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Revision as of 03:28, 16 May 2010



A FAIR Analysis of:
Reinventing Lamanite Identity
A work by author: Brent Lee Metcalfe

Index to claims made in Reinventing Lamanite Identity

This is an index of claims made in this work with links to corresponding responses within the FAIR Wiki. An effort has been made to provide the author's original sources where possible.

20

Claim
The author claims that "the Book of Mormon teaches—that 'the Lamanites...are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.'"

Author's source(s)

  • "Introduction," Book of Mormon (1981 edition).

Response


Claim
  • The author claims that LDS scholars have been led to "shrink and dilute" the Book of Mormon's "American Israelite" population as the result of DNA analysis showing that Native Americans have an Asian genetic signature.

Author's source(s)
  • The author quotes a number of genetic studies.
Response
  • The author argues that LDS scholars or apologists are "shrinking and diluting" their view on the Book of Mormon because they are being driven back in a rear-guard action by science. But, in fact, many LDS leaders and scholars argued for a restricted geography and small numeric contribution of Lehites before DNA was even discovered. These conclusions did not arise because of scientific "pressure," but because the reading of the Book of Mormon text required them.
  • For a detailed response, see: Limited geography theory

Claim
  • The author states: "As BYU geneticist Michael Whiting stipulates, a hemispheric colonization model for the Book of Mormon 'is indeed incorrect' and 'appears falsified by current genetic evidence.'"

Author's source(s)
  • Michael F. Whiting, “DNA and the Book of Mormon: A Phylogenetic Perspective,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12, no. 1 (2003): 28, 31. off-site
Response
  • The fragments quoted by the author in context:

If we grant that the global colonization hypothesis is the correct lineage history...the above hypothesis is indeed incorrect. To this point all we have shown is that the global colonization hypothesis appears falsified by current genetic evidence. But is the global colonization hypothesis the only hypothesis emerging from the Book of Mormon? This is the crux of the matter....if the above description of the lineage history in the Book of Mormon is oversimplified, then these genetic results demonstrate only that this oversimplified view does not appear correct. But Book of Mormon scholars have been writing about certain complicating factors for decades, so this conclusion about oversimplification really comes as no surprise. (emphasis added)


21

Claim
  • The author notes that others were "prophetically precluded" from inhabiting the land occupied by Lehi's people. He cites

And behold, it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations; for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance. Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves . . . and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their inheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever. 2 Nephi 1꞉8-9

Author's source(s)

  • 2 Nephi 1꞉8–9
  • John C. Kunich, “Multiply Exceedingly: Book of Mormon Population Sizes,” New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology, 261–62.

Response

  • The author makes the completely unwarranted assumption that "this land" refers to the North and South American landmass.
  • Note that the word "land" is used several times in this passage from 2 Nephi. Among the uses are:
  1. "this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations."
  2. "those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem."
  • The "land of Jerusalem" is a very small geographical area. It is reasonable that a small geographical area was intended as the reference for "this land" as well. And it is really not reasonable to think that there would be "no place for an inheritance" for Lehi's people on two continents just because someone else was inhabiting the Americas at the time. So it is very unlikely that the prophecy refers to the entire North and South American continents.


Claim
  • The author quotes 2 Nephi 1:10-11, to note that the Lord would bring others nations to "take away from them the lands of their possessions" and cause them to be "scattered and smitten" when they "dwindled in unbelief."

Author's source(s)
Response
  • The author seems to be assuming that this refers to other nations coming across the ocean to scatter and smite Lehi's people. Yet, this passage is completely consistent with others outside the land occupied by Lehi's people coming to take away the Nephites' lands when they became wicked. The Book of Mormon certainly describes many times that the Nephites descended into wickedness. Each time they were "scattered and smitten" by the Lamanites. If the descendants of Laman and Lemuel joined others who were in lands outside of Lehi's "promised land," this promise would be completely and adequately fulfilled. The "other nations" referred to in the scriptural passage could easily have existed on the American continents.

Claim
  • Nephi talks of the Gentiles coming upon the land of promise and scattering the seed of his brethren.

Response
  • This passage is often interpreted to mean the arrival of Europeans and their subsequent scattering of existing Native American populations.

Claim
  • The author states that the "promised land" encompasses all of North America, since it must account for the prophesied arrival of British and European settlers, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the construction of a New Jerusalem.

Author's source(s)
  • 1 Ne. 13:12–42; 3 Ne. 20:13–14, 22; 21:2–7, 22–24; Ether 13:2–11; D&C 10:48–51; 19:27; 84:2–5;
  • see Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2004), 407–09.
Response
  • 1 Nephi 13꞉12-42: Gentiles to be brought across "many waters" to inherit the land.
  • 1 Nephi 20꞉13-14: The "remnant of Jacob" to inherit the land from the Gentiles.
  • Ether 13꞉2-11: A New Jerusalem to be built upon the land.
  • DC 10꞉48-51: "...my gospel, which I gave unto them that they might preach in their days, might come unto their brethren the Lamanites, and also all that had become Lamanites because of their dissensions."
  • DC 19꞉27: "...the Jew, of whom the Lamanites are a remnant."
  • DC 84꞉2-5: Location of New Jerusalem in Missouri.

Claim
  • Many proudly proclaimed their Israelite lineage. The Book of Mormon reiterates this lineage many times.

Author's source(s)
Response

22

Claim
  • The author notes that "Book of Mormon readers are not told of a single Nephite or Lamanite who descended from anyone other than an Israelite," and that scholars attempt to mitigate this by claiming that others were adopted into the Abrahamic covenant or that the Nephite record is an ethnocentric "lineage history."

Author's source(s)
  • John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon (1985), 50–56;
  • John L. Sorenson and Matthew Roper, “Before DNA,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12, no. 1 (2003): 17–18;
  • Whiting, “DNA” (2003), 25–28, 31, 33–34.
Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
  • The author states that neither the Jaredites nor the "Amerisraelites" ever mention indigenous "others."

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

Claim
  • Joseph Smith taught that the Book of Mormon recounts the origin of Modern Amerindians.

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

Claim
  • The author claims that apologists' response to Joseph's statements are that "prophets are fallible" and that Joseph "expressed or authorized divergent opinions about the Book of Mormon setting and peoples."

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

Claim
  • Joseph stated that the Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western Tribes of Indians and that the Land of America is a promised land.

Author's source(s)
  • Joseph Smith to N. C. Saxton, 4 January 1833, Joseph Smith Letter Book 1, p. 17
  • Dean C. Jessee, The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, 2nd ed., 297.
Response

Claim
  • The "white Lamanite" named Zelph.

Author's source(s)
  • Donald Q. Cannon, “Zelph Revisited,” Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint History: Illinois, 97–111
  • Kenneth W. Godfrey, “The Zelph Story,” Brigham Young University Studies
29, no. 2 (Spring 1989): 31–56;
  • Kenneth W. Godfrey, “What Is the Significance of Zelph in the Study of Book of Mormon Geography?” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8, no. 2, 70–79
Brent Lee Metcalfe, “A Documentary Analysis of the Zelph Episode,” 1989 Sunstone Symposium. Wilford Woodruff, Journal, [3 June] 1834, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City Response
  • For a detailed response, see: Zelph

Claim
  • Joseph said that Moroni told him that "the Indians were the literal descendants of Abraham" and that they were "the former inhabitants of this continent."

Response
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