The 20/60/20 principle: SITH and U&T

In the pursuit of clarity, charity and understanding, we all seek to eliminate contention (nomorecontention.com). In this post, we'll discuss multiple working hypotheses by seeing how Latter-day Saints group themselves according to their beliefs. 

There is no need for anyone to feel compelled to "convert" others to their own perspectives and interpretations. 

Through clarity and charity, we can all simply understand one another and live in harmony as we seek to live and share the Gospel.

But clarity is often the hard part.

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Latter-day Saints around the world recently reviewed the translation of the Book of Mormon during their Come Follow Me study. Numerous podcasts, articles, and blogs promoted SITH (the stone-in-the-hat narrative), leading many Latter-day Saints to wonder, what's going on?

Obviously Church leaders want us all to avoid contention about the topic. One way to do this is to teach that it doesn't matter how Joseph produced the Book of Mormon, so don't worry or even think about the historical sources. Let's just say we don't know, or that Joseph used both SITH and the Urim and Thummim.

That's probably an acceptable approach for many, if not most, Latter-day Saints who have busy lives and frankly don't care about the historical sources and the ongoing controversies about the translation. Let's say 60% of LDS are in that middle ground.

The problem with this approach is obvious in the curriculum, the Gospel Topics essays, and other media. To promote SITH, these materials simply ignore what Joseph and Oliver taught and the relevant scriptures, leaving Latter-day Saints uninformed. Sort of an "ignorance is bliss" approach that, in the long term, can cause cognitive dissonance when people eventually learn what Joseph and Oliver taught.

There are 40% of LDS who do care about the historical sources, the claims of critics and scholars, etc. 

Everyone can agree on the facts, consisting of specific statements by Joseph and Oliver regarding the Urim and Thummim vs specific statement by others who promoted SITH. We can all see that the two narratives contradict one another, just as Mormonism Unvailed set forth in 1834. 

E.g., https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/the-sith-problem-1829-2024.html

[Some LDS scholars try to reconcile the contradictions by claiming the Joseph and Oliver were referring to the seer stone when they said "Urim and Thummim," but we can all see this is a ruse that contradicts what Joseph, Oliver, David, Emma and other said.]

With the facts clearly spelled out, we can all see that differences of opinion arise from different assumptions, inferences, and theories. (This is the FAITH model of analysis.)

Of the 40% who care about the historical sources, about half, or 20%, follow the SITH scholars, such as those at Scripture Central, and agree with Royal Skousen that Joseph and Oliver intentionally misled everyone about the translation, presumably because they were "embarrassed" about the seer stone.

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2024/09/the-embarrassed-narrative-and-sith.html

https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2024/11/thank-you-royal-skousen.html

The other 20% (including me) reject the SITH scholars and stick with what Joseph and Oliver said. This group has multiple working hypotheses to explain SITH. Some say the SITH witnesses were lying. Others (including me) say the SITH witnesses were not lying, but they observed a demonstration Joseph conducted (because he could not show the actual U&T or the plates) and they used the demonstration as an apologetic argument against the Spalding theory. 

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I like the 20/60/20 principle because it explains, in general terms, many social, political, and religious divisions. 

But we don't have to think of this as "division" in the Church. 

We just have different assumptions, inferences, and theories.

And so long as we are clear about our views, and all rely on the full facts, it's all good.

SITH videos and "You get what you pay for"

You get what you pay for.

A recent post on X summarized the ongoing prevalence of racism in society:

If your job is to 'find racism', you'll eventually become a race alchemist who creates racism out of thin air.

Likewise,  "if your job is to "find Mesoamerica in the Book of Mormon, you'll eventually become an M2C alchemist who creates the Mesoamerican setting out of thin air."

Because Scripture Central has become the predominant, if not the exclusive, source of funding for LDS students and graduates who want to pursue Book of Mormon studies and apologetics, and because Scripture Central requires employees, volunteers, and recipients of funding to promote M2C and SITH, we have a generation of M2C and SITH alchemists who create "evidence" for M2C and SITH.

SITH videos.

