The real difference between Heartlanders and “M2C”

Jonathan Neville spends much time and many keystrokes telling us the differences between his point of view and the supposed point of view of “M2C intellectuals.”

Do you want to know the real difference between Mesoamerican and Heartland Book of Mormon advocates?

• Mesoamerican Book of Mormon advocates would completely accept evidence of a Book of Mormon site in Illinois, if one were discovered, examined, and published by competent individuals who have training in archaeology and anthropology.

• Heartland Book of Mormon advocates would immediately reject evidence of a Book of Mormon site in southern Mexico, if one were discovered, examined, and published by competent individuals who have training in archaeology and anthropology. Heartlanders like Jonathan Neville would instead accuse the discoverers of being “biased intellectuals” who “reject the teachings of the prophets” and want to undermine faith in the New York Cumorah.

The difference between the Mesoamerican group and the Heartland group is the former is composed of scholars and the latter is composed of ideologues.

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Editor’s note: After I posted this blog, a friend pointed me to this post on the blog Studio et Quoque Fide that makes the same point in more detail.

—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.