A positive step? I hope so.

Readers tell me that BMAF has changed its corporate mission. This is a nice step in the right direction--I hope.

It's nice to see a sort of olive branch extended just before General Conference, so I wanted to recognize it and remind readers here that I like and respect the people affiliated with BMAF and its subsidiaries and affiliates. Everyone has good intentions and wants to share the Book of Mormon.

I think we can all work together. All it takes is a mutual commitment to full disclosure and tolerance of others' views.

Maybe we can all remember what President Nelson said about how good inspiration is based upon good information--a powerful indictment of censorship.

https://presidentnelsonspeaks.blogspot.com/2018/11/good-inspiration-and-good-information.html
_____

Before we look at the change at BMAF (in the table below), we need to consider some context.
_____

Despite what this logo claims, Book of Mormon Central is a subsidiary of BMAF (Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum). BMAF.org has long been a promoter of M2C (the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory) and their web page still archives some of the articles that attracted my attention to this topic in the first place.

Years ago, I was a strong believer and supporter of M2C. After all, I had been educated by CES and BYU, which means I didn't know what the prophets had taught about the New York Cumorah.

Just like today's youth in the Church, I was a victim of M2C censorship.

Just like today's fine young scholars employed by Book of Mormon Central, I trusted my mentors and BYU professors who taught M2C as the only possible explanation for the Book of Mormon.

I used to read all the FARMS materials. I attended conferences and lectures. I viewed everything through the M2C filter and confirmed all my biases. I worked with an archaeologist who did early peer reviews of John Sorenson's book, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon. I visited sites in Mesoamerica. I was "all in" on M2C.

Then I noticed that FARMS was resorting to logical fallacies, such as ad hominem attacks on critics, including critics of M2C who were good members of the Church. I read some of the articles (they are still archived on bmaf.org) and thought to myself, "this is nonsense."

It struck me that FARMS had devolved into pure advocacy. It was anti-scientific. The more I re-examined the material, the more I realized I had been duped by a hoax. The M2C hoax.
_____

FARMS was eventually merged into the Maxwell Institute, where it was defanged. But the principles just changed venue. They formed new organizations: the Interpreter Foundation, which publishes the Interpreter journal and Book of Mormon Central, a multi-million dollar organization that operates the web page and spreads M2C on social media.

Book of Mormon Central still uses the old FARMS logo that incorporates M2C (a Mayan glyph).

Both organizations started with lofty promises of openness and diversity, but like FARMS, both devolved quickly into advocacy organizations. They promoted M2C exclusively--and still do. They still resort to the same logical fallacies. They claim their work is "peer reviewed" but both terms are misleading. The only "peers" they run the material by are like-minded M2C advocates, and the only "review" they conduct is to assure compliance with the M2C orthodoxy. For examples, you can see my blog that looks at a few.
http://interpreterpeerreviews.blogspot.com/

Except now they raise and spend millions of dollars to promote M2C. Their employees are active on social media. They claim the support of the prophets and the Church, in direct violation of the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Geography. They coordinate with BYU Studies and Meridian Magazine, the Maxwell Institute, and other organizations to promote M2C and enforce censorship of alternatives, including (especially) the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.
_____

There have been moments of hope, however. Early on, I offered to let Book of Mormon Central put the first edition of my book, Letter VII, on its web page for free. They accepted because they recognized it was accurate Church history. Of course, Letter VII establishes the New York Cumorah as a fact, which contradicts that basic premise of M2C. By including the book in their archive, they took a step towards openness and diversity of thought.

But after a while, Book of Mormon Central removed Letter VII from its archive. They replaced it with a "Kno-Why" telling readers why they should distrust Oliver Cowdery and all the prophets and apostles who have reaffirmed the New York Cumorah.

It's the worst of FARMS all over again.

Years ago, I agreed with the M2C scholars that, in the interests of harmony, I would delete this blog if they would stop their censorship and remove their material that attacked alternatives to M2C. My offer remains open. I like and respect the M2C scholars. They are great people. I admire all their work apart from M2C advocacy.

About 90% of what is on the Book of Mormon Central web page is great material. I use their archive material all the time and I encourage others to use it.

(The Interpreter, by contrast, is hopeless. The name itself gives away the editorial conceit; i.e., the intellectuals there purport to interpret everything for their readers. There are very few Interpreter articles that I could recommend, which is a shame because with a little legitimate peer review, much of that material could be salvaged and become useful.)

However, the M2C advocates at Book of Mormon Central have doubled down on the M2C hoax, as we all see when we look at their web page. They could easily add some comparison tables, such as the one at the end of this post. They could put material in their archives that supports, instead of repudiates, the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.

So far, they've refused. But maybe they're getting the message that insisting on M2C to the exclusion of everything else is not the best way to share the Book of Mormon.

Maybe they will decide to trust members of the Church to make informed decisions.

Maybe they'll recognize President Nelson's message that good inspiration is based upon good information.

I hope so.
_____

Which brings us to the change at BMAF.org.

They recently modified their Mission Statement page to portray an image of openness and diversity.

It's not much, but it is a step in the right direction. Whether it will produce any substantive changes remains to be seen.

