Jonathan Neville’s staggering lack of self-awareness

If there’s one thing Jonathan Neville desperately lacks, it’s a sense of self-awareness. This can readily be seen, for example, in how he reprimands “M2C* intellectuals” for disparaging those with whom they disagree while simultaneously posting childish cartoons and making up snarky nicknames for those with whom he disagrees. In his April 29, 2019, post, “Time to expose the M2C hoax,” Neville proves, yet again, how utterly nescient he is to this problem.

In this post, Neville once again rants about the evil (and wholly fictitious) “M2C conspiracy” that is out to—what else?—throw the prophets under the bus and deliberately mislead members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on matters pertaining to Book of Mormon geography. He specifically compares the “M2C” conspiracy to the conspiracy surrounding Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia in the 2016 election. Neville sees the collapse of Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy in recent weeks as analogous to what he believes is the imminent demise of the “M2C” theory of Book of Mormon geography.

The comical irony in all of this is that Jonathan Neville has single-handedly done more to promote crank conspiracy theories than any “M2C intellectual” in the history of Book of Mormon studies. Remember, it’s Neville who is promoting conspiracy theories about “intellectuals” infiltrating all levels of the Church and working to censor the “truth” about the Hill Cumorah, conspiracy theories about “intellectuals” who are brainwashing Latter-day Saint youth with “fantasy maps” and indoctrination methods in BYU classrooms, conspiracy theories about “intellectuals” who are suppressing evidence that favors the Heartland geography through a “citation cartel.”

Only someone as blissfully (or perhaps purposefully?) unaware as Neville could frame “M2C” as being similar to “the Russia hoax” while simultaneously believing and promoting multiple conspiracy theories that simply aren’t true and are born of Neville’s own delusions.

More proof of Neville’s truly prodigious lack of self-awareness comes later on in the post. At one point he divides people into two groups: Group A are those who “still believe the teachings of the prophets about New York Cumorah” (that is, followers of the Heartland hoax); Group B are those “who disbelieve those teachings” (including “employees of Book of Mormon Central and other members of the M2C citation cartel”).

According to Neville, “Group A…do not feel anger at all. They feel confidence and peace. They do not contend with anyone about this; they simply oppose censorship, especially censorship of the teachings of the prophets.… They respect free agency. They don’t expect others to agree; they certainly don’t demand agreement.” On the other hand, “M2C intellectuals” in Group B are dogmatic, doctrinaire, angry, demanding conspirators who despise free agency and demand people kowtow to their theories (or so Neville implies).

Setting aside the defamatory way Neville frames this by making “M2C intellectuals” out to be unscrupulous scoundrels who hate free agency and censor their opponents, it’s truly breathtaking how oblivious he is to the hypocrisy and ludicrousness of this claim.

Neville and others invested in the Heartland hoax don’t “contend with anyone” about Book of Mormon geography? Then how does he explain his continual use of snarky memes, graphics, pictures, and the contentious, derisive nicknames littered throughout his blog posts, including this very post in which he made the claim that he and his side are not contentious? In his post he includes images of an “M2C intellectual…telling the prophets” they are “all ignorant speculators who misled the Church” and BYU’s internal map of the Book of Mormon stamped with “M2C Approved" and captioned “BYU fantasy map that teaches students the prophets are wrong.”

Jonathan Neville’s unique way of avoiding contention.

Neville and others invested in the Heartland hoax are “confident and at peace” about their theory? Is that why they have to invent preposterous conspiracy theories and spout imaginary problems created by “M2C” with alarmist rhetoric (including, again, in this very post)? Is that why they sometimes resort to being outright deceptive in their dealings with “M2C intellectuals”?

Neville and other Heartlanders “don’t expect others to agree” with them? Then why has Neville created over sixty blogs and self-published at least nine books to persuade others about the Heartland hoax? If he doesn’t expect others to agree with him, then why on earth has he made disproving “M2C” his obsessive gospel hobby?

Here’s a friendly tip for you, Brother Neville: Before you continue your tirade about the supposed moral and intellectual failings of evil “M2C intellectuals,” perhaps you should take a long, hard look in the mirror and ask yourself why your audience is mainly Internet conspiracy theorists, young earth creationists, energy healers, 9/11 truthers, and doomsday preppers. Ask yourself why you haven’t been invited by the highly qualified, professional historians at the Church History Department to provide historical scholarship on Latter-day Saint history. Ask yourself why the Brethren routinely turn to “M2C intellectuals” for help on sensitive and complex issues related to history, science, and scriptural interpretation and never to you and other Heartlanders.

If you do this, I think you’ll see the problem isn’t with “M2C intellectuals”—the problem is with you.

—Captain Hook

* “M2C” is Jonathan Neville’s acronym for the theory that the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica and that the hill Cumorah in the Book of Mormon is not the same hill in New York where Joseph Smith received the plates of Mormon.

Rian Nelson posts antisemitic comments; Jonathan Neville blames Daniel Peterson for pointing this out

From the “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” department:

In my last blog post, I detailed how the FIRM Foundation’s website was taken down by their host, probably due to antisemitic conspiracy theories that Rian Nelson had posted on the site. After a couple of days, the site was back up again with another host, minus the offending remarks.

Over on his own blog, Sic et Non, Daniel Peterson pointed out Rian Nelson’s problematic posts, including the most recent ones that were taken down (Feb. 9, 2023; Feb. 12, 2023; Feb. 28, 2023;) and some similar, older ones that are still on the FIRM Foundation’s site (Mar. 17, 2021; Apr. 19, 2021; Jun. 13, 2022).

Now, here’s the fun part: Jonathan Neville called Daniel Peterson “Slander Dan” for pointing out what Rian Nelson had written.

As a lawyer, Neville should know the difference between slander and libel. He should also know that the key component of both is that the person makes “a false statement purporting to be fact.” In this case, Daniel Peterson has “slandered” no one, since he has quoted and linked to actual statements made by Rian Nelson.

Neville’s account of what happened is, shall we say, factually lacking.

Recently on his blog [Daniel Peterson] posted excerpts from a brief Facebook post by Rian Nelson in which Rian described his belief in a conspiracy theory.

In truth, Peterson posted lengthy remarks from six blog posts on the FIRM Foundation website.

And this isn’t just any old conspiracy theory we’re talking about here—it’s a thoroughly vile conspiracy theory that claims that Ashkenazi Jews aren’t real Jews and that they’re trying to take over world government and banking institutions. By calling it “a conspiracy theory,” Neville is dramatically underplaying the disgusting depths of Rian Nelson’s beliefs.

Neville continues:

Rian made the post in response to an accusation from an anonymous person that he was anti-Semitic. Rian foolishly fell for the bait, posted his response, and then removed it.

The Facebook comment was not “anonymous.” Rian was responding to Rebecca Clayton, a woman who comments on many of Rian’s posts. She seems to be a sincere Heartlander who calls out conspiracy theories and antisemitism. This was their exchange:

Please explain to me, Brother Neville, how Rian Nelson’s disgusting remarks about “evil Khazarians who claim to be of the tribe of Judah” are an example of “foolishly [falling] for the bait.” How exactly was he “baited” into making that statement? It seems, based on the links I provided above, that it’s actually right in line with what Nelson firmly believes and has no problem telling the whole world about through the FIRM Foundation website.

