York Cumorah, and that the Nephites were Mayans.

They better also have a plan to impose censorship and illusory truth worldwide because otherwise, anyone with Internet access is going to learn what the prophets and apostles have actually taught, and how archaeology, anthropology and other sciences support the teachings of the prophets that they, the M2C citation cartel, have rejected.

RLDS (CofC) HQ in Independence

Most members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) living today don’t know anything about the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (RLDS).

But they should, because it was RLDS scholars who developed the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory (M2C). 

Maybe it is not a coincidence that the RLDS scholars published their book explaining M2C after the LDS Church began trying to purchase the Hill Cumorah in New York. But when we understand the nature of the rivalry, maybe that was intentional.

Either way, LDS scholars embraced the RLDS M2C theory over the objections of LDS leaders.

Today, thanks to the academic cycle, M2C is now being taught throughout the Church.

This means that RLDS scholars have prevailed over LDS leaders who objected to M2C.

In fact, M2C is the only Book of Mormon setting taught today in the Church, despite the official policy of “neutrality” expressed in the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Geography. We see it in the visitors centers, the art and media, and in the CES and BYU curriculum. The Saints book deliberately changed Church history to accommodate M2C (discussed here: https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/).

We wonder, how did this happen?

More importantly, can the M2C hoax be exposed and rejected?

That’s up for each member of the Church to decide individually.
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Today we’re discussing Church history elements. We’ll discuss non-historical elements of the M2C hoax in upcoming posts (i.e., archaeology, anthropology, etc.).
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For modern LDS members, it’s difficult to put ourselves in the mindset of the LDS vs. RLDS competition from the 1800s, but it was a serious rivalry. It’s important to understand the history to appreciate the origins of M2C and why it remains a hoax today.

Joseph Smith III

After Joseph Smith died in 1844, there was a power struggle for leadership. While most members followed Brigham Young (the President of the Quorum of the Twelve), others followed various alternatives. Emma Smith, for example, remained in Nauvoo and believed Joseph’s son should succeed him as President of the Church. There’s a good summary here:
https://www.lds.org/study/ensign/1979/09/nineteenth-century-break-offs?lang=eng

In 1860, Joseph Smith III, son of Joseph and Emma, was ordained President of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Joseph F. Smith

Although both churches accepted the Book of Mormon and most of the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants, they had doctrinal differences and competing historical claims.

When Joseph F. Smith (son of Hyrum Smith) became President of the LDS Church in 1901, his cousin, Joseph Smith III (son of Joseph Smith, Jr.) was President of the RLDS Church.

Each claimed to be the rightful successor to Joseph Smith, Jr.

You can see how a serious rivalry would develop.

One of the issues the two groups differed on involved the Hill Cumorah.

In the late 1800s, an RLDS scholar named Elder H. A. Stebbins began teaching that the hill in New York where Joseph found the plates was not the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6. You can read his teachings in the table below.

In 1899, Joseph F. Smith was the Editor of the Improvement Era. He had been an apostle and member of the First Presidency for 33 years. (Brigham Young ordained him an apostle and made him a counselor in the First Presidency in 1866 at the age of 27. Joseph F. Smith served as a counselor in the First Presidency to Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow before becoming President of the Church in 1901.)

In the July 1899 issue of the Improvement Era, President Joseph F. Smith published President Cowdery’s Letter VII, which declares it is a fact that the Hill Cumorah in New York is the site of the final battles of the Jaredites and Nephites, as well as the location of the depository of Nephite records (Mormon 6:6).

Here’s the link to the cover page:
https://archive.org/stream/improvementera29unse#page/n0/mode/2up.

Here’s the link to the page where Letter VII starts.

https://archive.org/stream/improvementera29unse#page/652/mode/2up

In the context of the rivalry between the LDS (President Joseph F. Smith) and the RLDS (President Joseph Smith III), the republication of Letter VII just when the RLDS scholars were beginning to teach M2C is significant.
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Joseph F. Smith was President of the Church from 1901 to 1918. In 1909, he sent Elder George Albert Smith of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife Lucy to Palmyra with the assignment of buying the Hill Cumorah and the Joseph Smith Sr. farm. (Geroge Albert Smith was named for his grandfather, a cousin of Joseph Smith Jr.)

