It's been sixteen years since I published Losing a Lost Tribe (Signature Books). Time for an update. I have just published a sequel, The Sacred Curse, and it can be purchased as a PDF from my new website (https://simonsoutherton.com/). My wonderful daughter Olly provided the artwork for the book.
Here's some of the backstory for more recent escapees.
In 1998, while serving as a bishop in Brisbane, I discovered that scientists had failed to detect any sign of Middle Eastern DNA in Native Americans after testing the maternal ancestries of over 7,000 living and ancient individuals. After two weeks in the land of doublethink, my faith crashed. When I raised my questions with church leaders I was met with ecclesiastical bullying and shaming and directed to FARMS. Members in Brisbane were warned not to speak to Simon because Satan had deceived him. My family have refused to seriously look at what is clearly a serious problem. Lamanite DNA has vanished. Instead they have been drawn to lying apologists and snake oil salesmen.
Realising that the church was going to dig its heels in on DNA, I started writing Losing a Lost Tribe, Native Americans, DNA and the Mormon Church, which was published by Signature Books in Salt Lake City in 2004. In response to my book there were news stories on the DNA issue published in leading newspapers in the UK, Australia and right across the US.
The Mormon Church public relations machine swung into action. The Introduction to the Book of Mormon got a very quiet update a year later. The Lamanites were suddenly “among” rather than the “principal” ancestors of the American Indians. President Newsroom reassured the members the science is very complicated and they needed to listen to LDS experts who were not troubled by the science.
It turns out (miraculously?) that if you make Mormons afraid they will be excommunicated if they publicly question the historicity of the Book of Mormon, you get “scholars” (apologists) who will abuse science to defend it. Many are also employees of the church and have large circles of friends and work colleagues who are Latter-day Saints. This all combines to create powerful incentives for LDS apologists to gloss over uncomfortable facts and to see what they want to see in the science.
Since publishing my book, Mormon apologists have attacked me personally. They have questioned my intelligence and scientific credentials, my motives and my knowledge of what the Book of Mormon really says. They have exaggerated the limitations of DNA science, obscured the true facts it has revealed and even made false claims of positive evidence. They have also twisted the Book of Mormon narrative into a bizarre story that reduces the Lamanites to a sideshow anywhere you like in the New World. For Pete's sake! Ancestry.com knows Native Americans don't have Jewish DNA.
During the last ten years scientists have been combing our entire genome for its ancestral secrets. In addition to discovering Neanderthal genes lurking in our DNA, these studies have shed far greater light on the origins, timing and route of human migrations into the Americas and the Pacific. Despite massive studies aimed at discovering additional non-Asian ancestors, no trace of pre-Columbian Israelite DNA has been found in any of the thousands of indigenous people tested. DNA genealogy research continues to reveal the true history of indigenous peoples and, by implication, the 19th century origins of Mormonism’s racist keystone scripture. The Book of Mormon is 19th century fiction dressed up as scripture and it has resulted in untold harm to First Nations people. This has to stop.
According to Thomas Murphy, The Sacred Curse provides “the most accessible and succinct scientific refutation of Mormonism’s Lamanite mythology”. I believe it contains irrefutable scientific evidence against the historicity of the Book of Mormon. We now know for a fact Native Americans and Polynesians do not carry pre-Columbian Israelite genes in their DNA. The Lamanites never physically existed.
The Mormon Church needs to stop bullying and intimidating members who cannot believe the historicity of the Book of Mormon, because as the father of President Henry B. Eyring once said, "you don't have to believe anything that isn't true." - Henry Eyring.
Cheers
Simon