But one of Dan’s henchmen screen-captured Rian’s post and sent it to Dan so Dan could publicize it to the world in an effort to slander all Heartlanders.

Wrong again, Brother Neville. Daniel Peterson, in his blog post, specifically noted in connection with these quotes from Rian Nelson, “I’m deeply disappointed (to put it mildly) that at least one member of my Church is trafficking in such ideas.” He did not in any way claim that “all Heartlanders” shared Nelson’s views.

People sent me Dan’s post, of course. I hadn’t seen Rian’s post previously, and hardly anyone else had, either. Like the rest of the world, I would never have known about it if not for Dan’s post.

Except we’re not just talking about one Facebook comment, are we, Brother Neville? We’re talking about a long history of posting bizarre and abominable conspiracy theories via the FIRM Foundation’s website.

FWIW, I think Rian’s post was dumb. His conspiracy theories are delusional, IMO, and I’ve told him that many times. But people are complicated, lots of people think crazy things, and normally that doesn’t matter because we recognize that none of us is perfect.

I admire Neville for calling out Rian Nelson’s conspiracy theories as “delusional,” but claiming that “none of us is perfect” does not excuse Nelson’s many lengthy tirades about a secret Jewish cabal that’s trying to take over the world. These are not just unfortunate beliefs; they are repellent views that should be condemned as loudly as possible.

Dan and his cronies and followers are so insecure about their SITH and M2C dogmas, which they cannot defend openly on their merits, that they resort to such a desperate tactic as capturing a momentary Facebook post and publishing it to the world to falsely slander a group of fellow Latter-day Saints.

“They cannot openly defend on their merits”? Good grief—for years Neville has been pointing out the published writings and statements made by those who believe Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon with a seer stone and that the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica. If these aren’t open defenses of these beliefs, I don’t know what he would consider qualifies in that category!

And, once again, this is not about “a momentary Facebook post.” It’s about a lengthy paper trail of repugnant antisemitic statements. Neville is proving he either can’t read, can’t count, or is just making up a false narrative to help his friend, knowing most of his readers won’t bother to read Daniel Peterson’s post for themselves but will just take Neville’s word for it.

Rian, as an individual, is fair game. He can speak for himself.

But he doesn’t represent Heartlanders who are a diverse group of Latter-day Saints who have a common belief in the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah. They have a variety of beliefs/opinions (multiple working hypotheses) about Book of Mormon settings beyond Cumorah, about interpretations of Church and secular history, as well as about politics, science, sociology, music, art, literature, and every other human interest.

No, Brother Neville—Rian is not just an individual with his own views. He is the webmaster and chief blogger for BookOfMormonEvidence.org, the flagship website of the Heartland movement and the site where the semiannual FIRM Foundation Expo is organized. It is the largest and highest-traffic Heartland site on the internet. The very name “Book of Mormon evidence” undoubtedly draws in many unsuspecting members and nonmembers who Google that term (as it was designed to do, no doubt), where they stand a reasonable chance of being exposed to Nelson’s loathsome antisemitic and QAnon conspiracy theories.

No matter how much Neville or Rian Nelson claim that Nelson’s views don’t represent the FIRM Foundation or the Heartland movement, Nelson is the most prominent blogger on the FIRM Foundation’s website. That gives him at least some measure of authoritative status.

The problem here isn’t Daniel Peterson; it’s Rodney Meldrum for giving Rian a platform and not cutting him off when he went full “Jewish cabal” conspiracy theorist under the banner of the very Book of Mormon that condemns such views.

—Peter Pan

Afterword: Imagine for a moment that Interpreter published multiple, lengthy blog posts denying the Holocaust and, when called out on this, Daniel Peterson just said his webmaster is a nice guy with some nutty ideas, and those posts don’t represent the views of the Interpreter Foundation.

And then he left those posts up.
 

Rian Nelson, the Heartland hoax, and conspiracy theories

One foundational belief of the Heartland theory is that there is a massive conspiracy going on within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to suppress the truth about Book of Mormon geography, Joseph Smith’s translation process, and other specific issues of Church history. For the last two years, this blog has documented Jonathan Neville’s continual preaching of this purported conspiracy.

It comes as no surprise to me, then that Heartlander Rian Nelson is a full-blown conspiracy theorist.

Nelson is the author of Moroni’s America – Maps Edition, which he based on Neville’s book and which was edited by Neville. Nelson also edited and contributed to several Heartlander publications, including their deeply flawed Annotated Book of Mormon. He also writes many of the posts for the FIRM Foundation’s blog.

Writing on his own behalf, without representing Meldrum or FIRM, Nelson published a blog post on January 20, 2021, entitled “Would Yo Lay Down Your Life for Simply a Corporation?” In this post, Nelson unleashes some of the more fantastical conspiracy theories that are darlings of the radical conservative fringe in the United States, including:

• The United States “loaned money from the Rothschilds and then set up as a Corporation” on February 21, 1871. (This is false.)
• “[Donald] Trump has already signed an order of insurrection or put us under martial law” and “Trump, and General [Michael] Flynn and [Thomas] McInerny will bring back a Righteous Republic. Pres. Trump will be sworn in as our 19th President under a Righteous Republic. Probably on March 4, 2020.” (This is false.)
• The Jewish “Khazarian Mafia” that controls the United States is in the process of “coming down.” (This conspiracy is so nuts that there isn’t even a reputable site that discusses it.)
• U.S. flags with gold fringe are military flags and indicate that “you are under martial law.” (This is false.)

Tinfoil-hat conspiracy theories like these are (sadly) believed by a significant percentage of Americans, thanks in part to the internet and social media.

That such a prominent individual within the Heartland movement is a deep believer in these patently false claims comes as no surprise to me, since the Heartland theory itself is primarily based on the belief that similar conspiracies are operating within the Lord’s Church.

—Peter Pan

Heartlanders push back against Rian Nelson’s nutty conspiracy theories

Rian Nelson is a prominent Heartlander who runs the social media for Rod Meldrum’s FIRM Foundation. He collaborated with Jonathan Meldrum to produce Moroni’s America – Maps Edition, and he’s a speaker at Meldrum’s April 2021 “27th International Book of Mormon Evidence Conference.”

I’ve previously discussed Rian Nelson and his attraction to off-the-wall conspiracy theories. He’s a believer in the “Q-anon” pedophile ring conspiracy, and has argued that the March 18, 2020, Utah earthquake “was actually destruction of child trafficking tunnels under the old Dugway Utah Germ Warfare base also referred to as another Area 51 UFO Base.”

So it was with some interest this morning (March 16, 2021) that I saw Heartlanders pushing back against Nelson on the FIRM Foundation Facebook page. Nelson was the anonymous author of this post (which has since been removed, probably by Nelson or Meldrum):

Readers’ initial reaction to yet another Rian Nelson conspiracy post was not positive:

I’ve long wondered if Rod Meldrum agrees with Rian Nelson’s lunatic beliefs. Meldrum allows Nelson to go virtually unchecked on FIRM Foundation blogs and social media, apparently without any consideration for how Nelson’s conspiracy-mongering can damage his foundation’s brand.