Old	New (2019)
MISSION STATEMENT The Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum (BMAF) is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization dedicated as an open forum for presentation, dissemination, and discussion of research and evidences regarding Book of Mormon archaeology, anthropology, geography and culture within a Mesoamerican context.	MISSION STATEMENT The Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum (BMAF) is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization dedicated as an open forum for presentation, dissemination, and discussion of research and evidences regarding Book of Mormon archaeology, anthropology, geography and culture within Mesoamerican and other ancient contexts.
Our goals are	The specific and primary purposes of the organization are:
(1) to increase understanding of the Book of Mormon as an ancient Mesoamerican codex,	(1) to increase understanding of the Book of Mormon as an ancient book or codex,
(2) to correlate and publish works of LDS and CofC scholars,	(2) (a) to conduct archaeological, scientific, historical, sociological, anthropological and other research in the public interest in the areas of the peoples, places, and cultures described in The Book of Mormon, and/or (b) provide opportuities [sic] for the announcement, discussion, publication, distribution and other debate and dissemination to the general public with such research being in furtherance of the public welfare.
(3) to help promote unity and cooperation among scholars and students of the Book of Mormon, and	(3) to help promote unity and cooperation among scholars and students of the Book of Mormon,
(4) to provide a forum where responsible scholars can present current ideas and discoveries.	(4) to provide a forum where responsible scholars can present current ideas and discoveries.

_____

The comparison charts below allow readers to decide which approach aligns with their personal beliefs. Such a chart avoids the problem of censorship. By enabling informed decisions, the charts fulfill the purpose of the Church's position of neutrality that recognizes individual freedom to choose what to believe.

When I posted this in August 2016, I tried to make it completely neutral and accurate, and I solicited comment. No one offered any corrections or changes, so I assume it remains valid. Of course, both sides could edit it as they see fit.

Publishing this would reflect the intellectual honesty, openness and cooperation that ought to prevail at Book of Mormon Central. Let me know if you see it posted there.
_____

Agree and Agree-to-Disagree lists

Here's my first look at areas in which the two theories agree and agree to disagree. I've tried to reflect both sides as accurately as possible. If anyone has more or different ideas, I'm open to editing this. In the interest of simplicity, I haven't provided links, but the material is widely available. Post a comment or email me if you want to know more about a particular item.

Proposition	M2C	Moroni’s America
1. The most important aspect of the Book of Mormon is its message.	Agree	Agree
2. The Book of Mormon is an inspired translation of an actual ancient record of actual people who lived in the real world.	Agree	Agree
3. The ultimate objective of our research/writing is to motivate people to read the Book of Mormon and strengthen their faith in Christ as a result.	Agree	Agree
4. Another objective of our research/writing is to help people better understand the text of the book by understanding its setting, culture and context.	Agree	Agree
5. The Church has no official position on where Book of Mormon events took place.	Agree	Agree
6. In Letter VII, Oliver Cowdery identified the valley west of the Hill Cumorah in New York as the location of the final battles of the Nephites and Jaredites.	Agree	Agree
7. Joseph Smith instructed his scribes to copy Oliver’s letters, including Letter VII, into his journal as part of his life story.	Agree	Agree
8. Joseph Smith gave permission to Benjamin Winchester to republish Oliver’s letters, including Letter VII, in his newspaper called the Gospel Reflector	Agree	Agree
9. Don Carlos republished Oliver’s letters, including Letter VII, in the 1842 Church newspaper called the Times and Seasons (T&S).	Agree	Agree
10. On Sept. 9, 1841, Dr. Bernhisel gave Wilford Woodruff a copy of the Stephens' popular archaeology books about Central America to give to Joseph Smith	Agree	Agree
11. On Nov. 5, 1841, Wilford Woodruff wrote a letter to Dr. Bernhisel that is not extant.	Agree	Agree
12. A thank-you letter dated Nov. 16, 1841, was sent to Bernhisel on Joseph Smith’s behalf. No one knows who wrote the letter because the handwriting remains unidentified and no journals mention it.	Agree	Agree
13. A series of editorials were published in the T&S during 1842 that linked the Book of Mormon to archaeological findings in North and Central America. They cited the Stephens books and archaeology books by Josiah Priest. All were published either anonymously or over the signature of Ed. for Editor.	Agree	Agree
14. From February 15 through October 15, 1842, the boilerplate of the T&S said the paper was edited, printed, and published by Joseph Smith.	Agree	Agree
15. Joseph Smith originally obtained the plates from a stone box Moroni constructed out of stone and cement in the Hill Cumorah in New York.	Agree	Agree
16. Brigham Young said Oliver told him that he (Oliver) and Joseph had made at least two visits to a room in the Hill Cumorah in New York that contained piles of records and ancient Nephite artifacts.	Agree	Agree
17. Mormon said he buried all the Nephite records in the Hill Cumorah (Morm. 6:6), the scene of the final battles of the Nephites, except he kept out the plates he gave to his son Moroni to finish the record.	Agree	Agree
18. D&C 128:20 reads, “And again, what do we hear? Glad tidings from Cumorah! Moroni, an angel from heaven, declaring the fulfilment of the prophets—the book to be revealed,” followed by references to other events that took place in New York.	Agree	Agree
19. The geography passages in the Book of Mormon are subject to a variety of interpretations.	Agree	Agree
20. To date, apart from Moroni’s stone box and the plates and other objects Joseph Smith possessed and showed to the Witnesses, no artifact or archaeological site that can be directly linked to the Book of Mormon has been found anywhere.	Agree	Agree
21. Cultural characteristics can be discerned from the text.	Agree	Agree
22. The New Jerusalem Ether wrote about is located in Jackson County, Missouri.	Agree	Agree
23. Mayan civilization collapsed around 800 A.D. and Mayans migrated to North America, where they lived for several hundred years before returning to Central America.	Agree	Agree
24. The Newark Ohio earthworks are the largest earthworks in the world and demonstrate knowledge of astronomy and geometry.	Agree	Agree
25. There were a million ancient mounds in North America before the Europeans arrived.	Agree	Agree
26. There are two million skeletons buried in mounds in Illinois alone.	Agree	Agree
27. As an Apostle and Church Historian, Joseph Fielding Smith said the two-Cumorah theory caused members to become confused and disturbed in their faith in the Book of Mormon. He reiterated this when he was President of the Quorum of the Twelve in the 1950s in his book Doctrines of Salvation.	Agree	Agree
28. The land of Zarahemla is north of the land of Nephi and lower in elevation than the land of Nephi.	Agree	Agree