Before leaving Salt Lake City, George and Lucy sewed $20,000 in cash into Lucy’s skirt. When they arrived in Palmyra, they were able to buy the old Smith farm, but the owner of the Hill Cumorah, Pliny Sexton, refused to sell. Later, he offered to sell at an exorbitant price, but the Church declined to pay that much. Four years after Sexton died, the Church purchased the property in 1928.

In April 1928 General Conference, President Anthony W. Ivins spoke at length about the Hill Cumorah, re-affirming the teaching of Letter VII and D&C 128:20 that this is the very hill spoken of in Mormon 6:6. I’ve discussed that before here: http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2017/03/conference-classics-president-anthony-w.html

What makes this all the more interesting is the book published by RLDS scholars in 1924. Titled New Light on American Archaeology, the main author, L.E. Hills, quotes extensively from H.A. Stebbins, who Hills credited as the originator of M2C. [The text is in the table below.]
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Let’s review the chronology. 

Late 1800s: RLDS Elder Stebbins begins teaching that the hill in New York is not the Cumorah of Mormon 6:6.

1899: LDS President Joseph F. Smith republishes Letter VII in the Improvement Era., reaffirming the long-accepted teaching that it is a fact that the hill in New York is in fact the Cumorah of Mormon 6:6.

1909: LDS President Joseph F. Smith sends Elder George Albert Smith to Palmyra to purchase the Hill Cumorah.

1924: RLDS Elder Hills publishes New Light on American Archaeology, declaring it is a fact that the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is in Mexico.

1928: LDS Church President Heber J. Grant purchases the Hill Cumorah in New York and President Anthony W. Ivins reaffirms the fact that this is the Cumorah of Mormon 6:6.

1938: Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, a 20-year member of the Quorum of the Twelve and Church Historian, writes an editorial in the Deseret News about M2C, stating “LOCALE OF CUMORAH, RAMAH, AND RIPLIANCUM. This modernistic theory of necessity, in order to be consistent, must place the waters of Ripliancum and the Hill Cumorah some place within the restricted territory of Central America, notwithstanding the teachings of the Church to the contrary for upwards of 100 years. Because of this theory some members of the Church have become confused and greatly disturbed in their faith in the Book of Mormon. It is for this reason that evidence is here presented to show that it is not only possible that these places could be located as the Church has held during the past century [i.e., in western New York], but that in very deed such is the case.“

1950s-1970s: LDS intellectuals write books and articles promoting M2C. President Joseph Fielding Smith, now President of the Quorum of the Twelve, re-publishes his 1938 editorial on Cumorah.

1975: In General Conference, President Marion G. Romney delivers an address titled “America’s Destiny” that reaffirms the teaching that the hill in New York is the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6.

1978: In General Conference, Elder Mark E. Petersen reaffirms the New York Cumorah.

1980s: LDS intellectuals, including David Palmer and John Sorenson, publish books promoting M2C. Jack Welch and others start FARMS, which strongly promotes M2C. The academic cycle begins teaching M2C to the youth of the Church.

1990: In response to questions arising about Cumorah, the entire First Presidency (Ezra Taft Benson, Gordon B. Hinckley, and Thomas S. Monson) personally approve a letter that declares “The Church has long maintained, as attested to by reference in the writings of General Authorities, that the Hill Cumorah in western New York state is the same as referenced in the Book of Mormon.”

1990s through 2018: LDS intellectuals create the M2C citation cartel that promotes M2C exclusively and censors alternative views. M2C is unambiguously depicted in LDS Church visitors centers, artwork, videos, and CES/BYU curriculum.

2019: Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Geography released. The first version quotes President Ivins 1929 General Conference talk explaining the Church has no position on Book of Mormon sites other than Cumorah. When it is pointed out that President Ivins also specifically reaffirmed the New York Cumorah in his 1928 General Conference talk, the Gospel Topics Essay is revised to omit the original quotation from President Ivins. The essay provides no references to teachings about the New York Cumorah for readers to consider.

Current Status: Church members are free to believe whatever they want. However, previous teachings by Church leaders about the New York Cumorah cannot be discussed in Church settings, especially not at Church history sites in Palmyra. Only books and organizations that promote M2C can obtain licenses from the Church to use the current official edition of the Book of Mormon. CES and BYU specifically teach M2C as part of the official curriculum.

For now.
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In the table below, you can read what RLDS scholar Hills wrote to explain M2C. Anyone who has read the material published by the M2C citation cartel will recognize the arguments.