—Peter Pan
 

When Jonathan Neville gets it right, he deserves credit

It’s no secret that I disagree with Jonathan Neville on several key beliefs upon which his worldview is founded.

However, occasionally he surprises me by posting something to one of his blogs that is so clearly and obviously true that I must give him credit for it. (See here, for example.)

Today is one of those days.

On August 13, 2021, Neville posted the following to his Book of Mormon Consensus and Moroni’s America blogs. I’m going to quote his entire post because it is highly worthy of dissemination:

Face masks and vaccinations

Because I get asked often, here’s what I think about face masks and vaccinations.

I’ve lived in China and the Philippines. I’ve worked in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, and Thailand, and I’ve visited those countries plus Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam. In all these places, it has long been standard practice to wear a face mask if you have a respiratory illness. It’s common sense.

We were living in China when COVID broke out.

It seems to be a cultural and political issue in the U.S., not because of science, but because of economics. Corporate media profits by controversy. In my view, Church leaders have given common sense advice ever since the COVID outbreak started, regarding both the face masks and the vaccinations.

People can do whatever they want, but I want to be clear that I support Church leaders, including the recent advice. I got vaccinated early on and I have no problem wearing a face mask when it makes sense.

I hope everyone can make good decisions for themselves without being angry or oppositional about others’ choices.

In his post, Neville refers to the First Presidency Message released August 12, 2021, in which President Russell M. Nelson, President Dallin H. Oaks, and President Henry B. Eyring wrote to the Saints, “To limit exposure to [COVID-19 and its variants], we urge the use of face masks in public meetings whenever social distancing is not possible. To provide personal protection from such severe infections, we urge individuals to be vaccinated. Available vaccines have proven to be both safe and effective.”

Peter Pan agrees with the First Presidency that COVID‑19 vaccines “have proven to be both safe and effective.”

Unfortunately, the First Presidency’s message has been treated with disdain by some Latter-day Saints who have fallen prey to baseless conspiracy theories. Among these Saints are many Heartlanders, for whom conspiracy theory is the basis of their worldview.

Most prominent among them is perhaps Rian Nelson, blogger and social media manager for Rod Meldrum’s FIRM Foundation. I’ve mentioned Nelson before on this blog; he is a conspiracy theorist extraordinaire. Earlier this year he published a blog post in which he compared vaccines to sorcery and the occult and called pharmaceutical drugs “poisonous.” The week before that, he published a post in which he tried to thread the eye of needle with a camel by claiming that he agrees with President Nelson about the importance of “vaccinations administered by competent medical professionals,” while also questioning who can be considered “competent” and rejecting the entirety of mainstream medicine. He then went on to recommend the views of Sherri Tenpenny, one of today’s leading anti-vax conspiracy theorists who has falsely claimed that COVID-19 vaccinations can cause people to become magnetized and are connected in some way to 5G cellular towers (another bizarre conspiracy that’s in vogue today).

In the midst of the deeply flawed and dangerous misinformation being spread by Rian Nelson and other Heartlanders—one of whom will be a speaker at next month’s FIRM Foundation EXPO (speaker bio archived here in case the page is changed)—I applaud Jonathan Neville for being clearheaded about this matter and supporting the leaders of Church without looking for creative ways to dance around their counsel while pretending to sustain them.

—Peter Pan
 

FIRM Foundation web site down after antisemitic blog post

Regular readers of this blog—I’m assuming there’s more than one and therefore it’s acceptable to refer to them using the plural—will notice that I haven’t posted anything in over a month. Without going into too much detail, my life has been unexpectedly busy, and taking a break from Neville Land has been a huge weight off of my shoulders.

Something interesting happened this last week that I believe deserves some attention, though. BookOfMormonEvidence.org, the flagship site of Rodney Meldrum’s FIRM Foundation and the Heartland movement, has been down since Friday, March 3rd. Visiting the site or any of its pages produces only this placeholder message:

What’s most interesting about this is the URL of the placeholder page:

The URL indicates that their page has been “suspended”—taken down by Bluehost, the provider that hosts their site.

Bluehost’s knowledge base article on site suspension indicates that “the most common reason for the suspension is non-payment.” However, Bluehost’s user agreement also stipulates, “You will not use the Services in any manner, as determined by Bluehost in its sole discretion, that…engages in or promotes behavior that is defamatory, harassing, abusive or otherwise objectionable” (9.6.2).

I mention Bluehost’s user agreement because the last blog post written and published on the FIRM Foundation site by Rian Nelson, in addition to promoting his usual QAnon nutbag conspiracy theories, made the antisemitic claim that the United States government caused the recent chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio, as part of its “agenda to depopulate the ‘eaters’ and ‘goyim’ [non-Jews].”

When confronted about this on the FIRM Foundation’s Facebook page, Nelson doubled down on his views about a Jewish conspiracy:

For those of you not familiar with the term “Khazarians,” this article by the American Jewish Committee explains its meaning and history. It’s a very old antisemitic conspiracy theory “that Ashkenazi Jews—Jews descending from Eastern Europe—are not ‘real Jews’ and are working to infiltrate other nations on their quest for world domination.”

Was the FIRM Foundation website taken down by Bluehost because it’s been pushing antisemitic tropes? I don’t know. It may be down simply because they forgot to pay their hosting fee. That seems unlikely to me, however, because the next FIRM Foundation Expo is being held in early April 2023, and tickets are on sale right now. Not paying their hosting fee would be a huge blunder right now.

If you have any inside information about this, please feel free to leave a comment below.

Update, Sunday evening, March 5th: The FIRM Foundation website is back up and using a different host. The antisemitic post and the Facebook post about it are gone, but hereʼs an older post babbling about the Khazar conspiracy. And hereʼs some antisemitism and 9/11 trutherism together. And from two years ago, more about the Khazars and the Jewish cabal.

Update, Monday afternoon, March 6th: For more links and information about antisemitic remarks made by Rian Nelson on the FIRM Foundation blog, see Daniel Peterson’s blog post, “Hijacking the Book of Mormon for the Satanic Cause of Anti-Semitism.”

—Peter Pan
 

Heartland research director: “The Church is off course”

This post isn’t about Jonathan Neville, but it is about people in his sphere of belief—his theological circle, if you will.

The Joseph Smith Foundation is one of the more prominent organizations that promotes the “Heartland” theory of Book of Mormon geography and beliefs related to it, including denying that Joseph Smith used a seer stone to translate the Book of Mormon, emphasizing the United States as Lehi’s promised land, preferring the teachings of dead prophets and apostles over living ones, and other fundamentalist dogmas. (Despite what its name implies, the Joseph Smith Foundation is not a 501(c)(3) charitable organization; rather, it is a DBA for James Stoddard’s for-profit company, Integrivizion LLC.)

On the Joseph Smith Foundation website’s About page, Kimberly W. Smith is listed as the organization’s “Research Director.”

That same page asserts:

Joseph Smith Foundation team and staff are active members of [T]he Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints[,] although the foundation is not sponsored by the Church.… The resources available on Joseph Smith Foundation sites are based upon and to our best knowledge in harmony with the scriptures and the writings of latter-day prophets.”