And here's where we agree to disagree. Everyone can choose which position he/she agrees with on each topic. Other ideas are also fine.

Topic	M2C	Moroni’s America
1. Location of the Hill Cumorah	The hill in New York had nothing to do with ancient Nephites or Jaredites (apart from Moroni traveling to the area). The real Hill Cumorah which contains Mormon’s repository of records and was the scene of the final battles is elsewhere.	The hill in New York is the actual Hill Cumorah/Ramah where both the Nephites and the Jaredites were destroyed.  It also contained Mormon’s repository of the Nephite records.
2. Two-Cumorah theory described	There are two Cumorahs. The one in New York where Joseph Smith found the plates was just the place where Moroni buried his record. Unknown early Mormons gave this hill the name Cumorah and Joseph Smith later adopted this tradition. The real Cumorah where Mormon deposited the Nephite records is the scene of the final battles and it is in Mesoamerica.	There is only one Cumorah and it is in New York.
3. Joseph Fielding Smith’s comments on the two-Cumorah theory	Joseph Fielding Smith’s criticisms of the two-Cumorah theory are invalid because 50 years ago, someone heard a BYU professor say Pres. Smith told him he could teach whatever he wanted about Cumorah.	Joseph Fielding Smith’s criticisms of the two-Cumorah theory are valid, have caused and continue to cause members to become confused and disturbed in their faith of the Book of Mormon.
4. Oliver Cowdery’s Letter VII	Oliver Cowdery was speculating and was factually wrong about the New York location of the Hill Cumorah.	Oliver Cowdery stated a fact about the New York Cumorah based on his own experience in Mormon’s repository as related to Brigham Young and others.
5. Anonymous T&S article, Sept/Oct 1842	The articles linking the Book of Mormon to Central America were written, or at least approved by, Joseph Smith	The articles linking the Book of Mormon to Central America were not written, approved of, or even seen by Joseph Smith prior to publication
6. T&S Editor	Joseph was a hands-on editor of the T&S	Joseph was a nominal editor only. The paper was actually edited by William Smith and/or W.W. Phelps.
7. Book of Mormon overall geography	The text describes an overall hourglass shape.	The text does not describe an overall hourglass shape. Instead, Cumorah is a pin in the map in New York and Zarahemla is a pin in the map in Iowa.
8. Setting in Central America vs. North America	The description in the text best fits someplace in Central America, including Guatemala and Mexico.	The description in the text best fits North America, from Florida to New York and west to Missouri and Iowa.
9. Cultural elements in the text	The text describes an ancient Mesoamerican culture. Towers in the text refer to massive stone pyramids. Horses may be tapirs. The Nephites sacrificed agouti or other large rodents.	The text describes an ancient North American culture. Towers in the text refer to wooden towers. Horses are horses. The Nephites strictly observed the Law of Moses, including species.
10. Joseph Smith’s knowledge	Joseph did not leave a first-hand record of a revelation about Book of Mormon geography, so he had no revelation or inspiration regarding Book of Mormon geography	Joseph Smith knew where the Book of Mormon events took place because Moroni had shown him, as mentioned in the Wentworth letter and by his mother Lucy.
11. “Plains of the Nephites” (Joseph's letter to Emma refers to Ohio, Indiana and Illinois as the "plains of the Nephites")	Joseph speculated about a location not specifically mentioned in the text ("the plains of the Nephites").	Joseph recognized the plains referred to in the text of the Book of Mormon; i.e., "meet them upon the plains between the two cities" (Alma 52:20); "pitch their tents in the plains of Nephihah" (Alma 62:18) and "battle against them, upon the plains" (Alma 62:19).
12. Zelph	Zelph was a warrior killed in Illinois who was known to some of Lehi’s descendants who migrated northward from Mesoamerica into the Hinterland (areas not covered by the text)	Zelph was a warrior in the final battles of the Nephites, killed in Illinois between Zarahemla and Cumorah.
13. Location of Zarahemla	Zarahemla is located somewhere in Mexico or Guatemala; D&C 125:3 does not refer to the Nephite Zarahemla	Zarahemla is located across from Nauvoo as indicated by D&C 125:3 (near Montrose Iowa)
14. River Sidon	Because the land of Nephi is south of the land of Zarahemla and people travel down to the land of Zarahemla from Nephi, and because the river Sidon flows past the city of Zarahemla, the River Sidon flows north. Sidon is the Umacita or Grijalva river in Mesoamerica	Because the land of Nephi is south of the land of Zarahemla and people travel down to the land of Zarahemla from Nephi, the river between the two lands flows North. This is the Tennessee River, unnamed in the text. The text says that the river Sidon flows past the city of Zarahemla and along the land of Zarahemla, but not that it goes to the land of Nephi. These descriptions fits the Iowa location; Sidon is the upper Mississippi River.
15. Correspondences in Central America between BoM and ancient cultures	Many correspondences suggest the BoM took place in Central America, including Mayan banners, pyramids, stone temples, warfare, symbols of the tree of life, state-level society, etc.	These correspondences are typical of most cultures and, to the extent they are unique to BoM, they reflect culture brought to Central America from North America when the Mayans returned after 900 AD.
