SITH: CES Letters, Dehlin, Bushman, narratives

The "CES Letters" YouTube channel and website are another effort by LDS apologists to counter the CES Letter by largely agreeing with the assertions of the CES Letter.

It seems counterproductive to me.

A better approach, in my view, would be to corroborate and support what Joseph and Oliver taught instead of repudiating it and rationalizing why they were wrong.

I commented on this in more detail on my ldshistoricalnarratives blog, here:

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2024/09/the-embarrassed-narrative-and-sith.html

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Here's an example of how the apologists cause more problems than they solve. The episode titled "Translation with Richard Lyman Bushman" promotes SITH. 

It has had 2.2k views in 3 weeks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAAKV1JDBHk&list=PLyz16Fi98u5xf53bZYEF74m6pGUtDpzTO

Mormon Stories did an episode in response titled "Top Mormon Historian Admits CES Letter has Validity - Richard Bushman | Ep. 1934."

81k views in 8 days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T13dVy3izM&t=1811s

We can all see that the apologists not only corroborated and supported the CES Letter claims, but they generated content that corroborated and supported the narrative promoted by Mormon Stories, which attracted 40x the views in less than half the time.

The comments to the Mormon Stories video explain the problem in detail.

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How about taking a different approach that supports, corroborates, and explains what Joseph and Oliver taught?

What if Joseph told the truth?

It remains a mystery why some LDS scholars reject what Joseph and Oliver said about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon.

Even the Gospel Topics Essays ignore what they said.

The Gospel Topics Essay on the translation of the Book of Mormon should start with what they wrote, not ignore what they wrote. 

The scholars who reject these plain teachings owe it to the Latter-day Saints to be clear about their rationalization. It is inexcusable to ignore/censor/suppress the teachings of Joseph and Oliver about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon. Such censorship is the antithesis of scholarship as well.

Latter-day Saints and everyone else interested in these topics deserve clarity so they can make informed decisions.

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Here's one example of a declaration by Joseph Smith that the essay ignores, apparently because it refutes the popular SITH narrative.

Question 4th. How, and where did you obtain the book of Mormon?

Answer. Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the book of Mormon [p. 42] was translated, in a hill in 

Manchester

, Ontario County New York, being dead; and raised again therefrom, appeared unto me, and told me where they were; and gave me directions how to obtain them. I obtained them, and the Urim and Thummim with them; by the means of which, I translated the plates; and thus came the book of Mormon.

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/elders-journal-july-1838/10