All the hoaxes are being revealed at the same time.

Whether you believe in coincidences, simulation theory, or irony, the last few days have been fascinating.

My series on the M2C hoax coincided with the exposure of several major hoaxes. I'm postponing the next entries in my series for a day to share this discussion by Scott Adams.

It's titled "Scott Adams talks about how all the hoaxes are being revealed at the same time."

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1eaJbOaXBPqxX?t=9
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His Sunday cartoon strip also fits well.

https://dilbert.com/strip/2019-03-24
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While we're at it, we might as well enjoy a modified Dilbert cartoon.

The M2C hoax - part 3 - censorship

Yesterday, President Trump signed an Executive Order Improving Free Inquiry, Transparency, and Accountability at Colleges and Universities.

What we need now is an Executive Order directing the M2C (Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs) citation cartel to cease their censorship.

President Trump said, "People who are confident in their beliefs do not censor others. They welcome free, fair and open debate."

At this blog, we're confident of our beliefs. We not only don't censor others' ideas, we provide links to different points of view so readers can see for themselves what others believe and teach.

By contrast, the M2C citation cartel censors alternative ideas. They don't want their readers to know about alternatives. They don't want people to make informed choices.

They want people to think M2C is the only choice.

And they want people to think M2C has prophetic and Church support.
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We've provided links to all the members of the M2C citation cartel, including Book of Mormon Central, FairMormon, the Interpreter, BYU Studies, etc. We want our readers to know what the M2C proponents teach.

We've also provided readers with comparison tables to make it easier for them to compare the alternatives so they can make informed decisions.

For years, we've tried to work with the M2C citation cartel on a joint comparison table and other resources, but they've consistently refused.

Everyone who relies on the M2C citation cartel gets only censored information that supports M2C.
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One characteristic of a hoax is censorship.

The M2C citation cartel makes a concerted effort to prevent students in CES and BYU classes from learning what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah.

Book of Mormon Central is only the latest to join the censorship team. They refuse to offer readers any perspectives on Book of Mormon geography other than M2C.

And then they claim the prophets and the Church support their position.

FairMormon and the Interpreter do the same, along with Meridian Magazine, BYU Studies, etc.

Ultimately, censorship loses. More and more members of the Church are realizing that M2C can only persist by censoring information and ideas that contradict M2C.

The M2C hoax - Part 2 - Power of psychology

This is another summary of what I've been discussing on this blog in preparation for the repurposing of the content. Today we'll summarize the psychology of M2C.
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We see only what confirms our beliefs

The power of bias confirmation is evident in many aspects of life. We see it in politics, religion, and social issues, etc.

In most cases, people will not change their opinions regardless of what facts and logical arguments are presented. Even if you show a fact that irrefutably and completely contradicts their opinions, they will not change their minds.

Our brains are wired to protect our mental health. No matter what evidence we observe, our brains filter it through bias confirmation so we either literally don't perceive it, or we explain it away as invalid, irrelevant, etc. Our brains protect us from threats to our opinions, which are the way we interpret the world.

Later in this post we'll look at how opinions are formed in the first place.
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Among members of the Church, there are few examples more striking than M2C.

This is why the Church has no alternative but to take no position, as we saw in the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Geography. 

Should the Church take a position, regardless of what it is, and regardless of what facts are cited, thousands of members of the Church would suffer severe psychological pain.

Think about it. On what topic other than M2C does the Church condone outright censorship of historical documents?

Normally, it would be unthinkable for a Church lesson manual to censor the teachings of Joseph Smith, especially when he specifically asked that his teaching not be censored. Yet the Correlation Department blatantly censored his teachings in the Wentworth letter.

Normally, it would be unthinkable for a new official book on Church history to deliberately censor important information and create a false historical narrative. Yet they did just that in the Saints book.

Normally, it would be unthinkable for a detailed explanation of the timeline of the translation of the Book of Mormon to deliberately censor important information, but that's exactly what happened in a recent book titled Opening the Heavens and its associated presentation and BYU Studies article.

There is only one explanation for this censorship that makes sense. 

The censors decided that censorship is preferable to causing psychological pain to Church members who have never learned what the prophets have taught about Cumorah because they've been taught M2C all their lives.

We ask ourselves, why are they doing this? These employees are good people with worthy motives: they want to bring people to Christ. They think promoting M2C is the best way to do this, even if it means censoring the teachings of the prophets, revising Church history narratives, and insisting on one interpretation of the text of the Book of Mormon.