16. Jaredites	The Jaredites lived in Central America and were destroyed at the Hill Cumorah (Ramah) in Mexico	The Jaredites likely expanded throughout the western hemisphere and only those who lived in “this north country” were Ether's ancestors who were discussed in the Book of Ether and were destroyed at Cumorah
17. Presence of ancient writing	The text requires the presence of ancient writing systems, which are found only in Mesoamerica	The text excludes the presence of ancient writing systems because Lamanites destroyed any records they could find, which is why Mormon had to hide the plates.
18. Western Hemisphere setting	Although Joseph merely speculated about BoM geography, he knew it took place somewhere in the Western Hemisphere	Joseph knew by revelation that the Book of Mormon took place in the Western Hemisphere because he identified the plains of the Nephites, identified the western tribes of Indians as Lamanites, etc.
19. 1842 Wentworth letter statement that the “Lamanites are Indians in this country.”	This refers to all indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere.	Joseph was writing from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Mr. Wentworth who lived in Chicago, Illinois. Joseph's statement refers to the Native American Indians in Illinois and what was then the United States.
20. 1830-31 Mission to the Lamanites (D&C 28, 30 and 32)	Early Mormons believed the American Indians were Lamanites, but the term actually refers to all indigenous people in the Americas	Referred specifically to those tribes they visited (and other culturally connected tribes) in New York, Ohio and Missouri
21. Archaeological evidence in North America between BoM and ancient cultures	The archaeology in North America during BoM times shows a tribal level society, but BoM describes a state-level society	The archaeology shows a tribal level society but also a long-lost state-level society with monumental architecture among Adena and Hopewell societies, just as BoM describes
22. Modern prophets/apostles have identified Lamanites in Latin America	These statements corroborate the Mesoamerican setting.	These statements are not limited to Mesoamerica and reflect post-Book of Mormon migrations (Mayans moving north after 800 AD, then returning to Mesoamerica).
23. DNA evidence	All known DNA in Mesoamerican is Asian in origin, but DNA evidence is inconclusive; cannot prove or disprove the Book of Mormon.	Only northeastern (Great Lakes) Indian tribes have DNA other than Asian; dating of X2 haplotype (Middle-Eastern) remains an open issue because scientists currently say the X2 haplotype appeared in the Great Lakes region thousands of years before Lehi.
24. Promised land covenant	Promised land and covenant land includes entire Western hemisphere	Promised land and covenant land refers to the United States
25. Statements recorded by Wilford Woodruff and Martha Coray and attributed to Joseph Smith say that Zion is all of North and South America	These statement mean Lehi’s descendants filled the hemisphere, but BoM took place in a limited geography (Mesoamerica)	These statements originally meant Northern and Southern states, but Zion is anywhere the pure in heart live. Winchester’s wing concept of the continents of North and South America was adopted by Hyrum Smith and successors, then applied retroactively (Wilford Woodruff, Martha Coray)
26. Uto-Aztecan languages have Hebrew and Egyptian influence	These language influences show transoceanic interaction with Indians in western U.S. and Mexico.	These language influences show transoceanic interaction with Indians in western U.S. and Mexico, but not on Mayans. In addition, Algonquin (Great Lakes Indians) languages also have Hebrew and Egyptian influence.
27. General Conference talks that affirm the New York Cumorah	Presidents Ivins and Romney of the First Presidency were merely expressing their own opinions and were wrong. Same with Elder Mark E. Petersen.	Presidents Ivins and Romney of the First Presidency testified to the truth of what President Oliver Cowdery and others taught. Same with Elder Mark E. Petersen.

There's also a useful decision tree here:

http://bookofmormonconsensus.blogspot.com/2017/02/cumorah-decision-tree-for-book-of.html

The M2C hoax - Part 8 - impact on Church history

Months ago I wrote a series of posts about the Early Modern English theory in which I observed the intersection between M2C and revisionist Church history. This post updates one of those posts.

As we saw in the Saints book, Church historians seek to accommodate M2C by actually changing Church history. Readers of Saints have no idea that Joseph Smith's closest associates all accepted the fact, established in Letter VII, that the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is in western New York.

The beauty of censorship is that readers have no idea what is missing.

The youth of the Church will never learn what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah. Nor will the millions of people who join the Church in coming years. That part of history will simply not exist for them. That ignorance allows the M2C hoax to thrive.