For readers who aren’t as familiar with the arguments for M2C, here is a summary:

1. Cumorah cannot be in New York because New York is too far from Mesoamerica.

2. Joseph never said Cumorah was in New York. All historical evidence to the contrary is wrong because Lucy Mack Smith, David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, and others are unreliable witnesses.

3. Letter VII is false because Oliver never claimed a revelation to support Letter VII. His visits with Joseph and others to the Nephite depository of records in the Hill Cumorah were actually only visions of a hill in Mexico.

4. Joseph passively accepted the New York Cumorah tradition because he was an ignorant speculator who learned Book of Mormon geography not from Moroni, but from a popular travel book published in 1841.

5. Every LDS Church leader who affirmed the New York Cumorah was wrong. Every RLDS scholar who taught M2C was correct.
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Here is the text of Hills’ book. Click on the links to see the actual documents.

My series on the M2C hoax coincided with the exposure of several major hoaxes. I’m postponing the next entries in my series for a day to share this discussion by Scott Adams.

It’s titled “Scott Adams talks about how all the hoaxes are being revealed at the same time.”

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1eaJbOaXBPqxX?t=9
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His Sunday cartoon strip also fits well.

https://dilbert.com/strip/2019-03-24
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While we’re at it, we might as well enjoy a modified Dilbert cartoon.

Yesterday, President Trump signed an Executive Order Improving Free Inquiry, Transparency, and Accountability at Colleges and Universities.

What we need now is an Executive Order directing the M2C citation cartel to cease their censorship.

President Trump said, “People who are confident in their beliefs do not censor others. They welcome free, fair and open debate.”

At this blog, we’re confident of our beliefs. We not only don’t censor others’ ideas, we provide links to different points of view so readers can see for themselves what others believe and teach.

By contrast, the M2C citation cartel censors alternative ideas. They don’t want their readers to know about alternatives. They don’t want people to make informed choices.

They want people to think M2C is the only choice.

And they want people to think M2C has prophetic and Church support.
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We’ve provided links to all the members of the M2C citation cartel, including Book of Mormon Central Censor, FairlyMormon, the Interpreter, BYU Studies, etc. We want our readers to know what the M2C proponents teach.

We’ve also provided readers with comparison tables to make it easier for them to compare the alternatives so they can make informed decisions.

For years, we’ve tried to work with the M2C citation cartel on a joint comparison table and other resources, but they’ve consistently refused.

Everyone who relies on the M2C citation cartel gets only censored information that supports M2C.
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One characteristic of a hoax is censorship.

The M2C citation cartel makes a concerted effort to prevent students in CES and BYU classes from learning what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah.

Book of Mormon Central Censor is only the latest to join the censorship team. They refuse to offer readers any perspectives on Book of Mormon geography other than M2C.

And then they claim the prophets and the Church support their position.

FairlyMormon and the Interpreter do the same, along with Meridian Magazine, BYU Studies, etc.

Ultimately, censorship loses. More and more members of the Church are realizing that M2C can only persist by censoring information and ideas that contradict M2C.

We see only what confirms our beliefs

The power of bias confirmation is evident in many aspects of life. We see it in politics, religion, and social issues, etc.

In most cases, people will not change their opinions regardless of what facts and logical arguments are presented. Even if you show a fact that irrefutably and completely contradicts their opinions, they will not change their minds.

Our brains are wired to protect our mental health. No matter what evidence we observe, our brains filter it through bias confirmation so we either literally don’t perceive it, or we explain it away as invalid, irrelevant, etc. Our brains protect us from threats to our opinions, which are the way we interpret the world.

Later in this post we’ll look at how opinions are formed in the first place.
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Among members of the Church, there are few examples more striking than M2C.

This is why the Church has no alternative but to take no position, as we saw in the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Geography. 

Should the Church take a position, regardless of what it is, and regardless of what facts are cited, thousands of members of the Church would suffer severe psychological pain.

Think about it. On what topic other than M2C does the Church condone outright censorship of historical documents?

Normally, it would be unthinkable for a Church lesson manual to censor the teachings of Joseph Smith, especially when he specifically asked that his teaching not be censored. Yet the Correlation Department blatantly censored his teachings in the Wentworth letter.

