Update on MormonStoriesReviewed blog - the plates

Some readers here don't know about the MormonStories podcast, but for those who do, I've updated my blog that reviews that web page.

MormonStories is a web page and podcast that primarily confirms the biases of former LDS members. Apparently it has a substantial following and raises a lot of money, although not nearly as much as the M2C citation cartel.*

A frequent theme on MormonStories is the implausibility of M2C and SITH,* which is why I discuss it occasionally on this blog. One of the reasons I keep blogging about these topics is to offer a "third way." 

Our LDS scholars who participate with the M2C citation cartel censor alternative faithful perspectives. Underinformed Latter-day Saints are left to conclude that it is M2C (and SITH) or bust; i.e., that the only acceptable explanation of the Book of Mormon is M2C, and the only acceptable explanation of the translation is SITH.

Web pages such as MormonStories and CES Letter point out the logical and factual fallacies and implausibility of M2C and SITH. That causes faithful LDS to question their beliefs, leading some to a "faith crisis," to use the common term. Without a third option, many young, new and prospective Latter-day Saints (as well as many seasoned members) reject the Restoration--all because they can't accept M2C and SITH.

The "third way" that we discuss on this blog and elsewhere rejects M2C and SITH in favor of what the prophets have taught about these topics, starting with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.

A recent podcast on MormonStories involves the gold plates. I discussed the podcast here:

https://mormonstoriesreviewed.blogspot.com/2020/12/podcasts.html

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*The M2C citation cartel consists of scholars and organizations that promote M2C, including Book of Mormon Central, the Interpreter Foundation, FairMormon, BYU Studies, etc. 

For new readers, M2C is the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory; i.e., the scholarly claim that the events in the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica and that Joseph, Oliver, their contemporaries and successors misled the Church by teaching that Cumorah was in New York. M2C involves the historicity of the Book of Mormon and has led BYU and CES to teach students about the Book of Mormon by referring to a fantasy geography, thereby framing it as fictional.

SITH is the stone-in-the-hat theory of translation; i.e., some scholars claim that Joseph didn't really translate anything, didn't even use the plates or the Urim and Thummim, but instead produced the Book of Mormon by merely reading words that appeared on a seer stone he put in a hat.