In an upcoming post we'll examine the origins of the M2C hoax and discuss how the same factors that prompted the development of M2C remain so powerful today that employees at CES/BYU/COB still think censorship and misdirection is justified.
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It's very rare to have unambiguous, clear, demonstrable facts that everyone can see for themselves. In this case, we do have such facts regarding what the prophets and apostles have taught about the New York Cumorah.

But these facts don't matter to M2C proponents.

As I showed in my video Watching General Conference with your BYU Professor, the psychology of cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias literally prevents M2C believers from processing what the prophets have taught.
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Many readers of this blog have tried an experiment. They have shown Letter VII to their M2C-believing friends. Because their friends have been taught by CES/BYU, they have never seen it before but they don't want to admit that.

Their first response, perfectly normal, is usually to go blank. Cognitive dissonance kicks in. They don't have a response because their brains recognize a serious threat to their mental health. To see such a clear statement of fact about the New York Cumorah, declared in an official Church publication by President Oliver Cowdery, is a shock.

Once they recover, their second response is to disbelieve that Letter VII exists. They think it must be a fake because they've never heard of it before. When you show it to them in Joseph Smith's personal history, right in the Joseph Smith Papers, cognitive dissonance kicks back in and they go blank again.

Most of them won't know what to say. They will defer their response by saying they will "look into it" or "study it." At the earliest opportunity, they will consult the M2C citation cartel, usually FairMormon or Book of Mormon Central. Or maybe they will consult social media, where employees of the M2C citation cartel are actively promoting the hoax.

Your friends will find comfortable, reassuring explanations that boil down to this: who are you going to believe, the M2C intellectuals or your lying eyes?

Here is what the M2C intellectuals teach their followers to activate their bias confirmation filter: "Oliver Cowdery" (never "President Cowdery," the way Joseph Smith referred to him) was merely expressing his own personal opinion. And he was wrong, because, well, M2C.

Having done their research, your friends will come back to you with that M2C answer.

Then you show them what other prophets have taught, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference. That causes more psychological pain, but they alleviate that pain by referring again to the M2C citation cartel, which assures them that all these prophets and apostles were merely expressing their personal opinions and they were wrong.

Next, you get into the sciences: archaeology, anthropology, geology, geography, etc., and show them things they've never known before. You'll get the same M2C responses.

No matter what evidence you provide, you will not change the mind of an M2C intellectual or follower. Change is too psychologically painful.

Of course, M2C advocates say the inverse.

The M2C citation cartel is frustrated because no matter what evidence they provide from Mesoamerica, they cannot persuade Church members who know what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah that the prophets are wrong.
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It is this psychological reality that leads me to keep focusing on what the employees at CES/BYU/COB are doing.
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Opinions are formed at young ages. "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6. 

By "young age" I include high school and college students. They typically believe their teachers and professors. Then, thanks to the Academic Cycle, these ideas are passed along to new generations.

Teachers and professors who promote M2C are not really teaching their students; they are assigning opinions through censorship and they are creating a specific bias. 

These teachers know their students' psychology will confirm that bias no matter what they learn in the future.

Employees in the Church History and Correlation Departments are doing the same thing. By censoring the teachings of the prophets, these employees are making sure that future generations will resist those teachings if/when they learn about them later in life.*

It's easy to see how this works by posing a hypothetical.
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Let's pretend that employees at CES/BYU/COB, instead of promoting M2C, were emphasizing Letter VII.

Let's pretend that Letter VII was published in official Church materials today as often as it was during Joseph Smith's lifetime.

Let's pretend that Letter VII was part of the CES/BYU curriculum.

Then let's pretend that Church publications and lesson manuals contained the teachings of all the prophets and apostles about the New York Cumorah.

Let's pretend that the Saints book was historically accurate, and that the Wentworth letter was not censored in the lesson manual.

Let's pretend that instead of using a map of Mesoamerica, or the fantasy/mythology map, CES and BYU teachers used a conceptual map that showed Cumorah in New York.

In this imaginary world, would any member of the Church still believe M2C when it was presented to them?

Of course not.

If members of the Church learned the teachings of the prophets at an early age, they would be inoculated against those who claim the prophets are wrong.

But we don't live in this hypothetical world.

Instead, we live in a world in which our youth are taught that the prophets are wrong.

