In a work published by the Religio-Sunday
School Normal Department of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, the author proposes a form of the Hemispheric model of Book
of Mormon geography, though with much of the events in the book being focused
in Central and South America (I hold to a Mesoamerican model, similar to the
one proposed by Sorenson, Gardner, et al.). Be that as it may be, it is clearly
not a “Heartland” model for Book of Mormon geography. For instance,
notice the following about the “promised land” in the Book of Mormon and how
only part of the USA is contained therein:
LESSON 14.
THE LAND NORTHWARD.
1. The land
northward, otherwise the land of Mulek, (a) extended northward from the
Isthmus of Panama about thirty-five hundred miles, and varied in width
from fifty to more than two thousand miles, (b) including what is now
Central America, Mexico, and part of the United States of America.
(c) It was occupied in turn by the Jaredite and Nephite nations.
2. The land was known
by different names at different times. We notice the following: The “promised
land” (a.e., Ether 3:10, 13; s.e., Ether 3:3) . . . . (Walter W. Smith, Book of Mormon and Zion’s
Religio-Literary Society [2d ed.; Lamoni, Iowa: Herald Publishing House,
1911], 47, emphasis in bold added)
I am sure some triggered Heartlanders will
cite this as a reason why the then-RLDS Church has basically gone to hell in a
handbasket, embracing liberalism, homosexuality, etc—in other words, their
apostasy in recent years has been the result of rejecting the Heartland model
of the Book of Mormon(!) If you think that is far fetched and no one would make
such a claim as that shows no critical thinking, look up “Hannah
Stoddard” and/or “Jonathan
Neville.”
