long ago ideas

“When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago." - Friedrich Nietzsche. Long ago, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery conquered false claims that the Book of Mormon was fiction or that it came through a stone in a hat. But these old claims have resurfaced in recent years. To conquer them again, we have to return to what Joseph and Oliver taught.

Saturday, February 2, 2019

the indictment of M2C

People have asked about the indictment of M2C that I said I would unseal in January.

The new Church policy, set out in the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Geography, makes the indictment moot.

IOW, now that M2C proponents are no longer allowed to promote their M2C dogma in "Church settings," there's no need to unseal the indictment.

At least, not yet.

I've known about this essay for a long time. I expected it to be released many months ago, actually. While it's not everything I hoped for--as I've explained, it has lots of errors that should be corrected ASAP--it represents the first step in a major change in the direction of the Church.

In my view, M2C is an obsolete, discredited theory that will dissipate soon enough now that Church support has been withdrawn. 
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Maybe, if the new policy is not really enforced, or is enforced unevenly, then it will be time to unseal the indictment.

For example, if the M2C citation cartel continues to promote M2C on their web pages and in their publications, then unsealing the indictment will be appropriate and necessary.

If Church settings, including visitors centers, media, artwork, etc., ignore the new policy and continue to promote M2C, then unsealing the indictment will be appropriate and necessary.

We'll continue to monitor developments.

In the meantime, we think it is best to let M2C die on the vine, without fanfare. Soon it will be nothing more than another episode in Church history.

Unsealing the indictment would have brought more attention to M2C, its history and its proponents. None of that seems necessary any longer. We want to encourage those proponents to change course and focus on how they can support and sustain the teachings of the prophets instead of repudiating them.


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