Keeping in mind that statement of belief, consider these recent comments made by Kimberly W. Smith:

On January 27, 2021, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who is deeply mired in odious conspiracy theories—the very soil from which Heartlanderism has sprung—posted the following on his Facebook page. (I’ve redacted his name and profile picture out of respect for his privacy and because this post isn’t about him, per se.)

In response to this loathsome attack on President Russell M. Nelson and Latter-day Saint Charities, one individual responded:

Kimberly W. Smith, Research Director for the Joseph Smith Foundation, replied to the sister who expressed that she was in a faith crisis:

After implying that the modern Church has denigrated the Prophet Joseph Smith, Kimberly W. Smith recommended two books published by the Joseph Smith Foundation and then declared, “The [C]hurch is off course.”

A day or two later, Ms. Smith’s last comment was deleted, either by her or by the Facebook page’s owner.

I suppose there are several ways one could read Ms. Smith’s comment. I, for one, consider it to be a moment of transparent honesty—a sincere reflection of what those at the head of the “Heartland” movement really believe.

I’ve repeatedly predicted that it’s only a matter of time before Heartlanders declare The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its current leaders to be in apostasy and break off to form their own church. Recent comments made by Kimberly W. Smith, Rian Nelson, and Jonathan Neville sadly reinforce that prediction.

—Peter Pan
 

The whackadoodle world of the Firm Foundation Facebook page

I’ve mentioned Rian Nelson’s Facebook posts before. Nelson runs the Facebook page for Rod Meldrum’s FIRM Foundation (the “Foundation for Indigenous Research and Mormonism Foundation”) as well as FIRM’s blog. And both are simply overflowing with crazy conspiracy theories, including material about QAnon, globalist cabals, and anti-vaccination (just to name a few).

Nelson believes in so many conspiracy theories that he can’t even keep it straight if Freemasonry is a great evil like Satanism and the Illuminati, or if Freemasonry “promote[s] self-improvement, brotherhood, charity, and fidelity to truth.”

Sometimes Nelson’s posts—and the comments they generate from other Heartlanders—border on the frightening. Take a look at this Facebook post from June 9, 2021:

Nelson and other Heartlanders love to mine old quotes from Ezra Taft Benson to support their conspiracy mindset. Elder Benson—until he was told to tone it down by President McKay and President Kimball—would frequently promote anti-communist conspiracy theories, even from the pulpit. He certainly wasn’t a believer in Nelson’s long list of conspiracies, but that doesn’t stop Nelson from using Elder Benson to further his own agenda.

Even more disturbing, however, are the comments on Nelson’s Facebook post.

One disturbed Heartlander claimed, “Ezra Taft Benson was a very different man, from the current leadership, and the Church in 2021 is VERY different from the church in 1972.” And Heartlanders wonder why I accuse them of being on the verge of apostasy from the Lord’s Church.

Another commenter claimed that “DC”—presumably referring to Washington DC, the capital of the United States—“must fall before the Lord’s millennial reign from the new Jerusalem.” Nelson responded, “It will.” Exactly how this fall will take place neither of them said. I can only guess that it will involve some sort of uprising, similar to—but more successful than—the crazed mob violence that took place in the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.

Meanwhile, today’s prophets and apostles—who Heartlanders apparently reject, based on the comments above—continue to teach peace and obedience to law. President Dallin H. Oaks stated in October 2020 General Conference, “Though Jesus’s teachings were revolutionary, He did not teach revolution or lawbreaking.” In April 2021 General Conference, he taught:

We must pray for the Lord to guide and bless all nations and their leaders. This is part of our article of faith. Being subject to presidents or rulers of course poses no obstacle to our opposing individual laws or policies. It does require that we exercise our influence civilly and peacefully within the framework of our constitutions and applicable laws. On contested issues, we should seek to moderate and unify.

And so the gap between the teachings of the Lord’s apostles and the leaders of the Heartland hoax continues to widen.

—Peter Pan
 

The Church is Big Brother, or something

It’s plainly evident that Jonathan Neville is a conspiracy theorist of the first order. He believes that “Church employees and departments are censoring information at various levels,” and “they are even depriving Church leaders and members of important information and perspectives.”

What’s surprising to me, though, is the levels to which he takes his rhetoric. By his choice of words and use of quotations, he not-so-subtly implies that Church employees are not simply mistaken but are willfully malicious in they way they use their positions to distort the truth.

Here’s just the latest example from Neville’s BookOfMormonCentralAmerica.com blog:

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

— George Orwell

Despite the Gospel Topics Essay on Translation and the Ensign, there is still at least one page on the Church’s [web] site that claims Joseph [Smith] translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim.

https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/joseph-smith-translates-the-gold-plates?lang=eng

Let’s see how long that stays up.

Good heavens. Let’s break this down, shall we?

1. Neville begins with a quote from George Orwell about the suppression and control of history for propaganda purposes.

Orwell is, of course, best-known as author of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, whose protagonist, Winston Smith, lives in a dystopian, totalitarian state where every individual’s actions are closely monitored and the general populace is fed a steady stream of propaganda and lies from a ruling elite.

Neville’s use of that specific quote from that specific author implies that the same thing is going on today at the headquarters of the Lord’s Church: According to him, Church employees are doing their very best to conceal, cover up, and distort the true history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the teachings of its prophets.

Winston Smith revises Church history in the Ministry of Truth, Salt Lake City, Utah. B&W; 1984.
(Photo courtesy of Jonathan Neville’s imagination.)

2. Neville next claims, by use of a negative, that the Gospel Topics essay on the translation of the Book of Mormon and the the Ensign (the Church’s official English-language magazine) do not teach that “Joseph translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim.”

Now, perhaps Neville was just not being careful with his wording; if so, I invite him to clarify his statement, for, as it now stands, it’s blatantly false.

The Gospel Topics essay most definitely teaches that Joseph used the Urim and Thummim to translate the Book of Mormon:

Joseph Smith and his scribes wrote of two instruments used in translating the Book of Mormon. According to witnesses of the translation, when Joseph looked into the instruments, the words of scripture appeared in English. One instrument, called in the Book of Mormon the “interpreters,” is better known to Latter-day Saints today as the “Urim and Thummim.” Joseph found the interpreters buried in the hill with the plates. Those who saw the interpreters described them as a clear pair of stones bound together with a metal rim. The Book of Mormon referred to this instrument, together with its breastplate, as a device “kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord” and “handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages.”

And, in an Ensign article from January of this year—an article that Neville heavily criticized—Elder LeGrand Curtis Jr. wrote:

Joseph [Smith] himself did not elaborate about the process of translation, but Oliver [Cowdery], David [Whitmer], and Emma [Smith] provided some additional information. Oliver said: “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from [Joseph’s] mouth, as he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon.’”

The “interpreters” used by Joseph during the translation process included the “two stones in silver bows” that were deposited by Moroni with the plates. In addition to these two seer stones, Joseph used at least one other seer stone that the Lord had provided.

These two articles, along with other resources published by the Church (like here, here, and here), are clear that Joseph used the Nephite interpreters to translate the Book of Mormon.

Why, then, does Jonathan Neville feel the need to lie by implying that there is just “one page on the Church’s site that claims Joseph translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim”?

