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Washington.– The Mormon Church teaches American Indians are descended from a lost tribe of Israel, but modern DNA test results contradict that tenet.
The DNA tests reveal the ancestors of the American natives came from Asia, not the Middle East, thereby casting doubt on many of the historical depictions found in the Book of Mormon, a 175-year-old book of religious facts the church regards as literal and without error, The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
The Book of Mormon is the central doctrine that divides The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from other Christian faiths.
Critics now insist the Mormon Church admit its mistake and apologize to millions of Native Americans it converted. Church leaders, however, dismiss the DNA test results as heresy, noting the prophet Joseph Smith proclaimed the Book of Mormon the "most correct of any book on Earth."
The Mormon leaders say the DNA test results are being twisted to attack the church.
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I was raised Mormon and spent many years in the local priesthood. Once I could examine my religion from the outside it became very clear what is was not.
Jake D.
jacobprimo.blogspot.com
I have heard rumors that the Church will make a minor change to the Introduction to the Book of Mormon to clarify that the record of the Book of Mormon is an account of the history of the Native American people who are among the ancestors of the Native American people of today (not necessarity the exclusive or only ancestors of the Native American people).
This is important, because it is feasible that there were some Native American people who came to the American continent on ships from Jerusalem and others who came to the American continent across the Bering Strait from Asia.
(NOTE: The introduction to the Book of Mormon was not part of the original translation of the book made by Joseph Smith, but was added to the book years later and it is the introduction to the book that says the people in the Book of Mormon are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.)