And that's why it is almost impossible for M2C believers to change their opinions even when they finally learn what the prophets have taught, and even when they learn about the scientific evidence that supports the prophets.
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*We emphasize again, these are good people with worthy motives. We'll look at these motives and see what, if anything, can be done to address them.

More censorship from part 1 of the M2C hoax

After my post yesterday, some people wondered if there are other examples of how Lucy Mack Smith's account has been censored.

One of the best-known books about Lucy's History of Joseph Smith was edited by Scot and Maurine Proctor.

Yesterday, we saw that Lucy quoted Joseph saying "As I passed by the hill of Cumorah, where the plates are, the angel of the Lord met me."

Recall, this was in early 1827, well before Joseph obtained the plates in September. The statement explains the true origin of the name Cumorah as applied to the hill in New York where Moroni put the plates in the stone box.

If you read the Proctors' book, pages 134-5, you will see that Joseph's statement is missing.

The Saints book also censored Joseph's statement, as have all the Church history accounts that I've checked lately, including Rough Stone Rolling, as we saw yesterday.

I realize this degree of censorship is difficult to believe. Such censorship is right out of George Orwell's 1984.

[That's a reference many younger people won't understand. Starting about ten years ago, my college students told me they had never heard of the book. Apparently it is no longer taught in high school, which helps explain why so many younger people are so easily fooled by fake news and hoaxes. Another topic for another day.]

Fortunately, censorship is difficult in today's world for those who seek the truth. You can verify what I'm reporting for yourself in the links to the Joseph Smith Papers and in the Proctors' book, as well as in Saints.

How do these revisionist historians get away with censoring Joseph's 1827 statement about Cumorah?

I'm going to show you.
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There are two versions of Lucy's history. The first one, the rough draft, she dictated to Martha Coray in Nauvoo in 1844-1845. Martha's husband Howard helped. Then, in 1845, Martha and Howard wrote a "fair copy" of the history under Lucy's direction. This was an updated, edited version.

The table below shows both versions of Lucy's history. If you look at the links to the Joseph Smith Papers, you can see where parts of the original 1844-1845 version were lined out and replaced.

The quotation of Joseph referring to the hill Cumorah in early 1827 is in the revised, 1845 version. The corresponding part of the old version was lined out.

But the Proctors, like the editors of Saints, used the older, deleted version instead of the updated one. 

Why?

All we can do is infer from the editing decision.

Normally, we would expect a historian to use the original author's updated, edited version, especially when the author lined out the original and replaced it with more detail.

In this case, both the Proctors and the revisionist Church historians reject the New York Cumorah. Rather than include Lucy's updated, specific quotation, they just deleted so their readers will never know about it.

This table shows how they accomplished this. The left column is the rough draft (1844-1845). The right column is Lucy's updated 1845 version. The print in black and red is the unused original of each version.

The lines through the type represent the text that Lucy deleted when she updated and revised her account.

The print in blue is the Proctors' version, which is basically what we read in Saints as well. You can see that they switched back and forth between the accounts to compose a single version that you can read in their book on pages 134-5.

You'll also notice that much of the blue is lined out. That's because the Proctors (like the editors of Saints) used the material Lucy deleted rather than her updated, revised version that included the Cumorah statement.

The passage in red is the key point about Cumorah, which the editors censored.

