BYU/CES students kept uninformed

I'm continually amazed that so many BYU and CES students passively accept the slanted information they get from Book of Mormon Central and other members of the M2C citation cartel.* 

I'm equally amazed that other BYU and CES students passively accept the slanted information they get from MormonStories, CES Letter, etc. But, regrettably, the success of these critics is understandable, because the critics can easily demonstrate that LDS intellectuals continue to suppress and censor important information, purely to protect their own theories.

Students would all be far better off thinking for themselves by making fully informed decisions. 

That's why on this blog we constantly encourage people to make informed decisions. 

We completely embrace President Nelson's observation that "good inspiration is based upon good information."

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2018/04/revelation-for-the-church-revelation-for-our-lives?lang=eng

The more informed people are, the more they realize the teachings of the prophets about Cumorah not only make sense, but are consistent and corroborated by external evidence.

But because they repudiate the teachings of the prophets, our M2C citation cartel resorts to censorship of (i) historical information, (ii) textual interpretations, and (iii) external evidence that supports the teachings of the prophets. This only makes students more vulnerable to the claims of MormonStories, CES Letter, and other critics.

Many leading LDS intellectuals currently model and exemplify and even encourage students not to make informed decisions.

These intellectuals seem more determined to have their students and followers accept their intellectual theories than to encourage their students and followers to pursue truth.

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Book of Mormon Central (BMC) actively defies the Church's position of neutrality by (i) promulgating M2C and (ii) suppressing alternative interpretations of the text and relevant evidence. BMC's very logo declares to the world that they reject the teachings of the prophets about Cumorah. 

It doesn't seem to occur to these students that when powerful people (such as their BYU/CES teachers) silence opposing evidence and arguments, they're really controlling you, keeping you from making up your own mind. 

We're happy to refer people to BMC because we want people to know what the M2C citation cartel teaches. We think openness is the best approach. 

Even if you choose to trust the intellectuals in the M2C citation cartel, you should at least verify what they tell you.

Just as you should verify the equally manipulated information in MormonStories, CES Letter, etc.

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A good example is the correlated Church history in Saints, which omits Church history that contradicts M2C.

Saints quotes or cites Lucy Mack Smith's history 127 times, but it omits the following "inconvenient" passages that contradict the editors' preferred theories, including M2C and SITH.

The editors claim Joseph never identified the hill as Cumorah. Yet here, Lucy says Moroni identified the hill as Cumorah during his first appearance to Joseph Smith. She could only have gotten this information from Joseph directly.

Now Joseph beware or when you go to get the plates your mind will be filled with darkness and all manner of evil will rush into your mind. To prevent you from keeping the commandments of God that you may not succeed in doing his work and you must tell your father of this for he will believe every word you say the record is on a side hill on the Hill of Cumorah 3 miles from this place remove the Grass and moss and you will find a large flat stone pry that up and you will find the  record under it laying on 4 pillars of cement— then the angel left him.

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/41

In early 1827, after Joseph returned home late at night from a trip to Manchester, he said he'd been severely chastised. His father wanted to know who did it. Lucy related Joseph's response.

“Stop, father, Stop.” said Joseph, “it was the angel of the Lord— as I passed by the hill of Cumorah, where the plates are, the angel met me and said, that I had not been engaged enough in the work of the Lord; 

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/111

We won't read these passages in Saints (or in the Come Follow Me manuals or any other correlated materials) because they contradict M2C. The M2C citation cartel won't highlight or even discuss them, except to say Lucy was "confused" or "wrong" or "speculating" when she dictated her history.

It's the same situation with SITH. The passages in Lucy's history that contradict SITH have all been omitted from Saints, the Gospel Topics Essays, and other correlated curriculum.

Fortunately, we have the original documents in the Joseph Smith Papers, so the efforts of LDS intellectuals to control our beliefs through censorship will ultimately fail.

Now it's just a question of whether each individual will assume responsibility to become informed enough to make informed decisions.

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*M2C is the "Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs" theory. The cartel includes Book of Mormon Central, the Interpreter, BYU Studies, Meridian Magazine, and other groups and individuals, including BYU professors, who insist that (i) the Book of Mormon took place in a limited area of Mesomerica, (ii) Cumorah is in southern Mexico, and (iii) Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and everyone else who reaffirmed what they taught were all speculators who misled the Church with their erroneous "opinions" about Cumorah being in New York.