3. The concluding statement of Neville’s introduction—“Let’s see how long that stays up”—again directly implies that Church history is in the process of being changed right before our eyes, and that the “one page” to which he referred could be taken down at any moment because it doesn’t mention Joseph using a seer stone to translate. And so we’re back, once again, to Neville’s grand conspiracy theory.

…

Why do Jonathan Neville and many other leading figures in the “Heartland” Book of Mormon movement lean so heavily on conspiracy theories? There’s no one reason, but psychologists have pointed to confirmation bias, belief perseverance, and the human desire to be uniquely knowledgeable as factors that motivate conspiracy theorists. Being an outsider and shouting at the masses to “wake up!” brings one a sense of comfort, certainty, and authority.

What Neville and his Heartlander comrades don’t seem to realize, though, is that their continual appeals to conspiracies to boost their own presumed authority can only impair the authority of called, sustained, and ordained leaders of the Church and the publications they oversee and authorize. Ironically, Neville’s actions will cause those who follow him to lose trust in the teachings of the prophets that he claims to uphold.

For that reason (among many others), Jonathan Neville’s theories should be rejected by believing Latter-day Saints.

—Peter Pan

* “M2C” is Jonathan Neville’s acronym for the theory that the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica and that the hill Cumorah in the Book of Mormon is not the same hill in New York where Joseph Smith received the plates of Mormon.

Evils and designs in the hearts of conspiring men

In his February 12, 2019, blog post, “Poor information – Elements of the M2C indictment,” Jonathan Neville informs us that “Church employees (CES, BYU, COB) [are] giving leaders poor or incomplete information” by withholding information about the New York location of the hill Cumorah. According to Neville, these employees are part of the “M2C citation cartel,” a group that is actively conspiring to promote the untrue belief that the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica and suppress the true belief that the drumlin near the Smith home in western New York is the hill Cumorah described in the Book of Mormon. (M2C is Neville’s acronym for “Mesoamerica/two Cumorahs.”)

For Neville and other Heartlanders, Joseph Smith’s 1842 letter to newspaper editor John Wentworth is a key piece of evidence that Joseph believed in the Heartland Book of Mormon geography and not in a Mesoamerican one. Neville claims that Joseph’s statement in the letter that “the remnant [of the Lamanites] are the Indians that now inhabit this country” demonstrates that that Lamanites lived in what is now the United States. “The ‘Lamanites in Latin America’ concept,” Nevile proclaims, “should have been extinguished when Joseph Smith wrote the Wentworth letter.”

(In 2010 Matthew Roper published an article demonstrating that Joseph and his contemporaries used “this country” to refer to all the Americas and not a limited location. But Neville doesn’t deal with Roper’s arguments; he simply dismisses them as “sophistry” and moves on. But that’s a subject for another post.)

That advocates for a Mesoamerican Book of Mormon geography fear the Wentworth Letter is clear, for, according to Neville, it “was deliberately censored in the chapter on the Wentworth letter in the 2007 manual Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith.” Censored. Not overlooked. Not even just irrelevant to the purposes of the manual. Neville’s conspiracy theory is that Church employees who prepared the manual deliberately suppressed the truth by withholding it from the Brethen and the Latter-day Saints.

Neville points out that “The Wentworth letter is not found in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, which was first published in 1938 and for many decades was the primary source for Joseph’s teachings,” while conceding that the letter was published in the seven-volume History of the Church in 1908 (with a second edition in 1932). The published history is available in an inexpensive paperback edition that is still in print and sold through LDS bookstores. It is found on the shelves of many Latter-day Saints. And yet Neville believes that the Wentworth letter “would not likely stand out among the thousands of words” in those volumes.

Neville, ironically, agrees with critics of the Church who claim that Church leaders are suppressing the truth by hiding it in plain sight.

Neville even goes so far as to throw apostles Orson Pratt and Parley Pratt under the bus by claiming that Joseph edited their publications to remove references to South and Central America, but “Joseph’s contemporaries, especially the Pratt brothers . . . completely ignored what he taught.” For Neville’s conspiracy theory to be true, the Pratts couldn’t just be mistaken; they have to have purposely ignored the Prophet.

Finally, seemingly without realizing what he has admitted to, Neville tells his readers:

Apparently Joseph’s direct statement about the identity of the Lamanites has never been quoted in General Conference.

“Indians” were mentioned 1,066 times (3 times since 2008). “Lamanites” were mentioned 592 (43 times since 2008) times.

I was curious why this statement has never been quoted.

The answer, apparently, is that people didn’t know about it.

[Emphasis in the original.]

By “people,” Neville ostensibly includes Marion G. Romney, Ezra Taft Benson, Mark E. Petersen, and all the other prophets and apostles whom he quotes in support of his insistence that the hill Cumorah is in New York. All these men, who supposedly knew and testified of the truth about Book of Mormon geography, never read History of the Church and never knew what Joseph Smith taught in the Wentworth Letter.

But, Neville tells us, the conspirators slipped up! Despite their fiendish attempts to suppress the truth in the Wentworth Letter, they accidentally let it slip through Correlation!

Fortunately, the censors missed one source. A careful student can read it in the 2017 Church manual on the Pearl of Great Price, which includes the entire, uncensored Wentworth letter. That was a carryover from the 2000 manual, and probably a carryover from an earlier version. You can also read the entire, uncensored Wentworth letter in the 1878 [sic, 1978] Liahona, here.

The “M2C Citation Cartel,” aided and abetted by the diabolical Pratts, has nefariously covered up “Joseph’s specific teaching about the remnant of Lehi’s people,” concealing it from Church leaders and the Latter-day Saints, by publishing it, in its entirety, for over one hundred years in one of the best-selling multi-volume LDS works, in the Church’s official magazine for non-English-speaking Saints (which is available on LDS.org), in the Church’s manual on the Pearl of Great Price (also online), on the Joseph Smith Papers web site, as well as in publications that Neville missed, including the July 2002 Ensign and Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith—yes, the very manual Neville claims was “deliberately censored” quotes from Joseph’s Wentworth Letter: “I was also informed concerning the aboriginal inhabitants of this country and shown who they were, and from whence they came” (p. 436; emphasis mine).

For Neville to be correct, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve would have to be totally ignorant of one of the most important truths Joseph Smith ever taught, as well as blind to the massive conspiracy of Church historians, instructors, and curriculum writers, all of whom are supposedly covering up this truth.

This surely deserves a place alongside the conspiracy theories of Kennedy assassination, the moon landings, and 9/11.

Jonathan Neville and the art of psychological projection

Jonathan Neville really doesn’t like Book of Mormon Central (BMC). Oh sure, he’ll pay insincere lip service to how wonderful BMC employees and researchers are, but he wants his readers to know that BMC is nothing more than a nest of censorious conspirators who are dedicated to getting people to, in his his words, “disbelieve the prophets.”

This is made clear in his April 30, 2019, blog post, “Illusion of scholarship – Mormon’s Codex part 4.” In it, Neville begins by responding to people who “from time to time” ask him what he thinks about BMC. Here is his take:

These are all fine young scholars, but they’re employees. Book of Mormon Central is the most sophisticated and best-funded advocate of M2C* the world has ever seen. They work hard to persuade their readers that the prophets are wrong about the New York Cumorah.
You’re not going to change their minds.