1844-1845 (rough draft)	1845 (revised by Lucy)
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/59	https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/110
But to return to the <​first​> circumstance which I commenced relating he did not return home till the night was considerably advanced his Father and myself were together I no one else was present when he entered the house he seemed threw himself into a chair seemingly much exhausted he was <​as​> pale as ashes his Father exclaimed Joseph why have <​you​> staid so late has anything happened you we have been in distress about you these 3 hours	But to return, he did not get home till the night was far spent. On coming in, threw himself into a chair, apparently much exhausted. My husband did not observe his appearance, and immediately exclaimed, “Joseph, why have you staid so late? has anything happened you? we have been much distressed about you these three hours.
	As Joseph made no reply, he continued his interrogations until I finally said: now, father, (as that was the manner in which I commonly addressed him) let him rest a moment— dont touble him now— you see he is home safe, and he is very tired; so pray wait a little. The fact is, I had learned to be a little cautious about matters with regard to Joseph; for I was accostomed to see him look as he did on that occasion, and could not easily mistake the cause thereof.
after Joseph recovered himself a little he said Father I have had the severest chastisement that I ever had in my life
	Presently he smiled, and said in a very calm tone, “I have taken the severest chastisement, that I have ever had in my life”. My husband, supposing it was from some of the neighbors, was quite angry; and observed,
Chastisement indeed! Said Mr. Smith Well upon my word I would like to [know?] who has been takeing you to task and what their pretext was its pretty well too if you are to be detained till this time of night to take lectures for your bad practises—
	“I would would like to know what business any body has to find fault with you.”
Joseph smiled to see his Father so hasty and indignant. Father said he it was the angel of the Lord. he says I have been negligent that the time has now come when the record should be brought forth and that I must be up and doing that I must set myself about the things which God has commanded me to do but Father give yourself no uneasiness as to this reprimand <​for​> I know what course I am to pursue an[d] all will be well.”	“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 of the Lord met me and said, that I had not been engaged enough in the work of the Lord; that the time had come for the record to <​be​> brought forth; and, that I must be up and doing, and set myself about the things which God had commanded me to do: but, Father,’ continued he, ‘give yourself no uneasiness concerning the reprimand that I have received; for I now know the course that I am to pursue; so all will be well.”
It <​was​> signified to him when he should make annother effort to obtain the plates which was september 22 but at this time he did not make this known to us	It was also made known to him at this interview, that he should make another effort to obtain the plates on the 22d. of the following September; But this he did not mention to us at that time.

Here's a photo of the pages in the Proctors' book so you can verify what I'm showing if you don't have a copy.

This could all be a simple misunderstanding, of course. But readers should know that Scot and Maurine Proctor are the publishers of Meridian Magazine (https://ldsmag.com/), which has the nickname of "Mesoamerican Magazine" because of the way it constantly promotes M2C.

Whether it's a coincidence or not, their careful editing of Lucy's history just happens to censor an important part of Church history that just happens to refute M2C.

Just the same way as the book Saints does, sadly.

M2C is a hoax - Part 1

I'm repurposing the content of this blog to make it more accessible and more widely available. Until then, the next few posts will summarize my conclusions about the topics we've discussed on this blog.
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The bottom line: The Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs (M2C) theory is a hoax. 

That's not to say there's anything wrong with people believing M2C. People believe all kinds of hoaxes. I speak from experience because for decades I, too, believed the M2C hoax. 

In retrospect, it is apparent to me that I fell for it because I believed my CES/BYU teachers and didn't realize they were not giving me all the facts so I could make an informed decision. Most of them, probably, didn't know all the facts. Like me, they too had been trained by M2C promoters.

But intentionally or not, they were censoring material they didn't want me to consider because it contradicted their own belief in M2C.

And today, hundreds of thousands of LDS youth are being subjected to the same censorship tactic, except now it's even worse because they're learning the Book of Mormon in a setting of fantasy and mythology.

Today let's look at what people must do to believe M2C. 
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Every proponent of M2C has a serious responsibility. This includes:

1. the originators (the RLDS scholars who developed it in the late 19th century), 
2. the early adopters (the LDS scholars who embraced it over the objection of LDS leaders), 
3. the mainstreamers (the LDS scholars who took it mainstream in the 1980s)
4. the promoters (the M2C citation cartel and their employees)
5. the educators (the CES/BYU/COB employees who teach M2C with fantasy maps)

Every person in these categories is teaching people that the prophets were wrong.* 

This is not a contentious or controversial statement. It's just a fact. The M2C proponents all admit it; how could they not? And as fellow members of the Church, we accept them as faithful, devoted Latter-day Saints who, like us, love the Lord and want to share his Gospel with the world. We don't have a problem with their beliefs and teachings because we believe anyone can believe and teach whatever they want.

We just object to their practice of not informing their students and followers of all the facts, including this point:

The foundation for M2C is the premise that the prophets are wrong about the New York Cumorah.
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It's one thing for an academic to look at words on paper (or on a screen) and conclude that the author was wrong, based on the academic's expertise, experience, and the consensus of like-minded academics. Academics project their own thought processes on the historical documents. They apply their reasoning and their subjective interpretations, filtering history through their own confirmation bias.

But it's another thing to look at what those words represent.

The words that explain the New York Cumorah were not the product of people writing ignorantly, cavalierly, negligently, or deceitfully. 

The people who wrote and spoke about the New York Cumorah were people who recognized the importance of what they wrote and said, who spoke from experience and acknowledged their duty to God and their own responsibility for what they wrote.

