Southerton's Hobby Horses

“If you get on a hobby horse it will ride you right out of the Church.” President Heber J. Grant I rode a DNA hobby horse out of the Mormon Church in 1998, after I discovered Native Americans and Polynesians have no ancient Jewish ancestry. Zilch. I soon realised the Book of Mormon was fiction, so I saddled up. Another hobby horse I have enjoyed riding since my epiphany, is studying church membership data. I enjoy tracking the decline of the LDS Church. The church does enormous damage to many mixed faith families (over 85% of the church) so the smaller the church, the fewer families are damaged, and I feel good about that. This post is for those of you who would like a ride on my new hobby horse. First up, it’s important to remember, just as it has hidden unsavoury parts of its history, the Mormon Church hides unfavourable membership data. The leaders have known since around 1998 that the church was struggling, and right now they know the church is effectively shrinking globall

The Americas were the last continents colonized by humans and the nature and timing of this colonization has been the subject of intense scientific research for over a century. The Mormon Church claims special knowledge within this field of scientific research. Most Mormons believe that native people in the Americas and Polynesia are largely (or at least partly) descended from Israelites. These views are largely based on the sacred writings Mormons possess, in particular the Book of Mormon, and numerous statements by church leaders, including all of its prophets, over many decades. As recently as  March 2013 native Central American Mormons from Honduras were reassured by an apostle that they are the descendants of father Lehi, an Israelite who the Book of Mormon claims sailed to the Americas in 600BC. Scientists studying Native American populations see no cultural or genetic connection between Old and New World populations. There is a broad consensus view among archaeologists