Quote:
Originally Posted by SeattleUte
The exchange in the other thread about the arguably misguided good inentions of the Indian Placement Program, and memory of George P. Lee and his image as a Seventy, made me wonder: Is it fair to say the LDS church has for all intents and purposes abandoned the theology that Native Americans are all descendants of Lehi? I'm not being snarky, seriously wondering. It seems to me that if anything part of the apologist strategy is to make greatly less ambitious claims regarding Book of Mormon historicity (FARMS excluded). Do Church leaders ever refer to Native Americans as Lamanites anymore? I bet there's a letter on this somewhere from the First Presidency.
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I haven't seen any emphasis on the term, but neither have I listened to LDS authorities as they speak in South America, where the claim and term is likely to arise.
The main issue is the introduction of the BoM, where the term "principal ancestors of the American Indian" is used. It certainly isn't emphasized as it may have been in your day. For some reason, that intro was added in 1981. A strange addition where knowledge of genetics should have forewarned them of such a potentially erroneous claim.