neutrality – Church artwork

By Jonathan NevilleUncategorized
The current version of the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Geography states that “The Church does not take a position on the specific geographic locations of Book of Mormon events in the ancient Americas.“

While we all recognize this is a change from the past, when Church leaders reaffirmed the New York Cumorah, this has always been the position of the Church regarding locations other than Cumorah.

That being the case, why has Church art always depicted Mesoamerica?

And why does Church art continue to depict Mesoamerica exclusively?
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Here’s an example of a painting in the Gilbert temple that has been used in lots of places. It depicts Christ visiting Mayans in a scene from 3 Nephi. 

There is nothing neutral about this painting.

This painting teaches M2C far more powerfully than the words of neutrality in the Gospel Topics Essay.

I’ve cited lots of other examples, including the cover of the Ensign through the years, which has always depicted M2C and never the New York Cumorah.

Just search for “artwork” on this blog and you’ll see more examples, such as these:

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/03/m2c-technique-4-noah-flood-imprinting.html

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/06/correlation-department-uses-two-m2c.html

Example from the Deseret News:

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865552669/Becoming-as-a-child-is-the-door-to-heaven.html

Example from the Church News:

https://www.thechurchnews.com/archive/2012-01-07/the-book-of-mormon-is-designed-for-us-37981





Source: About Central America

2 thoughts on “neutrality – Church artwork”

  1. On 28 June 2019, the new Book of Mormon manual for the 2020 curriculum year could be ordered, but it won’t be available until the end of August. I guess they need to figure out how many to print. Will it be heavily laden with M2C maps and artwork or will they come to their senses and get it right?

  2. The Curriculum Department has all the info, including the two sets of plates, Letter VII, etc. Whether they incorporate any of that is another question. We’ll have to see when the final version is released.

    My guess: they’ll accommodate M2C and say nothing about Letter VII or the two sets of plates. Another opportunity lost. But maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised.

    🙂

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