Think of it this way. If you’re interacting with an employee of the Republican National Committee, are you going to persuade him/her to support Speaker Nancy Pelosi? If you’re interacting with an employee of the Democratic National Committee, are you going to persuade him/her to support President Trump?

That’s the level of commitment and devotion you’ll find among employees of Book of Mormon Central. Don’t waste your time trying to change their minds. Facts are just as irrelevant to them as are the teachings of the prophets.

We love our M2C brothers and sisters. There is no need to contend about any of this. There no point to contending, anyway. From a purely intellectual perspective, we can all see that M2C is a hoax. They can’t. And we can’t expect them to. It’s basic psychology 101.

There are a number of things to unpack here:

1. Neville claims that “BMC work[s] hard to persuade their readers that the prophets are wrong about the New York Cumorah.” After analyzing BMC’s 512 published “KnoWhy” articles, I’ve discovered that only one of them has focused on the location of the Hill Cumorah. Others have touched on Book of Mormon geography and the Oliver Cowdery letters that Neville fetishizes, but only one KnoWhy has specifically been about the geography of the Hill Cumorah.

Does this sound like people “working hard” to “persuade” people that “the prophets are wrong”? Perhaps Neville could point me to a place where BMC has said “the prophets are wrong.” The KnoWhy on the location of the Hill Cumorah simply concludes, “The location of where Joseph Smith obtained the golden plates which he translated by the gift and power of God is well known. Whether that was the same location as the final destruction of the Nephites remains open to discussion.” Maybe in Neville-Neville Land this constitutes “working hard to persuade people that the prophets are wrong,” but in the real world this would seem to be doing responsible, nuanced scholarship.

2. Neville goes on to claim that, by virtue of being employees, the researchers at BMC are inherently biased, while insinuating that they’re just in it for the money. He compares BMC’s researchers to political hacks who are incapable of changing their minds or being reasoned with. “Don’t waste your time trying to change their minds,” Neville writes. “Facts are just as irrelevant to them as are the teachings of the prophets.”

One wonders if Neville would say this about his Heartlander colleagues at the FIRM Foundation, a for-profit business entity that fills the pockets of Rod Meldrum and other Heartlanders through conferences, publications, seminars, and tours. Because he makes money selling the Heartland hoax to the Saints, would Jonathan Neville also say that Rod Meldrum is a mercenary who can’t be reasoned with because he’s in it for the money?

3. “We love our M2C brothers and sisters,” Neville concludes. “There is no need to contend about any of this.”

Neville certainly has a funny way of showing “love” to his “M2C brothers and sisters.” This “love” includes mocking them with comics, graphics, and spiteful nicknames (including “M2C” and “Book of Mormon Central Censor”). It includes lying about them and repeatedly distorting what they actually believe and claim about Book of Mormon geography. It includes publicly saying they are part of a conspiracy to undermine the prophets, and claiming they are single-handedly responsible for people leaving the Church and abandoning faith in the Book of Mormon.

If this is what “love” is to Jonathan Neville, I shudder to think what he’d do if he hated his “M2C brothers and sisters”!

Neville finishes this part of his post with the loving and non-contentious line, “We can’t expect [M2C people to see their beliefs are a laughable hoax]. It’s basic psychology 101.”

Speaking of psychology, there’s this thing called psychological projection. As defined by Wikipedia,

Psychological projection is a defence mechanism in which the human ego defends itself against unconscious impulses or qualities (both positive and negative) by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others. For example, a person who is habitually rude may constantly accuse other people of being rude. It incorporates blame shifting.

Do we perhaps see any of that in Neville?

• Neville accuses “M2C intellectuals” of being spiteful, contentious, and divisive while he himself has turned his brand into one of spitefully mocking and belittling “M2C intellectuals.”
• Neville calls “M2C” a conspiracy while he himself spins so much conspiracy yarn about the “M2C citation cartel censoring information” that you could make a sweater out of it.
• Neville accuses “M2C” of perpetuating a hoax while he works closely with Rod Meldrum and Wayne May, who routinely use forged artifacts, pseudoscience, and fraudulent history to prop up the Heartland hoax.
• Neville says “M2C employees” can’t be reasoned with because they get paid for their work while attending and speaking at paid conferences and publishing multiple books.
• Neville says “M2C intellectuals” are incapable of recognizing their own psychological biases while he himself goes about, blissfully unaware of his own biases.

And these are just the tip of the iceberg. Brother Neville is practically the poster child for psychological projection. That he lashes out at “M2C intellectuals” (including the Church History Department and Brigham Young University) for not accepting his bizarre conspiracy theories and impossible geography model demonstrates that he’s projecting the very psychological infirmities he suffers from onto his perceived enemies.

It’s okay, Brother Neville. We can all disagree peaceably here without resorting to armchair psychologizing each other. But the first step is to recognize it in yourself and ask for help.

—Captain Hook

* “M2C” is Jonathan Neville’s acronym for the theory that the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica and that the hill Cumorah in the Book of Mormon is not the same hill in New York where Joseph Smith received the plates of Mormon.

How much does Jonathan Neville really believe the prophets?

If there’s one thing Jonathan Neville blogs about most, it’s how much he believes and sustains the prophets. Unlike the censorious “M2C citation cartel”* that suppresses the teachings of the prophets and sponsor the teaching of false Book of Mormon geography theories within the Church, Neville accepts what the prophets have taught about Book of Mormon geography.

The other thing he wants everyone to know is that Joseph Smith had absolutely nothing to do with the editorials that appeared in the Times and Seasons in 1842 (while he was editor of the paper) that situated Book of Mormon events in Central America. Instead, Neville has proposed an elaborate conspiracy theory about how those editorials were actually written by Latter-day Saint dissident Benjamin Winchester. The only reason the Times and Seasons editorials continue to be attributed to Joseph Smith, Neville argues, is because of psychologically-conditioned groupthink, a dogmatic unwillingness among “M2C intellectuals” to surrender their position because their pride and vanity won’t permit them to admit they were mistaken.

(If this conspiracy theory sounds crazy, that’s because it is.)

Well, here’s a way to see how consistent Neville is in his claims of faith and confidence in the prophets:

In 1938 Elder Joseph Fielding Smith published Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, which he had edited. This volume has been a Latter-day Saint classic. It is still in print today and has been published in multiple editions. Elder Smith prefaced his compilation of Joseph Smith’s teachings with the following:

Many faithful members of the Church have expressed the desire that a more extensive work [making Joseph Smith’s teachings accessible] be published. The members of the Church quite generally desire to know what the Prophet Joseph Smith may have said on important subjects, for they look upon his utterances as coming through divine inspiration.… In accordance with the many calls that have been made that there be a more extensive compilation of these discourses and sayings, the matter was taken up in the [Church] Historian’s Office and such a compilation has been prepared, submitted to the First Presidency and passed by them for publication.… It is felt that this volume will meet a need and promote faith among the members of the Church. With this intent it is sent out on its mission as another testimony of the divine calling of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

(Joseph Fielding Smith, comp., Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith [Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1976], 3.)

