Interesting things are happening among the Lamanites. During the past couple of weeks, the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News have published several articles on a recent change to the Book of Mormon’s introduction.
Since 1981, the introduction has stated:
After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.
The new introduction to the Book of Mormon will read:
After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians.
The newspaper articles discuss the new “limited geography” theory now followed by many LDS scholars and F.A.R.M.S. Essentially, the theory goes that Lehi and his family landed on an already inhabited American continent and the Nephites and Lamanites restricted their activities to portions of Central America, which would explain their absence from the general American Indian genetics.
This new change puts the Book of Mormon more in sync with the generally accepted view that humans first entered the Americas from Siberia over the Bering Strait around 15,000 years ago and that the southern most tip of South America was already inhabited by 9000 BCE by peoples of Asiatic descent.
For some, this new change is considered insignificant. In fact, John L. Sorensen, professor emeritus of anthropology at BYU, stated the following in the Deseret News:
I don’t think it means very much for anyone. The assumptions may have been and may be in the minds of some that the previous phrasing had substance to it. As a matter of fact, it was a sheer accident of someone – probably (Elder) Bruce McConkie – regarding "principal ancestors." No one checked it or questioned it, so it was put in the introduction.
Others, however, are very upset over the change. Some argue that they have always been taught that Lehi is the father of all the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and the new change, however minor, directly contradicts that teaching. Several returned missionaries posted comments on the newspapers’ website message boards. Many stated that they spent two years “among the Lamanites” in Central and South America teaching that the Book of Mormon was a record of their “ancestors,” a teaching that they now feel would be considered misleading.
Personally, I just want to know how this change affects the Church’s stance on green tea.
Being married to a registered dietitian and the son of a two time cancer survivor, I have become a self-proclaimed connoisseur of Antioxidants. I only have to nibble a pomegranate to immediately feel those little buggers vigorously fighting all my body’s nasty cell-damaging free radicals. (I actually have no idea what a “free radical” is but the article on Wikipedia made them sound scary.)
Needless to say, green tea is extremely high in Antioxidants and despite a Church talk or two about scientific evidence confirming the harms of alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea, I haven’t found a single scientific study that speaks negatively of our Chinese buddies’ favorite tasty beverage.
So if DNA and archaeological evidence causes a slight paradigm shift in how we view the Book of Mormon, maybe the latest research coming out of Yale University School of Medicine and Men’s Health will soon be cause to trade in that diet coke for a guiltless cup of green tea.
Since 1981, the introduction has stated:
After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.
The new introduction to the Book of Mormon will read:
After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians.
The newspaper articles discuss the new “limited geography” theory now followed by many LDS scholars and F.A.R.M.S. Essentially, the theory goes that Lehi and his family landed on an already inhabited American continent and the Nephites and Lamanites restricted their activities to portions of Central America, which would explain their absence from the general American Indian genetics.
This new change puts the Book of Mormon more in sync with the generally accepted view that humans first entered the Americas from Siberia over the Bering Strait around 15,000 years ago and that the southern most tip of South America was already inhabited by 9000 BCE by peoples of Asiatic descent.
For some, this new change is considered insignificant. In fact, John L. Sorensen, professor emeritus of anthropology at BYU, stated the following in the Deseret News:
I don’t think it means very much for anyone. The assumptions may have been and may be in the minds of some that the previous phrasing had substance to it. As a matter of fact, it was a sheer accident of someone – probably (Elder) Bruce McConkie – regarding "principal ancestors." No one checked it or questioned it, so it was put in the introduction.
Others, however, are very upset over the change. Some argue that they have always been taught that Lehi is the father of all the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and the new change, however minor, directly contradicts that teaching. Several returned missionaries posted comments on the newspapers’ website message boards. Many stated that they spent two years “among the Lamanites” in Central and South America teaching that the Book of Mormon was a record of their “ancestors,” a teaching that they now feel would be considered misleading.
Personally, I just want to know how this change affects the Church’s stance on green tea.
Being married to a registered dietitian and the son of a two time cancer survivor, I have become a self-proclaimed connoisseur of Antioxidants. I only have to nibble a pomegranate to immediately feel those little buggers vigorously fighting all my body’s nasty cell-damaging free radicals. (I actually have no idea what a “free radical” is but the article on Wikipedia made them sound scary.)
Needless to say, green tea is extremely high in Antioxidants and despite a Church talk or two about scientific evidence confirming the harms of alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea, I haven’t found a single scientific study that speaks negatively of our Chinese buddies’ favorite tasty beverage.
So if DNA and archaeological evidence causes a slight paradigm shift in how we view the Book of Mormon, maybe the latest research coming out of Yale University School of Medicine and Men’s Health will soon be cause to trade in that diet coke for a guiltless cup of green tea.
2 comments:
Interesting points. I'm not too sure on the Lamanites, but another recent bit on genetics and Native Americans was posted on the Indigenous Issues Today news blog. It talks about the difficulty in linking biological affiliation with cultural affiliation. This new technology is very interesting.
Tyson...........what happened to your blogging fervor?
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