Sacrifices for Zion + Zelph
Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2022 6:43 am
Yesterday I was eating lunch with a friend in the Pinedale, WY city park when a family, an older couple and their adult son walked up and sat right next to us. The barely said hello before the father launched into a monologue that seemed to center, for no apparent reason, around vacations in Central America. My friend said something about the amazing ancient cities and the guy said, "you know, most of what's down there hasn't been discovered yet." I thought, here we go.
He told us they were on their way home from drilling a water well at Adam-Ondi-Ahman, the deepest, largest bore well ever drilled in the region, through the thickest bedrock, or something like that. He pointed to his gigantic, semi-sized drilling rig parked down the street. He talked about the massive amount of pipe and other materials required, and the multiple times they had to fly and drive back and forth. I asked him if the church paid him for it and he said, "OH NO! I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! I do it to help them! We travel all over the country doing this for them." My friend, who knows more about such things, told me later that we were looking at hundreds of thousand dollars of personal out-of-pocket investment. The guy was boiling over with pride at what a glorious sacrifice he had made for Jesus. I was thinking of all the people who didn't own multi-hundred-billion-dollar corporations who are suffering for need of clean water.
Then he said, "Did you know there are all kinds of ancient mounds back there that were built by the ancient inhabitants of this land?" and told us all about how Adam and Eve lived in Jackson County, and that Adam's altar is still there, and the remains of a Nephite tower, about the continent-wide war that ended an entire civilization (according to all the archaeological evidence, of course!) that ended that civilization at exactly 400 AD, etc. etc. I asked, "and didn't Noah also build his ark back there?" He threw back his head and laughed at what a ridiculous notion that is. I said, "I think I heard that from Elder Holland." He stopped laughing.
Then we got a lecture about the mountain of archaeological evidence that supports the BoM in every respect. Rod Meldrum's name kept coming up. And DNA. Irrefutable evidence from DNA. There is no longer any room for debate about the Israelite origins of the Native Americans. And he was so excited to tell us about Zelph, the white Lamanite. I just sat there trying to keep my jaw off the ground enough to continue biting my tongue. It was fascinating. He knew EVERYTHING about the REAL story of ancient America.
I kept telling the guy that I'm a member of the church and an archaeologist, but the lecture went on unabated. In fact he laughed at me when I tried to say something about my archaeological work. Apparently, anything that isn't Rod Meldrum approved is a laughable waste of time. There was absolutely no sign of any interest or even room for discussion from my side. I wasn't trying to debate at all, I was just trying to make it a conversation rather than a lecture. I finally realized that this must be his standard every-member-a-missionary discussion and that someone had been getting this lecture at every rest stop and Denny's between here and Jackson County.
My friend, who is not Mormon, but who has been with me through my entire journey, was amazed beyond words at the degree of indoctrination and cultish devotion he had just witnessed. It was the topic of discussion for the entire 4-hour drive home.
He told us they were on their way home from drilling a water well at Adam-Ondi-Ahman, the deepest, largest bore well ever drilled in the region, through the thickest bedrock, or something like that. He pointed to his gigantic, semi-sized drilling rig parked down the street. He talked about the massive amount of pipe and other materials required, and the multiple times they had to fly and drive back and forth. I asked him if the church paid him for it and he said, "OH NO! I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! I do it to help them! We travel all over the country doing this for them." My friend, who knows more about such things, told me later that we were looking at hundreds of thousand dollars of personal out-of-pocket investment. The guy was boiling over with pride at what a glorious sacrifice he had made for Jesus. I was thinking of all the people who didn't own multi-hundred-billion-dollar corporations who are suffering for need of clean water.
Then he said, "Did you know there are all kinds of ancient mounds back there that were built by the ancient inhabitants of this land?" and told us all about how Adam and Eve lived in Jackson County, and that Adam's altar is still there, and the remains of a Nephite tower, about the continent-wide war that ended an entire civilization (according to all the archaeological evidence, of course!) that ended that civilization at exactly 400 AD, etc. etc. I asked, "and didn't Noah also build his ark back there?" He threw back his head and laughed at what a ridiculous notion that is. I said, "I think I heard that from Elder Holland." He stopped laughing.
Then we got a lecture about the mountain of archaeological evidence that supports the BoM in every respect. Rod Meldrum's name kept coming up. And DNA. Irrefutable evidence from DNA. There is no longer any room for debate about the Israelite origins of the Native Americans. And he was so excited to tell us about Zelph, the white Lamanite. I just sat there trying to keep my jaw off the ground enough to continue biting my tongue. It was fascinating. He knew EVERYTHING about the REAL story of ancient America.
I kept telling the guy that I'm a member of the church and an archaeologist, but the lecture went on unabated. In fact he laughed at me when I tried to say something about my archaeological work. Apparently, anything that isn't Rod Meldrum approved is a laughable waste of time. There was absolutely no sign of any interest or even room for discussion from my side. I wasn't trying to debate at all, I was just trying to make it a conversation rather than a lecture. I finally realized that this must be his standard every-member-a-missionary discussion and that someone had been getting this lecture at every rest stop and Denny's between here and Jackson County.
My friend, who is not Mormon, but who has been with me through my entire journey, was amazed beyond words at the degree of indoctrination and cultish devotion he had just witnessed. It was the topic of discussion for the entire 4-hour drive home.
-- Wndr.