In the October 2009 General Conference, Elder Jeffery R. Holland discussed the Book of Mormon and made this declaration: "and if he or she leaves this Church, it must be done by crawling over or under or around the Book of Mormon to make that exit."

Let's paraphrase that and say, "and if he or she rejects the New York Cumorah, it must be done by crawling over or under or around the prophets and apostles to make that rejection."
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Lucy Mack Smith

I'll give just one example today--Lucy Mack Smith. 

For over a decade, Lucy had responded to questions about her son Joseph Smith. When he was murdered, she dictated her account so it could be written for everyone to read. Today's historians, including the revisionist LDS historians, still rely on her account of Joseph Smith's early life as the most detailed we have.

They just censor parts they don't agree with. 

The prime example of this is the Saints book. Below is a passage they censored. Actually, they edited around this passage. 

[For those new to this blog, I posted a table of their editing tactics here: 
https://bookofmormonwars.blogspot.com/2018/09/why-saints-censors-key-history.html]

In her account, Lucy explains that in early 1827, Joseph came home late from a trip to Manchester and rested a moment before explaining what happened.

The fact is, I had learned to be a little cautious about matters with regard to Joseph; for I was accostomed [sic] to see him look as he did on that occasion, and could not easily mistake the cause thereof. Presently he smiled, and said in a very calm tone, “I have taken the severest chastisement, that I have ever had in my life”. My 

husband

, supposing it was from some of the neighbors, was quite angry; and observed, “I would would like to know what business any body has to find fault with you.”

“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 of the Lord met me and said, that I had not been engaged enough in the work of the Lord; that the time had come for the record to <​be​> brought forth; and, that I must be up and doing, and set myself about the things which God had commanded me to do: but, 

Father

,’ continued he, ‘give yourself no uneasiness concerning the reprimand that I have received; for I now know the course that I am to pursue; so all will be well.”

It was also made known to him at this interview, that he should make another effort to obtain the plates on the 22d. of the following September; But this he did not mention to us at that time.

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

This is obviously a big deal. Lucy quotes Joseph himself as identifying the hill as Cumorah even before he obtained the plates. He could only have learned this from Moroni, who was tutoring and preparing him. 

Parley P. Pratt corroborated this teaching by writing in his Autobiography that it was Moroni who called that hill Cumorah anciently, but the M2C advocates and revisionist Church historians censor his statement, as well.

The M2C advocates and revisionist Church historians censor Lucy's account because they think Lucy was wrong. 

They think she either made it up or confused it with a false tradition about Cumorah that arose later. A standard teaching of the M2C promoters is that Joseph Smith never identified the "hill in New York" as Cumorah. Instead, according to them, Joseph adopted a false tradition that was developed by unknown early Church members that assigned the name Cumorah to that hill.

Obviously, Lucy Mack Smith disagreed. 

If she was telling the truth, the supposedly "false tradition" actually originated with Moroni, and Joseph expressed it before he had even seen the plates.

The M2C advocates and revisionist Church historians, including the editors of Saints, recognize the conflict between Lucy's testimony and their theory of Book of Mormon geography. They don't have an answer except to say Lucy was wrong. 

And they don't want members of the Church to even know about what Lucy said.

I say the M2C advocates and revisionist Church historians should let members of the Church make an informed decision for themselves instead of simply censoring historical evidence they disagree with. 

You'll see this censorship everywhere. It's not limited to the M2C citation cartel. 

M2C has become so ubiquitous you can't trust anything you read, apart from the actual historical documents.

Censorship is one of the tragedies of the Saints book, but that's not the only example.

Even the wonderful book Rough Stone Rolling, the most influential biography of Joseph Smith which supposedly is fact-based and relies to a great extent on Lucy's history, censors her passage above.

First, the book accommodates the M2C "false tradition" narrative by stating that the hill was called "Cumorah" later, "from a name in the Book of Mormon."

"The hill where the plates were supposed to be buried stood about three miles south and east of the Smith farm and just a few hundred feet to the east of the main road between Palmyra and Canandaigua. Later it was called "Cumorah," from a name in the Book of Mormon."

Richard Lyman Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, p. 45.

This is written in the passive voice--"it was called"--to avoid attributing the identification of Cumorah to Joseph Smith (or Moroni).

Here's how the book handles Lucy's passage. Notice what is quoted and what is paraphrased.

Page 56. 

