https://www.ldsarchaeology.com/
The most recent edition contains an article about a letter written in 1949 to Joseph Fielding Smith, who was Church Historian and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve at the time.
Here is a partial transcript of the letter (shown below).
Dear Elder Smith:
Two stake missionaries have put forth the argument that the Hill Cumorah referred to in the Book of Mormon is in Middle America. They are basing their argument on the book “Cumorah-Where?”
It is causing quite a lot of controversy in our Mutual Class and I would like to know the Church view point on the subject.
The book “Cumorah-Where?” points out that by misconstruing the geography of the Book of Mormon is to make a consistent record seem inconsistent. Therefore some worthwhile persons investigating the gospel be dissuaded by our own error. My question being, would the Church teach that the Hill Cumorah is in New York if it is in Mexico?
"The Hill Cumorah is in Western New York where the Prophet received the plates. It has never been removed except by a bunch of modern critics."
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| BYU Studies map of "Cumorah" in southern Mexico |
$200,000 in 1945 is worth $3,503,344.44 today.
In our day, Scripture Central spends about that much every year in its ongoing (but futile) effort to accomplish what Ferguson tried to do; i.e., to prove the Book of Mormon events took place in Mesoamerica. Most of us think it's a fool's errand because their fundamental premise is that the prophets were wrong about the New York Cumorah/Ramah.
But people are free to believe whatever they want, and as long as Latter-day Saints continue to support Scripture Central financially, M2C will continue to spend their money.
The wikipedia article on Ferguson points out that one of his collaborators was John L. Sorenson, who of course went on to participate in FARMS and other M2C organizations.
NWAF was the largest archeological project funded by a religious institution.[2] Ferguson, along with master's student John L. Sorenson, spent the next several years traveling throughout Mesoamerica documenting a large number of artifacts and formative period sites.[3]
In April 1953 Ferguson met with the First Presidency and other leaders of the LDS Church to ask for $15,000 for the current year and $120,000 for the next for years funding NWAF. ...
In January 1955 Ferguson wrote to the First Presidency asking again for funding, "To confirm Book of Mormon history through archaeological discoveries is to confirm revelation to the modern world. ... I know, and I know it without doubt and without wavering, that we are standing at the doorway of a great Book of Mormon era." This time, the LDS Church donated $200,000 to fund NWAF for four seasons.[1]
In 1958 Ferguson published One Fold and One Shepherd presenting his excavated evidence to the broader Latter Day Saint community. It included a Izapa Stela 5 which he argued represented the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi's dream. Replicas of this tree-of-life stone are subsequently found in many Latter-day Saint homes.
Ferguson famously lost his faith in the Book of Mormon.
Later in 1976, fifteen years removed from any archaeological involvement with the NWAF, referring to his own paper, Ferguson wrote a letter in which he stated:
"The real implication of the paper is that you can't set the Book-of-Mormon geography down anywhere—because it is fictional and will never meet the requirements of the dirt-archeology. I should say—what is in the ground will never conform to what is in the book."
Had Ferguson simply heeded what Joseph Fielding Smith said about M2C, perhaps he would not have lost his faith. Everyone is complicated, of course, and he had problems with the Book of Abraham among other things.
Some people might be unaware of how the Ferguson M2C theory was passed along.
Ferguson mentored John Sorenson, who in turn mentored two young men who went on to become the principal promoters of M2C. One (Jack Welch) co-founded Book of Mormon Central (now Scripture Central) and the other (Kirk Magleby) now has the title of "Chief Evangelist" for Scripture Central.
They're both awesome people, faithful Latter-day Saints, great scholars, etc.
But they still insist that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were ignorant speculators who misled the Church about the New York Cumorah.
Which, of course, is fine. People can believe and teach whatever they want.
But it would be awesome if they would instead join with us in with the pursuit of clarity, charity and understanding.
In my opinion (and I know they disagree), they owe it to Latter-day Saints to accommodate all faithful narratives at Scripture Central. They should be educating Latter-day Saints and encouraging them to make informed decisions by comparing alternative interpretations.
Instead, they continue to promote M2C as the only acceptable interpretation, and they resort to censorship, bias confirmation, and obfuscation to promote their agenda.
Sigh...
:)
But it's all okay, because Latter-day Saints around the world are learning about the teachings of the prophets from podcasts, websites, magazines, and other sources.
Eventually most Latter-day Saints will come to respect and accept what Joseph and Oliver said all along.
That's why I say...