Normally, it would be unthinkable for a new official book on Church history to deliberately censor important information and create a false historical narrative. Yet they did just that in the Saints book.

Normally, it would be unthinkable for a detailed explanation of the timeline of the translation of the Book of Mormon to deliberately censor important information, but that’s exactly what happened in a recent book titled Opening the Heavens and its associated presentation and BYU Studies article.

There is only one explanation for this censorship that makes sense. 

The censors decided that censorship is preferable to causing psychological pain to Church members who have never learned what the prophets have taught about Cumorah because they’ve been taught M2C all their lives.

We ask ourselves, why are they doing this? These employees are good people with worthy motives: they want to bring people to Christ. They think promoting M2C is the best way to do this, even if it means censoring the teachings of the prophets, revising Church history narratives, and insisting on one interpretation of the text of the Book of Mormon.

In an upcoming post we’ll examine the origins of the M2C hoax and discuss how the same factors that prompted the development of M2C remain so powerful today that employees at CES/BYU/COB still think censorship and misdirection is justified.
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It’s very rare to have unambiguous, clear, demonstrable facts that everyone can see for themselves. In this case, we do have such facts regarding what the prophets and apostles have taught about the New York Cumorah.

But these facts don’t matter to M2C proponents.

As I showed in my video Watching General Conference with your BYU Professor, the psychology of cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias literally prevents M2C believers from processing what the prophets have taught.
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Many readers of this blog have tried an experiment. They have shown Letter VII to their M2C-believing friends. Because their friends have been taught by CES/BYU, they have never seen it before but they don’t want to admit that.

Their first response, perfectly normal, is usually to go blank. Cognitive dissonance kicks in. They don’t have a response because their brains recognize a serious threat to their mental health. To see such a clear statement of fact about the New York Cumorah, declared in an official Church publication by President Oliver Cowdery, is a shock.

Once they recover, their second response is to disbelieve that Letter VII exists. They think it must be a fake because they’ve never heard of it before. When you show it to them in Joseph Smith’s personal history, right in the Joseph Smith Papers, cognitive dissonance kicks back in and they go blank again.

Most of them won’t know what to say. They will defer their response by saying they will “look into it” or “study it.” At the earliest opportunity, they will consult the M2C citation cartel, usually FairlyMormon or Book of Mormon Central Censor. Or maybe they will consult social media, where employees of the M2C citation cartel are actively promoting the hoax.

Your friends will find comfortable, reassuring explanations that boil down to this: who are you going to believe, the M2C intellectuals or your lying eyes?

Here is what the M2C intellectuals teach their followers to activate their bias confirmation filter: “Oliver Cowdery” (never “President Cowdery,” the way Joseph Smith referred to him) was merely expressing his own personal opinion. And he was wrong, because, well, M2C.

Having done their research, your friends will come back to you with that M2C answer.

Then you show them what other prophets have taught, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference. That causes more psychological pain, but they alleviate that pain by referring again to the M2C citation cartel, which assures them that all these prophets and apostles were merely expressing their personal opinions and they were wrong.

Next, you get into the sciences: archaeology, anthropology, geology, geography, etc., and show them things they’ve never known before. You’ll get the same M2C responses.

No matter what evidence you provide, you will not change the mind of an M2C intellectual or follower. Change is too psychologically painful.

Of course, M2C advocates say the inverse.

The M2C citation cartel is frustrated because no matter what evidence they provide from Mesoamerica, they cannot persuade Church members who know what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah that the prophets are wrong.
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It is this psychological reality that leads me to keep focusing on what the employees at CES/BYU/COB are doing.
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Opinions are formed at young ages. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6. 

By “young age” I include high school and college students. They typically believe their teachers and professors. Then, thanks to the Academic Cycle, these ideas are passed along to new generations.

Teachers and professors who promote M2C are not really teaching their students; they are assigning opinions through censorship and they are creating a specific bias. 

These teachers know their students’ psychology will confirm that bias no matter what they learn in the future.

Employees in the Church History and Correlation Departments are doing the same thing. By censoring the teachings of the prophets, these employees are making sure that future generations will resist those teachings if/when they learn about them later in life.*

It’s easy to see how this works by posing a hypothetical.
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Let’s pretend that employees at CES/BYU/COB, instead of promoting M2C, were emphasizing Letter VII.