We saw how the editors of Saints tried to justify their censorship. They posted an explanatory FAQ right on lds.org. You can read about it here: 
https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-historians-explain-censorship-in.html

Surely, in their minds, these historians thought were doing the right thing when they imposed modern ideas about Book of Mormon geography onto Joseph's contemporaries.

But it's still phony history. And the historians know it.

It is astonishing that historians would deliberately change Church history to accommodate the M2C hoax. 

But what is more astonishing is how many other ways the historians are changing Church history to accommodate M2C.

It is important to clarify that nothing in this post claims prophetic or Church support for any particular theory of Book of Mormon geography. Instead, it is exactly the opposite; i.e., this post seeks to support what the prophets have taught.
_____

Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery gave a detailed account of Moroni's first visit to Joseph Smith. Letter IV explains that Moroni "gave a history of the aborigines of this country, and said they were literal descendants of Abraham.... He said this history was written and deposited not far from that place, and that it was our brother’s privilege, if obedient to the commandments of the Lord, to obtain and translate the same by the means of the Urim and Thummim, which were deposited for that purpose with the record." 

(you can read Letter IV in Joseph's own history here: 

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68)

Now, to accommodate M2C, our LDS scholars and historians are teaching that this story is impossible. 

Everyone accepts that Moroni did visit Joseph. But that's the only thing we can believe, according to these experts.

According to the intellectuals, the history referred to was not of the aborigines of this country; it was a history of a still-undiscovered group of Hebrew Mayans, living in Mesoamerica. 

They were not literal descendants of Abraham; their ancestors migrated from Asia thousands of years before Adam and Eve were created. 

The history was not "written not far from" Joseph's home; instead, it was written thousands of miles away in Mesoamerica, and then Moroni hauled it to an obscure hill in New York where Joseph found it. 

Joseph did not translate the record with the Urim and Thummim; instead, he put a stone in a hat and read the words that appeared. 

For that matter, Joseph never even used the plates; they remained under a cloth or outdoors the entire time he was reading from the stone. 

Joseph couldn't have been the original English translator anyway because the language in the text is much too sophisticated for Joseph and statistical analysis shows it is a form of Early Modern English that had to have been somehow translated in the 1500s. 

Joseph was not the translator; he was merely the transmitter of someone else's translation.

Thanks to the M2C hoax and its followers employed at CES, BYU, and COB (Church Office Building), this is the explanation of Church history being taught to the youth in the Church and to the world at large, including visitors at Temple Square. Compared with what Joseph and Oliver taught, this revisionist Church history is not credible. That impacts conversion and activity rates, especially in English-speaking areas where people have access to the Internet.

Certainly, there are a lot of great things happening in the Church, all around the world. But if we're realistic, we must recognize that many of the challenges faced by the Church today could be resolved by simply believing what Joseph and Oliver and the rest of the modern prophets have taught.

But that's not all.

During Zion's Camp, Joseph described Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, as "the plains of the Nephites." He said the participants on the march were ""recounting occasionaly the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mounds of that once beloved people of the Lord, picking up their skulls & their bones, as a proof of its divine authenticity."

 Joseph and Oliver described the hill Cumorah from which Joseph obtained the plates and said Moroni had named it anciently. They wrote that "At about one mile west rises another ridge of less height, running parallel with the former, leaving a beautiful vale between. the fact, that here, between these hills, the entire power and national strength of both the Jaredites and Nephites were destroyed." 

In addition, Mormon, "by divine appointment, abridged from those records, in his own style and language, a short account ... which he deposited, as he says, on the 529th page, all the records in this same hill, Cumorah and after gave his small record to his son Moroni, who, as appears from the same, finished, after witnessing the extinction of his people as a nation."

Joseph and Oliver (and others) actually visited the depository of Nephite records and artifacts in the hill Cumorah in New York. They spoke about it to Brigham Young and others.

Yet the M2C hoax says all of this is impossible, too. 

BYU's infamous fantasy map
of the Book of Mormon that
teaches students the prophets
are wrong

Through CES and BYU, promoters of the M2C hoax teach our youth that the hill Cumorah cannot be in New York. Instead, it is somewhere in southern Mexico, or, lately, that it is located on a fantasy map. 

They teach that Mormon's depository of records could not have been in "the hill in New York." 

They teach that Joseph and Oliver were merely speculating when they taught that Cumorah was in the New York Cumorah and that they misled the Church for decades, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference who testified that their false opinions were true. 

This condition continued until they, the M2C intellectuals, came along to set the Church straight.

These intellectuals claim the modern prophets have hired them, the intellectuals, to guide the Church on all these matters. 

That's why they are justified in revising Church history to censor the earliest accounts and purge these false folk traditions about Cumorah, the Lamanites, and the North American setting. 

Plus, they say, Mesoamerica is found in the Book of Mormon text. It's all there--the volcanoes, the jungles, jaguars and jade, the tapirs and stone pyramids and all the rest--but you have to be trained in the Mesoamerican ministry to "see" it. Joseph and Oliver and the rest of the prophets were too naive to understand.

Now, I admire and respect all these M2C intellectuals and their followers as brothers and sister in the Gospel. None of what I write is personal. I'm sure they think they're doing the right thing, following the evidence where they think it leads, etc. I just think they embarked on a fool's errand based on a mistake in Church history, and now they've been confirming that bias for so long they don't even realize what they've done or the bubble they've created and now live within.