Within the book, Elder Smith republished the September 15, 1842, Times and Seasons editorial that Neville believes has been falsely attributed to Joseph Smith by an evil conspiracy of prideful, psychologically-unstable conspirators—and he attributed it to Joseph Smith.

“FACTS ARE STUBBORN THINGS”

Greatness of the Jaredites and Nephites

From an extract from “Stephen’s Incidents of Travel in Central America,” it will be seen that the proof of the Nephites and Lamanites dwelling on this continent, according to the account in the Book of Mormon, is developing itself in a more satisfactory way than the most sanguine believer in that revelation could have anticipated. It certainly affords us a gratification that the world of mankind does not enjoy, to give publicity to such important developments of the remains and ruins of those mighty people.

When we read in the Book of Mormon that Jared and his brother came on to this continent from the confusion and scattering at the Tower, and lived here more than a thousand years, and covered the whole continent from sea to sea, with towns and cities; and that Lehi went down by the Red Sea to the great Southern Ocean, and crossed over to this land, and landed a little south of the Isthmus of Darien, and improved the country according to the word of the Lord, as a branch of the house of Israel, and then read such a goodly traditionary account as the one below, we can not but think the Lord has a hand in bringing to pass his strange act, and proving the Book of Mormon true in the eyes of all the people. The extract below, comes as near the real fact, as the four Evangelists do to the crucifixion of Jesus.—Surely “facts are stubborn things.” It will be as it ever has been, the world will prove Joseph Smith a true prophet by circumstantial evidence, in experiments, as they did Moses and Elijah. Now read Stephen’s story:

“According to Fuentes, the chronicler of the kingdom of Guatemala, the kings of Quiche and Cachiquel were descended from the Toltecan Indians, who, when they came into this country, found it already inhabited by people of different nations. According to the manuscripts of Don Juan Torres, the grandson of the last king of the Quiches, which was in the possession of the lieutenant general appointed by Pedro de Alvarado, and which Fuentes says he obtained by means of Father Francis Vasques, the historian of the order of San Francis, the Toltecas themselves descended from the house of Israel, who were released by Moses from the tyranny of Pharaoh, and after crossing the Read Sea, fell into idolatry. To avoid the reproofs of Moses, or from fear of his inflicting upon them some chastisement, they separated from him and his brethren, and under the guidance of Tanub, their chief, passed from one continent to the other, to a place which they called the seven caverns, a part of the kingdom of Mexico, where they founded the celebrated city of Tula.” (Sept. 15, 1842.) T. & S. 3:921–922.

(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 266–67.)

Like other proponents of the Heartland hoax, Jonathan Neville is quick to trumpet Joseph Fielding Smith’s views on the location of the Hill Cumorah in New York, and he is simply aghast whenever an “M2C intellectual” dares suggest that perhaps Elder Smith was simply conveying his own opinion, and not propounding revealed doctrine.

But here Elder Smith accepted Joseph Smith as the author of one of the Times and Seasons editorials that favorably cited the work of John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood in establishing the authenticity of the Book of Mormon.

So what’s it going to be, Brother Neville?

• Was Joseph Fielding Smith part of the “M2C citation cartel”?
• Was he duped by conspiring proto-“M2C intellectuals” of his day?
• Was he not smart enough to realize that the Times and Seasons editorial was actually written by Benjamin Winchester, the nefarious conspirator against Joseph Smith?
• Or was Elder Smith simply wrong to attribute this to Joseph Smith—an innocent mistake, a lapse in judgment? If that’s the case, then why couldn’t he also have simply made an innocent mistake about the location of the Hill Cumorah?

Maybe Neville would respond that Joseph Fielding Smith was right about the Hill Cumorah being in New York but wrong about the authorship of the editorial. If so, that would be awfully convenient. He’d be claiming, “Whenever prophets teach something placing the Book of Mormon in Central America, they’re wrong, or just giving their opinion. Whenever they teach something placing the Book of Mormon in the ‘Heartland,’ they’re right, and it’s revealed doctrine you must accept!”

So, is Brother Neville going to be consistent and throw Joseph Fielding Smith under the bus along with the rest of the “M2C intellectuals” who attribute the authorship of this editorial to Joseph Smith? (So much for “believing the prophets”!) Or is he going to make a special exception for Elder Smith and thereby reveal that the entire premise of his absurd conspiracy theory is based on a selective, self-serving double standard?

I guess we’ll have to wait to find out.

—Captain Hook

* “M2C” is Jonathan Neville’s acronym for the theory that the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica and that the hill Cumorah in the Book of Mormon is not the same hill in New York where Joseph Smith received the plates of Mormon.

Jonathan Neville, the Church, and the dark side of the Force

Jonathan Neville is now using the acronym SITH to refer to the eyewitness accounts of the “stone in the hat” translation of the Book of Mormon.

“Sith,” for the non-nerds in my readership, is a Star Wars reference. The Sith were “an ancient religious order of Force-wielders devoted to the dark side of the Force. Driven by their emotions, including hate, anger, and greed, the Sith were deceptive and obsessed with gaining power no matter the cost.”

Real subtle, there, Brother Neville.

This is, of course, just a part of Neville’s bizarre view that there’s a massive conspiracy operating in the Church to suppress the teaching that Joseph Smith only used the Nephite interpreters (or “Urim and Thummim”) to translate the Book of Mormon. If Neville’s statements are taken at face value, this conspiracy includes teachers at BYU and Church historians, the general authority in charge of the Church History Department, and even President Russell M. Nelson himself.

This supposed conspiracy now runs so deep that Neville believes it’s affecting the public teachings of Church leaders to the members of the Church:

Since 2007, the testimony of Joseph [Smith] and Oliver [Cowdery] about the Urim and Thummim has never been reaffirmed in General Conference.

And so, according to Jonathan Neville, the Church continues its long spiral in apostasy from the truth (as he believes it).

When are you going to declare yourself a prophet and lead your righteous “wheat” out of the “tares” that have infested the Church, Brother Neville?

—Peter Pan

Neville-Neville Land 2021 year in review

2021 was the third year of operation for this humble blog. This year we published 72 posts—not including this one, which I was uanble to publish before the end of the year—examining the heterodox beliefs and assertions of Jonathan Neville and his comrades in the Heartland Book of Mormon movement.

Among the most significant developments this year, I would include the following:

• Jonathan Neville continued to sink lower in his personal behavior, first by comparing those who disagree with him to serial killer Mark Hofmann, then by implying that Daniel Peterson is like Satan (and using the language of the temple endowment to do so, no less). When Peterson noted Neville’s attack, instead of apologizing, Neville blamed Peterson for supposedly getting offended. If Neville wants to be taken seriously by the broader Latter-day Saint scholarly community, he should start by behaving like a decent human being.
• Neville persisted in distorting the truth, proceeding from faulty assumptions, and misrepresenting the views of people he disagrees with. He repeated his false claims that people are leaving the Church because of “M2C” and that “20 years ago, LDS scholars re-interpreted the historical evidence to reject what Oliver and Joseph said in favor of SITH.” He falsely asserted that Oliver Cowdery “never claimed revelation when he described the visit of John the Baptist, the translation of the Book of Mormon, or other events,” and he pressed on with his manufactured history of “M2C.” He also invented a new fraud that he calls “multiple working hypotheses.” He also continued to malign and misrepresent Church publications and Church employees, including the 2021 Come, Follow Me manual.
• Another major development this year was seeing Rian Nelson—author of Moroni’s America – Maps Edition, which was edited by Neville and based on Neville’s own book—go off the deep end with conspiracy theories about COVID‑19 vaccines, the 2020 election, and the “Deep State.” Even people who believe in the Heartland theory were pushing back against Nelson’s nuttiness. To his credit, Jonathan Neville publicly rejected Nelson’s positions on vaccines.