When it grew dark and Joseph was still not back, the parents started to fret. At last an exhausted Joseph came through the door and dropped into a chair. For a long time he sat silent while his father plied him with questions. Lucy held back. "The fact was," she said, "I had learned to be a little cautious about matters with regard to Joseph, for I was accustomed to see him look as he did on that occasion, and I could not easily mistake the cause thereof." Finally Joseph said quietly, "I have taken the severest chastisement that I have ever had in my life." The angel had met Joseph on the road near Cumorah and warned him that he "had not been engaged enough in the work of the Lord; that the time had come for the Record to be brought forth; and that I must be up and doing and set myself about the things which God had commanded me to do." Joseph appeared calm. "I now know the course that I am to pursue, so all will be well."

The censorship is astonishing. Few readers of the book notice the subtle accommodation of M2C. I'm sure long-time readers of this blog see what's happening, but I'll spell it out for new readers.

Instead of Lucy's account, which has Joseph, in early 1827 and in his own words, saying "as I passed by the hill of Cumorah, where the plates are," Rough Stone Rolling paraphrases the passage by saying, "The angel had met Joseph on the road near Cumorah." 

This vague, paraphrased version supports the M2C version that the naming of Cumorah was a false tradition that arose "later," a false tradition that both Lucy and Joseph passively adopted well after the fact.
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My critics will claim that I'm blind to errors in Lucy's account. My answer is, she's like any other witness. We have to consider her credibility based on all the typical factors, including her capacity to observe the events she describes. In some cases, she relates things she heard from others, or makes assumptions about events she didn't personally observe.

In this case, though, she was present when Joseph returned from Manchester. She even remembered the look on his face (read the entire account in context). She didn't paraphrase what he said; she quoted him. These are all strong indicia of veracity.

There is no reason to reject her account except for an ideological agenda.

And there is certainly no reason to censor her account except for an ideological agenda; i.e., to promote, or accommodate, M2C.
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Now, let's think about the responsibility involved with those who reject and/or censor Lucy's account. 

In my view, Lucy deserves deference. Her account is not mere academic words on a page, the way it is treated by those who don't want to accept what she wrote.

When you study her life history, the sacrifices she made, and her devotion to the Restoration and the Savior Himself, it is inexcusable to reject her testimony for purely ideological reasons.

I ask every M2C proponent and revisionist Church historian to carefully consider what Lucy wrote at the conclusion of her history.

I shall leave the world to judge concerning what I have written as seemeth them good. But this much I will say, that the testimony which I have given, is true; and will stand forever. 

And the same will be my testimony in the day of God Almighty; when I shall meet them, concerning whom I have testified, before angles and <​the​> spirits of the just made perfect; before Arch-angles and Seraphims; Cherubims and Gods; where the brief authority of the— unjust man will shrink to nothingness before him, who is the Lords of Lords, and God of Gods.

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/325



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*Some readers might think the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Geography settles this matter--i.e., that it announces that the prophets are wrong--but read it again. The essay simply lets people believe whatever they want, which is basic doctrine established a long time ago in the Articles of Faith. And notice that the essay asks Church members not to claim prophetic or Church support for their theories. I'm not claiming any prophetic or Church support for what I'm writing here. Quite the opposite: I'm seeking to support the prophets, not the other way around. I'm not asking for donations by claiming the Church supports my ideas, the way FairMormon, the Interpreter, and Book of Mormon Censor Central do.

Oliver Cowdery and M2C

I'm repurposing the content of this blog to make it more accessible and more widely available. People have asked for this for a long time and we're finally getting around to it.

I'll announce the new format in April, the week after General Conference.

The next few posts will summarize my conclusions about the topics we've discussed on this blog.
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Separately, I've started my series on The Next Mormons on another other blog, here:

https://dearlatterdaysaints.blogspot.com/2019/03/tnm-issue-1-personal-values.html
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People continue to make comments on this blog, but as I explained a long time ago, as the blog got more popular I started getting a lot of spam, and I don't have time to sort through comments to approve/disapprove them. Readers can email me and I'll respond individually or in posts here. (Actually, a lot of these posts are prompted by questions/comments from readers.)
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Before discussing President Cowdery, we re-emphasize that we love all our brothers and sisters, regardless of what they think about Book of Mormon geography or any other issue. The discussion is friendly with no animosity.

Everyone involved in this discussion has the same purpose of helping others understand and appreciate the Book of Mormon so it can be more effective in bringing people to Christ.

There is no cause for contention. The Church's policy of neutrality allows everyone to think whatever they want, consistent with the Articles of Faith.