The M2C and SITH alchemists are omnipresent on social media. They seem to get zero pushback from the hosts, which is amazing. Instead, the hosts defer to and promote the M2C and SITH narratives. 

Lots of people have asked me to respond to these, to at least provide an alternative narrative that corroborates and supports the teachings of the prophets about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon.

For fun, as an experiment, I posted a draft video recently to elicit feedback. The feedback has been helpful, but because I'm traveling I can't make changes for a while, nor can I post additional episodes. But rather than wait until I've done all of that, I thought readers here might be interested to see what is coming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIokpuGRjKc 

Email comments to lostzarahemla@gmail.com

The Scripture Central problem

Obviously, I'd prefer to have an open dialog with the M2C and SITH proponents. All of these podcasters and content producers owe it to their viewers and followers to facilitate such dialog and conversation, but with few exceptions, they refuse.

From my perspective, the main obstacle to open dialog is Scripture Central. 

Scripture Central directly funds some podcasters and creates its own content. They host seminars and meetings with podcasters and influencers. 

But Scripture Central management is adamantly opposed to open dialog and diversity of opinions.

In the pursuit of clarity, charity, and understanding, we cannot avoid discussing an obvious point about the current state of Book of Mormon studies.

Scripture Central continues to spend millions of dollars annually, partly to promote awareness of the Book of Mormon and other scriptures (which is productive), but also partly to promote the personal opinions of the organization's founders and management; i.e., M2C (the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory) and SITH (the stone-in-the-hat theory).

Both M2C and SITH explicit reject what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery taught about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon.

There are few Latter-day Saints who, when they learn what the prophets have taught about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon, immediately conclude that the prophets were wrong.

It takes a lot of effort to persuade Latter-day Saints that the prophets were wrong. It requires persuading Latter-day Saints that modern scholars know more about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon than Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery did.

It would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic.

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Here's the post that prompted this post:

Eric Abbenante

@EricAbbenante

Coleman Hughes brilliantly depicts how DEI programs do not reduce but exacerbate racism: Coleman Hughes: "They decided to give a cash reward for every person who brought in a dead snake, thinking that, you know, two plus two equals four, all the dead snakes will be gone. Turns out if you give a cash reward for dead snakes, people will breed snakes and kill them and start snake farms. There are way more snakes at the end of this dumb program than there were at the beginning. That's kind of like what DEI Bureaucracies are. So everything that seems like it's tamping down on the problem is actually exacerbating it." If your job is to 'find racism', you'll eventually become a race alchemist who creates racism out of thin air.

https://x.com/EricAbbenante/status/1892358714864390464

Perplexity AI explains two sets of plates

We still need to work on SITH, but at least Perplexity AI understands there were two separate sets of plates that Joseph translated.

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/how-many-sets-of-plates-did-jo-MNleUGssR0.L35LU06oUcQ

How did Joseph Smith's translation process differ between the two sets of plates

Answer

Historical accounts suggest the translation process for the Book of Mormon involved Joseph Smith using seer stones and dictating the text to scribes14. Smith would put a seer stone in his hat, place his face in the hat to exclude the light, and then read off the characters as he claimed to see them2. The scribe would repeat the words back as they were written, and if they were correct, the stone would change to the next word or line of text2. The gold plates were not used during the translation process2.

There were two sets of plates translated5:

•  These plates contained an abridgment of the large plates of Nephi5. Joseph Smith translated all of these plates (except the sealed portion) in Harmony, PA, with Oliver Cowdery as the scribe5.

•  A messenger brought the Small Plates of Nephi from the repository in the Hill Cumorah to Fayette, NY5. Joseph then translated 1 Nephi through Words of Mormon5.

Some accounts indicate that the Urim and Thummim were used for the first part of the translation, but after the loss of the original manuscript, Smith used a small, dark-colored stone1. Still, the Lord states that Joseph Smith translated by the means of the Urim and Thummim7.

The accounts vary, but a common description is that Joseph Smith placed his seer stone in a hat, stuck his face in the hat, and read off the characters as he claimed to see them2. Some believe the process differed slightly from scribe to scribe4.