Let’s pretend that Letter VII was published in official Church materials today as often as it was during Joseph Smith’s lifetime.

Let’s pretend that Letter VII was part of the CES/BYU curriculum.

Then let’s pretend that Church publications and lesson manuals contained the teachings of all the prophets and apostles about the New York Cumorah.

Let’s pretend that the Saints book was historically accurate, and that the Wentworth letter was not censored in the lesson manual.

Let’s pretend that instead of using a map of Mesoamerica, or the fantasy/mythology map, CES and BYU teachers used a conceptual map that showed Cumorah in New York.

In this imaginary world, would any member of the Church still believe M2C when it was presented to them?

Of course not.

If members of the Church learned the teachings of the prophets at an early age, they would be inoculated against those who claim the prophets are wrong.

But we don’t live in this hypothetical world.

Instead, we live in a world in which our youth are taught that the prophets are wrong.

And that’s why it is almost impossible for M2C believers to change their opinions even when they finally learn what the prophets have taught, and even when they learn about the scientific evidence that supports the prophets.
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*We emphasize again, these are good people with worthy motives. We’ll look at these motives and see what, if anything, can be done to address them.

One of the best-known books about Lucy’s History of Joseph Smith was edited by Scot and Maurine Proctor.

Yesterday, we saw that Lucy quoted Joseph saying “As I passed by the hill of Cumorah, where the plates are, the angel of the Lord met me.”

Recall, this was in early 1827, well before Joseph obtained the plates in September. The statement explains the true origin of the name Cumorah as applied to the hill in New York where Moroni put the plates in the stone box.

If you read the Proctors’ book, pages 134-5, you will see that Joseph’s statement is missing.

The Saints book also censored Joseph’s statement, as have all the Church history accounts that I’ve checked lately, including Rough Stone Rolling, as we saw yesterday.

I realize this degree of censorship is difficult to believe. Such censorship is right out of George Orwell’s 1984.

[That’s a reference many younger people won’t understand. Starting about ten years ago, my college students told me they had never heard of the book. Apparently it is no longer taught in high school, which helps explain why so many younger people are so easily fooled by fake news and hoaxes. Another topic for another day.]

Fortunately, censorship is difficult in today’s world for those who seek the truth. You can verify what I’m reporting for yourself in the links to the Joseph Smith Papers and in the Proctors’ book, as well as in Saints.

How do these revisionist historians get away with censoring Joseph’s 1827 statement about Cumorah?

I’m going to show you.
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There are two versions of Lucy’s history. The first one, the rough draft, she dictated to Martha Coray in Nauvoo in 1844-1845. Martha’s husband Howard helped. Then, in 1845, Martha and Howard wrote a “fair copy” of the history under Lucy’s direction. This was an updated, edited version.

The table below shows both versions of Lucy’s history. If you look at the links to the Joseph Smith Papers, you can see where parts of the original 1844-1845 version were lined out and replaced.

The quotation of Joseph referring to the hill Cumorah in early 1827 is in the revised, 1845 version. The corresponding part of the old version was lined out.

But the Proctors, like the editors of Saints, used the older, deleted version instead of the updated one. 

Why?

All we can do is infer from the editing decision.

Normally, we would expect a historian to use the original author’s updated, edited version, especially when the author lined out the original and replaced it with more detail.

In this case, both the Proctors and the revisionist Church historians reject the New York Cumorah. Rather than include Lucy’s updated, specific quotation, they just deleted so their readers will never know about it.

This table shows how they accomplished this. The left column is the rough draft (1844-1845). The right column is Lucy’s updated 1845 version. The print in black and red is the unused original of each version.

The lines through the type represent the text that Lucy deleted when she updated and revised her account.

The print in blue is the Proctors’ version, which is basically what we read in Saints as well. You can see that they switched back and forth between the accounts to compose a single version that you can read in their book on pages 134-5.

You’ll also notice that much of the blue is lined out. That’s because the Proctors (like the editors of Saints) used the material Lucy deleted rather than her updated, revised version that included the Cumorah statement.

The passage in red is the key point about Cumorah, which the editors censored.

Here’s a photo of the pages in the Proctors’ book so you can verify what I’m showing if you don’t have a copy.

This could all be a simple misunderstanding, of course. But readers should know that Scot and Maurine Proctor are the publishers of Meridian Magazine (https://ldsmag.com/), which has the nickname of “Mesoamerican Magazine” because of the way it constantly promotes M2C.