All we seek is full disclosure for every member of the Church and everyone else interested in the Book of Mormon.
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Today I'll summarize the Oliver Cowdery situation.

Yesterday's Come Follow Me lesson included a portion of Oliver Cowdery's blessing to the original Quorum of the Twelve.

A lot of people haven't read it, so I posted it on my Letter VII blog here:

http://www.lettervii.com/2019/03/olivers-apostolic-blessing.html

It's interesting to note that Oliver wrote Letter VII (the essay that declares it is a fact that the Hill Cumorah in New York is the scene of the final battles of the Jaredites and Nephites and the site of Mormon's depository of Nephite records) in his capacity as Assistant President of the Church.

He wrote Letter VII with the assistance of Joseph Smith.

He wrote Letter VII just a few months after ordaining the original Quorum of the Twelve and a few months before receiving the priesthood keys from Moses, Elias and Elijah in the Kirtland temple (together with Joseph Smith).

Joseph had his scribes copy Letter VII into his personal history, where you can read it in the Joseph Smith Papers, here. Joseph had Letter VII reprinted in all the Church newspapers during his lifetime. Both of his brothers who served as editors of newspapers, Don Carlos and William, republished Letter VII in their respective newspapers.

M2C: the Mesoamerican/
two-Cumorahs theory of
Book of Mormon
geography

Yet the M2C intellectuals in the Church, all of whom trace their Priesthood to Oliver Cowdery, continue to insist that Oliver misled the Church when he wrote Letter VII.

Everyone needs to realize how powerful the M2C hoax is.
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It is not contentious or argumentative to share and discuss relevant facts about the origins and rationale for M2C.

The M2C rationale for disbelieving President Cowdery is that there are no extant records that he ever claimed a revelation about the location of Cumorah.

This was one of the rationales used by the scholars from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when they developed the "two-Cumorahs" theory in the first place. (I'll show their work later this week.)

Those of us who still believe President Cowdery recognize that he and Joseph had lots of revelations they didn't record, such as the ones they mentioned here:

73 Immediately on our coming up out of the water after we had been baptized, we experienced great and glorious blessings from our Heavenly Father. No sooner had I baptized Oliver Cowdery, than the Holy Ghost fell upon him, and he stood up and prophesied many things which should shortly come to pass. And again, so soon as I had been baptized by him, I also had the spirit of prophecy, when, standing up, I prophesied concerning the rise of this Church, and many other things connected with the Church, and this generation of the children of men. We were filled with the Holy Ghost, and rejoiced in the God of our salvation.

74 Our minds being now enlightened, we began to have the scriptures laid open to our understandings, and the true meaning and intention of their more mysterious passages revealed unto us in a manner which we never could attain to previously, nor ever before had thought of. 

We don't presume to say what Joseph and Oliver did or did not have revelations about. It's simple: we accept what they taught. And they taught that the hill in New York is the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6, in Letter VII and elsewhere.

Plus, we accept the statements of David Whitmer, Brigham Young, and others that Oliver told them about the times he and Joseph actually visited Mormon's depository of records in the Hill Cumorah. If true, Oliver would need no revelation on the matter. His personal experience there would more than justify his statement of fact about Cumorah.

Plus, we accept the statement of Joseph's mother Lucy that Joseph referred to the hill as Cumorah even before he got the plates.

Plus, we accept the statement of Parley P. Pratt, quoting Oliver Cowdery, that Moroni called the hill Cumorah anciently.

Plus, we accept the statements of every prophet and apostle who has ever formally addressed the issue, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference.

Plus, we think the relevant sciences - archaeology, anthropology, geology, geography - support the teachings of the prophets as well as the text of the Book of Mormon (although not the M2C interpretation of the text).

We don't claim prophetic or Church support for any theory of Book of Mormon geography. Instead, we support what the prophets have taught.
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No one has to accept President Cowdery's statement or anyone else's. We're all free to believe whatever we want. We have no problem with people believing M2C or any other theory of Book of Mormon geography, including the BYU/CES fantasy/mythology approach.

We just want everyone in the Church to be fully informed of the facts so they can make informed decisions for themselves.

While we have no problem with people believing whatever they want, we think that M2C survives mainly because the M2C citation cartel continues to censor and reject the teachings of the prophets about Cumorah, while also claiming both prophetic and Church support for M2C.
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Next: the M2C hoax.