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Fair is attempting to discredit the work of Rodeny Meldrum, who claims divine revelation concerning his work: http://www.bookofmormonevidence.org

Apparently he has quite a following and claims over 8,000 have viewed his presentation. I wonder if Fair has that many members who listen to them?

Gotta love a guy like this, spouting off his supposed divine aspirations and making a buck doing it off his DVD. He claims god told him to quit his day job.

The best part is how Fair is now fighting the supposed battle not only from outside but inside from members like Rodney.

http://www.fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/MisguidedF.html

We are sure and know that the Book of Mormon has been and will be confirmed spiritually for sincere seekers.

Well except insincere seekers like Brother Meldrum, or as Fair addresses him, Mr. Meldrum..

Keep up the good work Brother Meldrum! Keep pissing off the mo'pologists!

Perhaps he and our own Paul O could do a joint tour? Rodney with the DNA angle and Paul with his shtick on the Book of Abraham... they are both mo'pologetic rejects, so why not?

Boaz & Lidia wrote:Fair is attempting to discredit the work of Rodeny Meldrum, who claims divine revelation concerning his work: http://www.bookofmormonevidence.org
Apparently he has quite a following and claims over 8,000 have viewed his presentation. I wonder if Fair has that many members who listen to them?
Gotta love a guy like this, spouting off his supposed divine aspirations and making a buck doing it off his DVD. He claims god told him to quit his day job.
The best part is how Fair is now fighting the supposed battle not only from outside but inside from members like Rodney.
http://www.fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/MisguidedF.html
Keep up the good work Brother Meldrum!

I like this sentence from http://www.fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/MisguidedF.html

FAIR does not have an "official position" on anything that is not fundamental to the restored Gospel. For example, FAIR believes the Book of Mormon to be divine scripture but has no position on where the events recorded in the Book of Mormon took place, exactly how the divine translation process operated, what DNA evidence (if any) exists for the Book of Mormon, or what a given verse of scripture "means."

ludwigm wrote:

Boaz & Lidia wrote:Fair is attempting to discredit the work of Rodeny Meldrum, who claims divine revelation concerning his work: http://www.bookofmormonevidence.org
Apparently he has quite a following and claims over 8,000 have viewed his presentation. I wonder if Fair has that many members who listen to them?
Gotta love a guy like this, spouting off his supposed divine aspirations and making a buck doing it off his DVD. He claims god told him to quit his day job.
The best part is how Fair is now fighting the supposed battle not only from outside but inside from members like Rodney.
http://www.fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/MisguidedF.html
Keep up the good work Brother Meldrum!

I like this sentence from http://www.fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/MisguidedF.html

FAIR does not have an "official position" on anything that is not fundamental to the restored Gospel. For example, FAIR believes the Book of Mormon to be divine scripture but has no position on where the events recorded in the Book of Mormon took place, exactly how the divine translation process operated, what DNA evidence (if any) exists for the Book of Mormon, or what a given verse of scripture "means."

ROLF!

Seems to me God could solve the problem and give members the answer in about thirty seconds.

Prophet: Where did the Book of Mormon take place?
God: Mesoamerica, or Northern USA.

Simple.

Think of all the bickering in the church that would disappear. Think of all the time and energy that would no longer be wasted. Think of the money that would be saved.

Seems funny that God would let this go and have members rely on various guys who claim to be smarter/more righteous/better educated, than the rest of the members.

~dancer~

From what I am reading of FAIR's rebuttal, it is sloppy. The author misconstrues Meldrum's statement in a private email that millions will "declare anew the truthfulness of the gospel" to mean that Meldrum was suggesting that no one is declaring the truthfulness of the gospel now. Clearly, Meldrum was saying that his work would re-inspire the testimonies of millions of members. The apologists are at it again, evidently. They can't help but twist the words of anyone they deem an opponent.

As I continue to look at this critique of Meldrum, I can't help but see the problems.

For example, the authors criticize Meldrum for using Hartman Rector to lend credibility to his enterprise, and then they turn around to use GA praise of the Neal Maxwell Institute and LDS.org's use of NMI work as an endorsement of its work as opposed to Meldrum, who by comparison lacks credibility. I can't help but think of the many times apologists have sought in one way or another to distance themselves from the LDS Church, stressing the voluntary nature of what they do. Now, in a campaign against this guy, the folks at FAIR are falling all over themselves to use the Church to back up NMI scholars against the claims of Meldrum.

Mind you, I don't believe what Meldrum is selling, but it seems to me that FARMS, the NMI, and FAIR have arguably created an environment in which theories like Meldrum's could flourish. Having reached the point of advocating the view that one should not expect to find the Book of Mormon peoples or any evidence outside of the Book of Mormon itself, the apologists have opened the door to claims that don't require evidence. If you can't find it in the ground, then the only key to the puzzle would be... REVELATION. And it is a little disingenuous of the FAIR folks to complain about Meldrum's claims that Joseph learned of the Great Lakes placement of Book of Mormon civilization, since it was Smith who claimed that a resurrected Nephite appeared to him in that very region to reveal to him the only Nephite artifacts anyone has ever claimed to have seen, which were buried in that same location.

It is, in fact, counterintuitive to claim that the Book of Mormon occurred anywhere other than the Great Lakes area.

*oops! I forgot the bones of Zelph, the white Lamanite who fought under the general Onandagus. I seem to recall that his bones were found duing Zion's Camp, which took place where? North America.

FAIR wrote:All secular knowledge is subject to change, refinement, and improvement.

Hmm. I was thinking the same thing about Mormonism.

FAIR wrote:While Mr. Meldrum may be the private beneficiary of God's miracles, it is not appropriate to publicly reference such miracles to assert God's support and endorsement for his efforts.

Why not?

silentkid wrote:

FAIR wrote:While Mr. Meldrum may be the private beneficiary of God's miracles, it is not appropriate to publicly reference such miracles to assert God's support and endorsement for his efforts.

Why not?

Is this not, in fact, the basis for the entire Mormon Church? Joseph Smith publicly referencing God's miracles, which he claims to have experienced?

At first I thought it was weird that Allan Wyatt has taken the lead against Ron Meldrum, a fellow apologist... because a couple of years ago he supported David Stewart's unconventional DNA apologetics that heavily favored the traditional hemispheric over the limited geography model. He witheld judgement about Stewart's analysis of the literature, but gave him full support as a co-apologist whose principal goal was defense of the LDS religion. So Stewart's crackpot theories were given the benefit of the doubt (by Awyatt and others) and it was left up to me to debate him in the Pundit's folder and show him wrong -- quite a service I did for them, if they happen to care about correctly understanding the data.

So why is it that Wyatt is going to battle against Meldrum now, instead of giving him a pass like he did for Stewart? I think I know what the difference is: David Stewart was a FAIR contributor. He spoke at their conference, he published his work on their website, and he gave them financial support. But Ron Meldrum is a maverik, a vigilante apologist who does not work through FAIR or share his wealth of intellectual insight (so to speak) and financial rewards. So he must be stopped. The FAIR hegemony is threatened. I think it would be different if Meldrum worked through the system instead of touring on his own. His ideas about Lamanite DNA aren't that much different from David Stewart's, or FARMS apologist John Tvednes, for that matter.