Whether it’s a coincidence or not, their careful editing of Lucy’s history just happens to censor an important part of Church history that just happens to refute M2C.

Just the same way as the book Saints does, sadly.

This is not a contentious or controversial statement. It’s just a fact. The M2C proponents all admit it; how could they not? And as fellow members of the Church, we accept them as faithful, devoted Latter-day Saints who, like us, love the Lord and want to share his Gospel with the world. We don’t have a problem with their beliefs and teachings because we believe anyone can believe and teach whatever they want.

We just object to their practice of not informing their students and followers of all the facts, including this point:

The foundation for M2C is the premise that the prophets are wrong about the New York Cumorah.
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It’s one thing for an academic to look at words on paper (or on a screen) and conclude that the author was wrong, based on the academic’s expertise, experience, and the consensus of like-minded academics. Academics project their own thought processes on the historical documents. They apply their reasoning and their subjective interpretations, filtering history through their own confirmation bias.

But it’s another thing to look at what those words represent.

The words that explain the New York Cumorah were not the product of people writing ignorantly, cavalierly, negligently, or deceitfully. 

The people who wrote and spoke about the New York Cumorah were people who recognized the importance of what they wrote and said, who spoke from experience and acknowledged their duty to God and their own responsibility for what they wrote.

In the October 2009 General Conference, Elder Jeffery R. Holland discussed the Book of Mormon and made this declaration: “and if he or she leaves this Church, it must be done by crawling over or under or around the Book of Mormon to make that exit.“

Let’s paraphrase that and say, “and if he or she rejects the New York Cumorah, it must be done by crawling over or under or around the prophets and apostles to make that rejection.”
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Lucy Mack Smith

I’ll give just one example today–Lucy Mack Smith. 

For over a decade, Lucy had responded to questions about her son Joseph Smith. When he was murdered, she dictated her account so it could be written for everyone to read. Today’s historians, including the revisionist LDS historians, still rely on her account of Joseph Smith’s early life as the most detailed we have.

They just censor parts they don’t agree with. 

The prime example of this is the Saints book. Below is a passage they censored. Actually, they edited around this passage. 

[For those new to this blog, I posted a table of their editing tactics here: 
https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2018/09/why-saints-censors-key-history.html]

In her account, Lucy explains that in early 1827, Joseph came home late from a trip to Manchester and rested a moment before explaining what happened.

This is obviously a big deal. Lucy quotes Joseph himself as identifying the hill as Cumorah even before he obtained the plates. He could only have learned this from Moroni, who was tutoring and preparing him. 

Parley P. Pratt corroborated this teaching by writing in his Autobiography that it was Moroni who called that hill Cumorah anciently, but the M2C advocates and revisionist Church historians censor his statement, as well.

The M2C advocates and revisionist Church historians censor Lucy’s account because they think Lucy was wrong. 

They think she either made it up or confused it with a false tradition about Cumorah that arose later. A standard teaching of the M2C promoters is that Joseph Smith never identified the “hill in New York” as Cumorah. Instead, according to them, Joseph adopted a false tradition that was developed by unknown early Church members that assigned the name Cumorah to that hill.

Obviously, Lucy Mack Smith disagreed. 

If she was telling the truth, the supposedly “false tradition” actually originated with Moroni, and Joseph expressed it before he had even seen the plates.

The M2C advocates and revisionist Church historians, including the editors of Saints, recognize the conflict between Lucy’s testimony and their theory of Book of Mormon geography. They don’t have an answer except to say Lucy was wrong. 

And they don’t want members of the Church to even know about what Lucy said.

I say the M2C advocates and revisionist Church historians should let members of the Church make an informed decision for themselves instead of simply censoring historical evidence they disagree with. 

You’ll see this censorship everywhere. It’s not limited to the M2C citation cartel. 

M2C has become so ubiquitous you can’t trust anything you read, apart from the actual historical documents.

Censorship is one of the tragedies of the Saints book, but that’s not the only example.

Even the wonderful book Rough Stone Rolling, the most influential biography of Joseph Smith which supposedly is fact-based and relies to a great extent on Lucy’s history, censors her passage above.

First, the book accommodates the M2C “false tradition” narrative by stating that the hill was called “Cumorah” later, “from a name in the Book of Mormon.”

