“This land” and “this continent”

Those who have read my recent article last Friday Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture may be interested in two earlier articles I published several years ago dealing with the same general subject. These are 
 

Matthew Roper, “Losing the Remnant:The New Exclusivist `Movement’ and the Book of Mormon,” FARMS Review 22/2 (2010): 87-124.

Matthew Roper, “Joseph Smith,Revelation, and Book of Mormon Geography,” FARMS Review 22/2 (2010): 15-85.

In the later article, some of the information has been updated (for example journal entries about the dating of the Iowa Zarahemla settlement), but still provides a useful resource of information addressing the so-called “Heartland Movement.” This includes my discussion of the usage of the term “this continent” and “this land” in Latter-day Saint usage showing that these terms were broadly used of the Americas and do not represent a specialized usage confined to the land and native peoples of the United States (see pages 32-48 of the PDF version). 

One very animated recent critic has publicly petitioned my employer to suppress or “purge” the later article and others, including the one by Gregory Smith below.

Advocates of the Heartland approach have also seriously misunderstood the science of the DNA issues and how it does and does not relate to the Book of Mormon. For a very detailed overview of the background, and problems with that approach, I highly recommend Gregory Smith’s very detailed and lengthy discussion. Readers who may be puzzled by these things may find it informative

Gregory L. Smith, “Often In Error,Seldom in Doubt: Rod Meldrum and Book of Mormon DNA,” FARMS Review 22/1 (2010): 17-161.

And geneticist Ugo A. Perego articles

“The Book of Mormon and the Originof Native Americans from a Maternally Inherited DNA Standpoint,” FARMS Review 22/1 (2010): 191-227.

Ugo A. Perego and Jayne E. Ekins, “IsDescrypting the Genetic Legacy of America’s Indigenous Populations Key to theHistoricity of the Book of Mormon?” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 12 (2014): 237-79.