I'm focused on the words on the pages published by the M2C citation cartel, the images and maps and videos they create, the things they teach to thousands of LDS youth throughout the Church, and what they present to the world.

I fully recognize that I might be wrong about all of this. Maybe the intellectuals are right about M2C, after all. Maybe they do know more than the prophets and we should follow them instead of the prophets.

But as I've examined the logic and facts used to support the M2C hoax, I find them far less persuasive than the explanation given by Joseph and Oliver and the prophets. I think the evidence from all the sciences, and the text itself, corroborate and support what the prophets have taught, not the M2C hoax.

I've satisfied myself that Joseph and Oliver were telling the truth.

_____

Naturally, critics of the Book of Mormon have always sought to discredit its divine authenticity. They say it is fictional because Joseph (and/or others) wrote it and/or copied it from one or more sources.

Faithful LDS refute those claims with semantic arguments. They write blogs, post comments on Facebook and other social media, read and write books and articles, etc., all focusing on semantics, word choice, statistical analysis, etc.

KEY POINT: The intellectual debate over the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon is essentially an exercise in confirmation bias. There is "evidence" to support whatever you want to believe. 

Most participants in these discussions forget this key point. Their own confirmation bias blinds them to others' perspectives. Anyone who wants to understand the issues thoroughly should be able to at least articulate contrary positions, using the facts and arguments of the various proponents.

Lawyers learn this in their first year at law school, but anyone who analytically observes the world realizes that those with whom we disagree are not merely ignorant or stupid. Everyone has different biochemistry and brain structure, different family and religious and social backgrounds, all of which (and more) lead to different biases we seek to confirm.

That said, I think it's possible to break through confirmation bias if we heed the words of the prophets and the scriptures. That's why we have prophets, after all.

In my view, these prophetic sources explain the evidence in such a way as to corroborate what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery said all along.

This is why it is so destructive to have M2C intellectuals teaching the world (including LDS youth) that the prophets are wrong about the New York Cumorah--and all the other things I listed above.
_____

The M2C hoax -Part 7 - when science replaced the prophets

As I write this, I'm a short distance from the Hill Cumorah in New York. The book The Next Mormons reports that only 50% of LDS Millennials are confident that the Book of Mormon is a literal, historical account, and the percentage is declining.

None of this is surprising.

In fact, prophets have warned that this would happen, but their warnings have gone unheeded.*

Younger generations of Church members have never heard what the prophets have taught about the Hill Cumorah. Those teachings have been censored by CES and BYU. They are censored in the Saints book. They are censored in the visitors centers.

BYU fantasy map of the
Book of Mormon -
no wonder only 50%
of Millennials think the
Book of Mormon is a
literal, historical account

Instead, the youth learn the BYU/CES fantasy map and the M2C hoax (the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory). Even visitors to the "Hill Cumorah" Visitors Center learn M2C.

(Actually, they don't even learn M2C. They are taught there is only one Cumorah, and it is in Mexico.)

The only place where visitors to Palmyra can see the teachings of the prophets about Cumorah is at the Oliver Cowdery Memorial about one mile north of the Hill Cumorah.

(BTW, the "Hill Cumorah" Visitors Center is scheduled for remodeling. It probably will no longer even be called the Hill Cumorah visitors center.)

All of this confusion is the inevitable result of censoring the teachings of the prophets, and for those few students who discover the teachings of the prophets on their own, teaching them that they should believe the M2C intellectuals instead of the prophets.

M2C represents a repudiation of the teachings of the prophets in favor of the teachings of the intellectuals. Today we'll look at when and how this transition occurred.
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It's a simple fact, verifiable by anyone, that the prophets and apostles have long taught two things about Book of Mormon geography:

1. The Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is in New York.
2. We don't know for sure where the rest of the Book of Mormon events took place.

Anyone who questions these facts can read the reports of General Conference, as we've discussed before, such as here. 

Nevertheless, a lot of people try to conflate (mix up) the two points because they don't believe what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah.
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We've seen how the Cumorah question arose as a contest between RLDS and LDS teachings around the turn of the century. Although LDS leaders, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference, repeatedly reaffirmed Letter VII's teaching about the New York Cumorah, LDS intellectuals sided with the RLDS intellectuals.

M2C became the default position of the Church because employees at CES, BYU and COB (Church Office Building) rejected what the prophets taught.

In the 1980s, M2C went mainstream with two 1984 articles in the Ensign by John L. Sorenson titled "Digging into the Book of Mormon." You can red them here:

https://www.lds.org/study/ensign/1984/09/digging-into-the-book-of-mormon-our-changing-understanding-of-ancient-america-and-its-scripture?lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/study/ensign/1984/10/digging-into-the-book-of-mormon-our-changing-understanding-of-ancient-america-and-its-scripture-part-2?lang=eng

The articles were republished in the Liahona in 1985.

The Editor of the Ensign at the time, Jay M. Todd, was fascinated with the Mesoamerican theory. The articles were illustrated with photos of Mesoamerican sites and artifacts, as well as this map:

This map, of course, represents the M2C interpretation of the Book of Mormon that has become the default "official" interpretation of the text, with one "narrow neck" in Mesoamerica.

It is this interpretation that the intellectuals used to generate the fantasy maps taught by CES and BYU.