“The hill where the plates were supposed to be buried stood about three miles south and east of the Smith farm and just a few hundred feet to the east of the main road between Palmyra and Canandaigua. Later it was called “Cumorah,” from a name in the Book of Mormon.”

Richard Lyman Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, p. 45.

This is written in the passive voice–“it was called”–to avoid attributing the identification of Cumorah to Joseph Smith (or Moroni).

Here’s how the book handles Lucy’s passage. Notice what is quoted and what is paraphrased.

Page 56. 

When it grew dark and Joseph was still not back, the parents started to fret. At last an exhausted Joseph came through the door and dropped into a chair. For a long time he sat silent while his father plied him with questions. Lucy held back. “The fact was,” she said, “I had learned to be a little cautious about matters with regard to Joseph, for I was accustomed to see him look as he did on that occasion, and I could not easily mistake the cause thereof.” Finally Joseph said quietly, “I have taken the severest chastisement that I have ever had in my life.” The angel had met Joseph on the road near Cumorah and warned him that he “had not been engaged enough in the work of the Lord; that the time had come for the Record to be brought forth; and that I must be up and doing and set myself about the things which God had commanded me to do.” Joseph appeared calm. “I now know the course that I am to pursue, so all will be well.”

The censorship is astonishing. Few readers of the book notice the subtle accommodation of M2C. I’m sure long-time readers of this blog see what’s happening, but I’ll spell it out for new readers.

Instead of Lucy’s account, which has Joseph, in early 1827 and in his own words, saying “as I passed by the hill of Cumorah, where the plates are,” Rough Stone Rolling paraphrases the passage by saying, “The angel had met Joseph on the road near Cumorah.” 

This vague, paraphrased version supports the M2C version that the naming of Cumorah was a false tradition that arose “later,” a false tradition that both Lucy and Joseph passively adopted well after the fact.
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My critics will claim that I’m blind to errors in Lucy’s account. My answer is, she’s like any other witness. We have to consider her credibility based on all the typical factors, including her capacity to observe the events she describes. In some cases, she relates things she heard from others, or makes assumptions about events she didn’t personally observe.

In this case, though, she was present when Joseph returned from Manchester. She even remembered the look on his face (read the entire account in context). She didn’t paraphrase what he said; she quoted him. These are all strong indicia of veracity.

There is no reason to reject her account except for an ideological agenda.

And there is certainly no reason to censor her account except for an ideological agenda; i.e., to promote, or accommodate, M2C.
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Now, let’s think about the responsibility involved with those who reject and/or censor Lucy’s account. 

In my view, Lucy deserves deference. Her account is not mere academic words on a page, the way it is treated by those who don’t want to accept what she wrote.

When you study her life history, the sacrifices she made, and her devotion to the Restoration and the Savior Himself, it is inexcusable to reject her testimony for purely ideological reasons.

I ask every M2C proponent and revisionist Church historian to carefully consider what Lucy wrote at the conclusion of her history.

I shall leave the world to judge concerning what I have written as seemeth them good. But this much I will say, that the testimony which I have given, is true; and will stand forever. 

And the same will be my testimony in the day of God Almighty; when I shall meet them, concerning whom I have testified, before angles and <​the​> spirits of the just made perfect; before Arch-angles and Seraphims; Cherubims and Gods; where the brief authority of the— unjust man will shrink to nothingness before him, who is the Lords of Lords, and God of Gods.

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/325

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*Some readers might think the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Geography settles this matter–i.e., that it announces that the prophets are wrong–but read it again. The essay simply lets people believe whatever they want, which is basic doctrine established a long time ago in the Articles of Faith. And notice that the essay asks Church members not to claim prophetic or Church support for their theories. I’m not claiming any prophetic or Church support for what I’m writing here. Quite the opposite: I’m seeking to support the prophets, not the other way around. I’m not asking for donations by claiming the Church supports my ideas, the way FairMormon, the Interpreter, and Book of Mormon Censor Central do.

I’ll announce the new format in April, the week after General Conference.

