Steve Smoot responded to Rian Nelson on his blog. Because his original article attacked me, and he makes some wild claims here, I'm butting in to respond.
Brother Smoot's comments are in black, Rian's are in red, and mine are in blue.
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Rian,
“Please share with me why it seems
so many people deride Rod and Jonathan and say they are as you describe,
“so-called Heartland model for the geography of the Book of Mormon is built on
a foundation of fraud. Fraudulent artifacts, fraudulent science, fraudulent
theology, and fraudulent history secured in place by racist ethno-nationalism
are the four cornerstones of Heartlanderism.”
The sources cited in footnote 1 make this abundantly clear.
At several points both Heartlanders like Meldrum have been
refuted by mainstream LDS scholars. On DNA. On geography. On early Mormon
history. On the authenticity of artifacts they (especially Meldrum) use as
evidence for the Heartland. Again and again. And again and again they refuse to
consider that the criticism they encounter is valid. They stop their ears and
close their eyes and act as if nothing ever happened.
Heartlanderism is fraudulent. That’s a criticism I’ll
publicly stand by and make until I see Meldrum discontinue his use of pseudo-science
and forgeries.
The "sources" cited in footnote 1 are all citation cartel publications, featuring the circular reasoning and confirmation bias characteristic of the citation cartel. For anyone interested in another perspective, see my analyses of each of these articles on my blog.
There are fraudulent artifacts all over the world, including in Mesoamerica. Some are clearly forgeries, but others are controversial because experts disagree. Brother Smoot declines to acknowledge the nuances because of his M2C confirmation bias filter.
Contrary to Brother Smoot's assertion, I have
not only considered the criticisms, but I have responded in detail. I continue
to seek opportunities to engage with the M2C citation cartel, but so far they
have refused a dialog; i.e., it is they, not me, who refuses to consider the criticisms of their work.
Everyone involved with Book of
Mormon geography engages in confirmation bias, which is why the different sides
read the same text and observe the same evidence yet interpret both so
differently. Mainstream LDS scholars deserve no deference on these issues
because they, too, are engaged in groupthink and confirmation bias. That’s why
their work is not accepted outside of the narrow group of like-minded
collaborators (the M2C citation cartel).
Issues of Mormon history strongly
favor the New York Cumorah, but there is also evidence that supports M2C when viewed
through the M2C confirmation bias filter. Anthropology, archaeology, geology
and geography support the New York Cumorah and the Heartland model when viewed
through those filters, but they also support M2C when viewed through an M2C
filter, as well as Baja when viewed through the Baja filter, etc. The text can
be interpreted to support everyone’s model when viewed through the respective
filters. All of these factors are essentially a tie because of the psychology
of confirmation bias.
The only element that does not fit
the non-Heartland models is the consistent, persistent, and undisputed
teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah. Those who seek to confirm
their biases that Cumorah is not in New York have only one explanation: the
prophets are wrong.
But the whole reason for having
prophets is to break through confirmation bias.
In 3 Nephi the Lord taught that the only way
to achieve unity in the Church is by heeding the prophets. Once everyone
involved in the geography discussion heeds the prophets, unity will follow.
But not until then.
“I am especially troubled how you
say they are racist for expressing their belief that this Unites States of
America is an exceptional nation and we are under a covenant with God unlike
any other nation in the world.”
It’s more than that. Heartlanders have said countries like
Mexico or Guatemala positively cannot be the land of promise because they’re
full of crime and corruption. I’ve heard this with my own two ears from
Heartlanders. “How could a country like Mexico possibly be the land of promise
with all the problems going on with it?”
The implicit (and sometimes explicit) conclusion is that
those countries full of criminals (brown people) aren’t good enough to be the
land of promise, unlike the good ole’ US of A (at least when it’s not being run
by a secret Kenyan communist like Obama).
This is pure projection by Brother Smoot, leading him to create an imaginary straw man to attack. In the real
world, no one has used a racial argument for the promised land of America.
Heartlanders more than any other group focus on the Native Americans, the most
repressed minority in the U.S. and the
only group specifically identified by the Lord as Lamanites.
Actual people living in the real
world know where the promised land is. People in Mesoamerica seek refuge in the
United States, not the other way around. The Lord established the Constitution
of the U.S., not the constitution of the countries in Central America, which is
one reason why the U.S. fulfills the prophecies of the great nation whose
people “have been lifted up by the power of God above all other nations."
When Steve and the other M2C
intellectuals choose to move to their promised land of Mesoamerica, they’ll have some credibility on this issue.
“Please address where you think I am
wrong about this great nation the USA.”
I don’t have to do that. Just go ahead and read what Joseph
Smith and Brigham Young had to say about the “great” USA in the Council of
Fifty minutes.
But okay. I’ll say something.
You’re conflating the arbitrary and imaginary political
borders drawn on maps by corrupt and powerful Gentiles with guns with the soil
of the American continent. Church leaders since Joseph Smith have made it
abundantly clear that all of North and South America are a part of the land of
promise.
This, of course, is the fallacy of
the ‘North and South America’ quotation that was referring to the northern and
southern states, not the continents.
Yes, the physical “center place” of Zion is to be what is
now Jackson County, Missouri. But it was the foretold New Jerusalem before the
US acquired Missouri from the French in 1803, and will be after the United
States, like the other kingdoms of this earth, have been smashed to pieces with
the ascendency of the Kingdom of God upon Christ’s return.
It just so happens that the political state which controls
the land prophesied as the New Jerusalem is the United States. But before that
it was France. And before that, Spain. And before that, it belong to indigenous
Indian peoples. Why is that somehow it’s the US that has special, divine
privilege, and none of these other nations?
Neither Spain nor France nor
England established a nation in North America. They had mere colonies. And it’s
not a case of “it just so happens.” The Lord explicitly established the
Constitution of the United States to fulfill his purposes. That’s why the U.S.
has the special privilege and responsibility of hosting the restoration and providing the resources to share it with the world.
My point is you (like other Heartlanders) are saying the
geo-political entity the United States of America has a special covenant or
destiny. I reject those claims as misunderstanding the prophecies in the Book
of Mormon and the teachings of Joseph Smith and other prophets, who affirm the
entire continent is under the covenant of which you speak, not just the United
States.
Brother Smoot here rejects D&C 101 and 109,
purely because of his M2C dogma.
Hence my mentioning the racist ethno-nationalism of
Heartlanderism, which mistakenly gives divine credence to the United States and
its predominantly white leaders and population as opposed to the remnant of the
house of Israel found scattered throughout Lehi’s seed in all of North and
South America.
Brother Smoot is projecting again. Besides,
most of Latin America is also “white” because they also descended from
Europeans. They all speak European languages. To the extent that Lehi's seed is found throughout the Americas (even though it doesn't show up in the DNA), that has nothing to do with Book of Mormon geography because his descendants could have spread beginning shortly after the landing, wherever it was, around 596 BC. and for over two millennia since then.
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