The articles did not directly articulate the M2C theory, but they laid the groundwork. It's very interesting how Brother Sorenson framed the discussion.

First, he established that the teachings of the prophets are irrelevant.

He didn't even cite a single one of them.

Instead, he claimed this: The issue is not one of intentions, beliefs, or testimony; it is one of scholarship. To compare the Book of Mormon with the findings of archaeology and related fields is a scholarly, intellectual activity. When anyone, Latter-day Saint or not, sets out to work in that domain, he must operate according to the rules which govern there.

Recall, this was published in the Ensign. So far as I know, this was the inflection point. This is where science replaced the prophets. 

This is also when the censorship began.

In the left column below, I show some of the Ensign covers that depict M2C. It is fascinating to me because not one Ensign cover has ever depicted the New York Cumorah, not even when it was taught in General Conference. There has been zero effort to be "neutral" about Book of Mormon geography. It is all M2C, all the time.

The Ensign has never published Letter VII, either, even though all prior Church magazines did, including the Improvement Era. But now that M2C is the default position, Letter VII is censored.

(Fortunately, Joseph Smith had his scribes copy it into his journal, where anyone can read it in the Joseph Smith Papers. Otherwise, it would have been completely erased from accessible Church history. You can read about Letter VII here: http://www.lettervii.com/)

In 1975 and 1978, the New York Cumorah was reaffirmed in General Conference. Brother Sorenson didn't mention that. Today, hardly anyone even knows that.

Now, I agree with Brother Sorenson that the issue is not one of intentions, beliefs or testimony. But I don't agree it is an issue of scholarship exclusively. When the prophets have consistently and persistently taught that it is a fact that the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is in New York, we don't cavalierly reject their teachings solely because we disagree with them.

But that's what Brother Sorenson and all his followers have done.

In my view, scientific analysis is useful and important, especially when, as in this case, it supports the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.

Intellectual honesty requires that the M2C intellectuals (and CES and BYU teachers) at least acknowledge the teachings of the prophets and explain why they reject those teachings.

It's not surprising that an article in the Ensign would avoid that topic, but to discerning readers the censorship is apparent--and it is just as apparent now in the Visitors Centers, curriculum, etc.
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The second framing Brother Sorenson used to lay the groundwork for M2C appears here:

A substantive discussion of geography cannot be given in these limited pages. However, for at least the past forty years, many students of the subject who have studied it in depth have reached similar basic conclusions: (1) the events reported by Nephite and Jaredite scribes evidently covered only a limited territory in the New World “land of promise,” and (2) there is presently known only one location in the Western Hemisphere that seems qualify as that scene.6

Notice how the article ignores the origins of M2C (the RLDS scholars who developed it in the late 1800s and early 1900 as part of their intellectual battle with LDS leaders). Instead, it frames M2C as something that originated in the 1940s among LDS scholars.

Notice also how the teachings of the prophets about Cumorah are both censored and repudiated. Brother Sorenson (and all of his M2C followers) don't even acknowledge alternatives to M2C; they insist Mesoamerica is the "only" location that "seems to qualify."

Of course, this is the inevitable result of their circular reasoning. They simply interpreted the text to match Mesoamerica, and then claimed only Mesoamerica "qualifies" according to their interpretation. 

We admire the audacity of this sophistry, but we recognize it for what it is.

Footnote 6 is awesome. The article never mentions the term "Cumorah" but the footnote does. It cites books that established M2C by saying the prophets were wrong. Here are two of my favorites:

Cumorah - Where? by Thomas Stuart Ferguson (Zion's Printing and Publishing Co.: Independence, Missouri, 1947)

In Search of Cumorah: New Evidences for the Book of Mormon from Ancient Mexico, by David A. Palmer (Bountiful, Ut." Horizon Publishers, 1981).
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We don't have time to go through the entire Ensign articles, but I recommend that you do so. It's astonishing to see how M2C became established.

However, we do need to look one paragraph that was crucial to the foundation of M2C. (My comment in red.)

Of course, placing the Book of Mormon lands within a limited region like Mesoamerica requires that we take a fresh look at some of the long-standing questions that have been of interest to Book of Mormon readers. For example, how did the plates of Nephi get from the final battlefield near the “narrow neck of land”11 to where Joseph Smith obtained them in New York? 

[This has never been a question for those who accept what the prophets have taught. It's only a question for those who reject those teachings. Footnote 11 explains how the intellectuals turned a fact into a question.]

Here the Book of Mormon sheds no light. 

[But the prophets not only share light, they declare it as a fact that the final battles took place in the valley west of the "hill in New York." Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith visited the depository of Nephite records in the hill Cumorah in New York. That alone justifies their teaching that this is the hill of Mormon 6:6.]

One obvious possibility is that Moroni himself may have carried the records to New York during his thirty-six years of wandering between the extermination of the Nephites and when he last wrote on the plates. (See Morm. 6:6; Moro. 1:1–4; Moro. 10:1.) Or he may have taken them there as a resurrected being. We only know that, whatever the means, in 1827 the plates were in the “hill of considerable size” near young Joseph Smith’s home at Palmyra, New York, where Moroni delivered the sacred record to him.

Notice how the teaching of the prophets--that the final battles of the Jaredites and Nephites took place in western New York--is nowhere considered even as a possibility. It is completely censored. 