The next few posts will summarize my conclusions about the topics we’ve discussed on this blog.
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Separately, I’ve started my series on The Next Mormons on another other blog, here:

https://dearlatterdaysaints.blogspot.com/2019/03/tnm-issue-1-personal-values.html
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People continue to make comments on this blog, but as I explained a long time ago, as the blog got more popular I started getting a lot of spam, and I don’t have time to sort through comments to approve/disapprove them. Readers can email me and I’ll respond individually or in posts here. (Actually, a lot of these posts are prompted by questions/comments from readers.)
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Before discussing President Cowdery, we re-emphasize that we love all our brothers and sisters, regardless of what they think about Book of Mormon geography or any other issue. The discussion is friendly with no animosity.

Everyone involved in this discussion has the same purpose of helping others understand and appreciate the Book of Mormon so it can be more effective in bringing people to Christ.

There is no cause for contention. The Church’s policy of neutrality allows everyone to think whatever they want, consistent with the Articles of Faith.

All we seek is full disclosure for every member of the Church and everyone else interested in the Book of Mormon.
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Today I’ll summarize the Oliver Cowdery situation.

Yesterday’s Come Follow Me lesson included a portion of Oliver Cowdery’s blessing to the original Quorum of the Twelve.

A lot of people haven’t read it, so I posted it on my Letter VII blog here:

http://www.lettervii.com/2019/03/olivers-apostolic-blessing.html

It’s interesting to note that Oliver wrote Letter VII (the essay that declares it is a fact that the Hill Cumorah in New York is the scene of the final battles of the Jaredites and Nephites and the site of Mormon’s depository of Nephite records) in his capacity as Assistant President of the Church.

He wrote Letter VII with the assistance of Joseph Smith.

He wrote Letter VII just a few months after ordaining the original Quorum of the Twelve and a few months before receiving the priesthood keys from Moses, Elias and Elijah in the Kirtland temple (together with Joseph Smith).

Joseph had his scribes copy Letter VII into his personal history, where you can read it in the Joseph Smith Papers, here. Joseph had Letter VII reprinted in all the Church newspapers during his lifetime. Both of his brothers who served as editors of newspapers, Don Carlos and William, republished Letter VII in their respective newspapers.

M2C: the Mesoamerican/ two-Cumorahs theory of Book of Mormon geography

Yet the M2C intellectuals in the Church, all of whom trace their Priesthood to Oliver Cowdery, continue to insist that Oliver misled the Church when he wrote Letter VII.

Everyone needs to realize how powerful the M2C hoax is.
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It is not contentious or argumentative to share and discuss relevant facts about the origins and rationale for M2C.

The M2C rationale for disbelieving President Cowdery is that there are no extant records that he ever claimed a revelation about the location of Cumorah.

This was one of the rationales used by the scholars from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when they developed the “two-Cumorahs” theory in the first place. (I’ll show their work later this week.)

Those of us who still believe President Cowdery recognize that he and Joseph had lots of revelations they didn’t record, such as the ones they mentioned here:

We don’t presume to say what Joseph and Oliver did or did not have revelations about. It’s simple: we accept what they taught. And they taught that the hill in New York is the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6, in Letter VII and elsewhere.

Plus, we accept the statements of David Whitmer, Brigham Young, and others that Oliver told them about the times he and Joseph actually visited Mormon’s depository of records in the Hill Cumorah. If true, Oliver would need no revelation on the matter. His personal experience there would more than justify his statement of fact about Cumorah.

Plus, we accept the statement of Joseph’s mother Lucy that Joseph referred to the hill as Cumorah even before he got the plates.

Plus, we accept the statement of Parley P. Pratt, quoting Oliver Cowdery, that Moroni called the hill Cumorah anciently.

Plus, we accept the statements of every prophet and apostle who has ever formally addressed the issue, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference.

Plus, we think the relevant sciences – archaeology, anthropology, geology, geography – support the teachings of the prophets as well as the text of the Book of Mormon (although not the M2C interpretation of the text).

We don’t claim prophetic or Church support for any theory of Book of Mormon geography. Instead, we support what the prophets have taught.
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No one has to accept President Cowdery’s statement or anyone else’s. We’re all free to believe whatever we want. We have no problem with people believing M2C or any other theory of Book of Mormon geography, including the BYU/CES fantasy/mythology approach.

We just want everyone in the Church to be fully informed of the facts so they can make informed decisions for themselves.

While we have no problem with people believing whatever they want, we think that M2C survives mainly because the M2C citation cartel continues to censor and reject the teachings of the prophets about Cumorah, while also claiming both prophetic and Church support for M2C.
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Next: the M2C hoax.