In keeping with tradition, here are the top ten Neville-Neville Land posts for 2021 by number of views:

1. Heartland research director: “The Church is off course” (January 28, 2021) [This was, by far, the most popular post this year, with more than twice as many views as the next-most-viewed post.]
2. Those who live in glass houses, pt. 12 (March 10, 2021)
3. Elder Gerrit W. Gong: “Father Lehi’s faithful descendants” live “in Latin America” (April 3, 2021)
4. Heartlanders push back against Rian Nelson’s nutty conspiracy theories (March 16, 2021)
5. Rian Nelson, the Heartland hoax, and conspiracy theories (January 20, 2021)
6. Rian Nelson rejects charges of Heartlander apostasy (July 21, 2021) [This post had the most comments this year.]
7. The desolate Heartland theory (February 11, 2021)
8. The identity of Peter Pan, and other issues Jonathan Neville is wrong about (April 8, 2021)
9. Oliver Cowdery and Lehi’s landing site (January 14, 2021)
10. Someone should really bring Jonathan Neville up to speed (March 24, 2021)

Sadly, I see little evidence that Jonathan Neville will retreat from his extremist views in the coming year and bring himself more in line with the teachings of the prophets regarding the Book of Mormon and how the Prophet Joseph Smith translated it. I hope I’m wrong about this, though.

—Peter Pan

Why Heartlanders and conspiracy theories are joined at the hip

Rian Nelson is continuing to post nutbar conspiracy theories on the FIRM Foundation’s Facebook page. Here’s one of his latest, followed by a terrific comment that strikes at the heart of why Heartlanderism and conspiracy theories go hand-in-hand:

—Peter Pan
 

Inventing history with Jonathan Neville

Jonathan Neville, champion of the Heartland hoax, has recenty been recapping his explanation of why the Mesoamerican theory of Book of Mormon geography is so popular. In his March 26, 2019, blog post “The M2C hoax – part 4 – RLDS won,” he sets forth his version of the origins the the Mesoamerican model and how it came to be the dominant view among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

By leaving out key developments and individuals, Neville has tried to craft a version of history that supports his conspiracy theory that a “cartel” of scholars and uninformed or colluding Church employees are withholding the truth from leaders and members of the Church about the prophetically-determined location of the hill Cumorah.

According to Neville, the Mesoamerican theory of Book of Mormon geography was first conceived in the late 1800s by H.A. Stebbins, a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now called Community of Christ). What evidence does Neville provide that “Stebbins [began] teaching that the hill in New York is not the Cumorah of Mormon 6:6” in the late 1800s? He tells us:

In the July 1899 issue of the Improvement Era, President Joseph F. Smith published President [Oliver] Cowdery’s Letter VII, which declares it is a fact that the Hill Cumorah in New York is the site of the final battles of the Jaredites and Nephites, as well as the location of the depository of Nephite records (Mormon 6:6).

….

In the context of the rivalry between the LDS (President Joseph F. Smith) and the RLDS (President Joseph Smith III), the republication of Letter VII just when the RLDS scholars were beginning to teach M2C is significant.

It’s only significant to Jonathan Neville, for whom Oliver’s Letter VII is a supposed silver bullet against the “M2C”* conspiracy. The text of Letter VII does not claim that Oliver came to his conclusions about the location of the hill Cumorah through revelation, of course, but that doesn’t deter Heartlanders like Neville from giving it de facto canon status.

Neville’s citation of the July 1899 Improvement Era as a “signficant” rebuttal to RLDS scholars is a textbook case of the logical fallacy of cum hoc ergo propter hoc—correlation does not imply causation. Just because Letter VII was republished in the Church’s official magazine does not mean that Joseph F. Smith (or anyone else) was aware of supposed RLDS claims about the location of Cumorah or even cared enough to respond to them. There’s no evidence whatsoever that Joseph F. Smith directed Letter VII to be published for the reasons Neville hypothesizes. Neville is simply inventing a convenient fiction and calling it history.

The earliest RLDS source Neville can point to on this subject isn’t from the 1800s; it’s Louis Edward Hills’ 1924 book, New Light on American Archaeology, in which Hills gave credit to an article Stebbins published in 1911 (see Hill, pp․ 130–31, 145). Stebbins died in 1920; Neville provides no evidence that Stebbins was teaching or publishing about Cumorah being in Mesoamerica prior to his 1911 Saints’ Herald article. A series of lectures Stebbins gave in 1894 likewise contains no mention of a Mesoamerican location for Cumorah. This supposed source of the “M2C hoax” is all in Neville’s mind.

Perhaps worse, though, Neville completely ignores the many nineteenth-century Latter-day Saint leaders who argued that Lehi landed in South America or that ruins of Mesoamerican civilizations were evidence of the truth of the Book of Mormon. These leaders include Joseph Smith, Orson Pratt, John Taylor, W.W. Phelps, Parley P. Pratt, John E. Page, Franklin D. Richards, and George Q. Cannon.

To be clear, these men believed that the hill in New York was the hill Cumorah of the Book of Mormon. But they did not believe in the Heartland hoax—they held a hemispheric view of Book of Mormon geography: The “land southward” was South America, the “land northward” was North America, and the “narrow neck of land” was the Isthmus of Panama. (Not, I should mentionp, three different “necks,” as Neville curiously argues for in his book, Moroni’s America.)

But a careful reading of the Book of Mormon clearly indicates that its action took place in a limited geography, not a hemispheric one—the travel distances it describes prohibit a hemispheric approach. Once we accept a limited geography, it becomes clear that the northeastern United States doesn’t remotely fit the geographic criteria in the book itself. (The first LDS attempt to complete such a map was in 1887.) That’s the origin of questions about the location of Cumorah among Latter-day Saints, not some deep conspiracy in which “the RLDS scholars have won,” as Neville claims.

At some point—hopefully in the near future—this blog will critically examine Nevile’s “Heartland” fantasy map of the Book of Mormon. Until then, for an actual history of the development of Book of Mormon geographic theories, I recommend the following:

• John L. Sorenson, The Geography of Book of Mormon Events: A Source Book (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1992), 7–35 (“A History of Ideas”).
• Matthew Roper, “Limited Geography and the Book of Mormon: Historical Antecedents and Early Interpretations,” FARMS Review 16/2 (2004): 225–75.
• Matthew Roper, “Joseph Smith, Revelation, and Book of Mormon Geography,” FARMS Review 22/2 (2010): 15–85.

—Peter Pan

* “M2C” is Jonathan Neville’s acronym for the theory that the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica and that the hill Cumorah in the Book of Mormon is not the same hill in New York where Joseph Smith received the plates of Mormon.