Also notice the rhetorical trick of referring to the "hill in New York" as a generic hill and not as the Hill Cumorah.

This is footnote 11.


Consider the following reasoning: (1) The Cumorah of the Nephites and the Ramah of the Jaredites were the same hill (Ether 15:11). (2) This area, covered with bones (Omni 1:22; Mosiah 8:8; Mosiah 21:26–27; etc.) and also a “land of many waters, rivers, and fountains” (Morm. 6:4; Ether 15:8), was in the land of Desolation, which bordered on the land Bountiful at the narrow neck of land (Alma 22:29–32). 

[Here is one of the circular reasoning interpretations. The M2C interpretation conflates the "narrow neck of land" (Ether 10:20) with the "narrow neck" of Alma 63:5, as if these different terms hundreds of years apart referred to the identical geographical feature. Then they insert the "narrow neck" into Alma 22, where it doesn't actually exist in the text.] 

(3) In Mormon 3 through 6, it becomes clear that the final battles of the Nephites were localized, centering largely in the general area of the city of Desolation, which was in the land of Desolation “by the narrow pass which led into the land southward” (Morm. 3:5, 7). 

[Here they conflate "narrow pass" with "narrow neck of land" and "narrow neck." All of this also assumes that "land southward" and "land northward" are proper nouns instead of relative terms, relative to the specific location and time involved in the narrative. These assumptions are not necessarily unreasonable, but they are not mandatory and, IMO, contradict a basic rule of interpretation, that different terms refer to different things. But for M2C intellectuals, the conclusion that the prophets are wrong about Cumorah is fundamental. It's a starting point. For me, just the opposite is the case; i.e., I start with what the prophets have taught and go from there.]

(4) And therefore, according to this reasoning, Cumorah, the final battlefield of the Nephites and Lamanites, was near the narrow neck of land.

[Ironically, I don't disagree with this statement. But I don't agree with the M2C interpretation that (i) conflates the terminology and (ii) insists the narrow neck of land must be in Mesoamerica.]

The point of this post is not to debate the terminology. That's a futile endeavor. I'm not interested in a "war of words" which can never be resolved and doesn't change anyone's mind anyway.

The point of this post is to show when and how science (as explained by M2C intellectuals) replaced the teachings of the prophets. 

In my view, replacing the prophets with the intellectuals is and has been a huge mistake. 

It's fine with me if people prefer to believe the M2C intellectuals instead of the prophets, I just think such an important decision should be made with full knowledge of 

(i) what the prophets have taught and 

(ii) what science tells us that affirms and corroborates those teachings.

Currently, most members of the Church are never even exposed to, let alone taught, either category of knowledge.

I hope to see that change. I continue to call upon my friends in the M2C citation cartel to provide their readers and followers with full, complete information. 

I call on them to stop resorting to censorship and obfuscation to maintain M2C.

I call on them to trust their readers to make informed decisions.



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*About the time when President Joseph F. Smith wanted to purchase the Hill Cumorah in New York, RLDS scholars began teaching that the "real" hill Cumorah was in Mexico. Joseph F. Smith had republished Letter VII; for him, the Cumorah question was settled.

His son, Joseph Fielding Smith, and Apostle and Church Historian at the time, warned that the "two-Cumorahs" theory would cause members of the Church to become confused and disturbed in their faith in the Book of Mormon. He reiterated that warning when he was President of the Quorum of the Twelve.

But the intellectuals rejected his warning.

Two months before he died, Brigham Young expressed his serious concern that the teaching about the New York Cumorah would be forgotten. He had good reason to be concerned, as we discussed here:

http://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2017/08/brigham-young-140th-anniversary-of-his.html

Fun with M2C on the Internet

Just FYI.

Some time ago I linked to this site for people to see what Joseph Fielding Smith had to say about the "two-Cumorahs" theory. http://emp.byui.edu/marrottr/cumorah-jfes-dofs3.pdf

Now if you go there, you get an error:

HTTP Error 404.0 - Not Found

The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

But thanks to archive.org's wayback machine, you can still read Joseph Fielding Smith's statement:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170705230407/http://emp.byui.edu/marrottr/cumorah-jfes-dofs3.pdf

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For a while, people reported that BMAF.org, the owner of Book of Mormon Central, went offline. It is now back online. http://bmaf.org/about/mission_statement

You can once again see their corporate goals. Notice that (2) involves correlating with CofC scholars. The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints changed its name to Community of Christ (CofC).

It's fitting that Book of Mormon Central works with these scholars since they invented M2C in the first place.

Now, there are groups from both CofC and BOMC searching in southern Mexico for Cumorah.

Notice goal (3) also. Of course, they "help promote unity" by censoring any alternative views.
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MISSION STATEMENT

The Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum (BMAF) is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization dedicated as an open forum for presentation, dissemination, and discussion of research and evidences regarding Book of Mormon archaeology, anthropology, geography and culture within a Mesoamerican context.  Our goals are (1) to increase understanding of the Book of Mormon as an ancient Mesoamerican codex, (2) to correlate and publish works of LDS and CofC scholars, (3) to help promote unity and cooperation among scholars and students of the Book of Mormon, and (4) to provide a forum where responsible scholars can present current ideas and discoveries. BMAF has no overhead. Funds received from donations are used 100% toward our stated goals. 

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