An article in Slate today discusses the Book of Mormon as a work of literature. Here is the bulk of it:

[The Book of Mormon], depending on where one stands on the Mormon question, was either discovered by the 17-year-old Joseph Smith in upstate New York after the Angel Moroni directed him to golden plates written in reformed Egyptian, or it was the product of a budding confidence man who copied and pasted other pieces of scripture into a totally improbable tale in which ancient Israelites found their way to the New World. Whatever one’s views on the authenticity of the text, it has been widely regarded as a rather inferior work of literature, especially when compared to the King James Bible. “Chloroform in print,” is Mark Twain’s famous dismissal of it.

In Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide, Grant Hardy, who teaches history and religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, begs to differ. He asks his readers to forgo historical questions in favor of literary ones: Let us bracket the issue of what Joseph Smith actually did, he proposes, and instead engage in a careful reading of the text with which, whether as author or as conveyor, Smith is associated. The “narratological structures” Hardy finds in that text, he is convinced, show that Mark Twain did not know what he was talking about.

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Tomorrow, May 3rd, tens of thousands of Mormons will visit YouTube and watch this video:

The above video is a clip from Elder Holland’s spirited talk on the Book of Mormon that he gave at LDS General Conference last October.

Several Mormons on Facebook organized “The Book of Mormon/YouTube Challenge” to give this video increased exposure and hopefully propel it to YouTube’s homepage. Atheist blogger PZ Myers got wind of this event, and urged his readers to do the following by way of response: view the video (once), “dislike” it, and leave a respectful rebuttal of Elder Holland’s argument in the comments.

Nobody should flag the video or try to restrict Mormons’ First Amendment right to promote it. I much prefer PZ Myers suggested response—that we take this event as an opportunity to explain to Mormons why Elder Holland’s logic fails.

From last Thursday’s Salt Lake Tribune:

It has been more than half a century since the last big shift in thinking about Book of Mormon geography.

Judging from the commotion in the blogosphere and on rival theorists’ Web sites, a dramatically different—and disputed—theory is gaining traction among some of the LDS faithful.

The theory, popularized by Rod Meldrum and Bruce H. Porter in the past three years, suggests that Book of Mormon events took place in the heartland of the United States, east of the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. They have popularized the idea at firesides and conferences, on tours of the Midwest and in DVD sets and books.

Next week, Meldrum, Porter and colleague Wayne May will conduct two conferences exploring the heartland model, which they believe answers the question that has enthralled generations of Mormons: Where did the historical events of The Book of Mormon take place?

Meldrum expects 300 to attend his conference Thursday and Friday at Zermatt Resort in Midway, just before the church’s General Conference.

Porter says 600 already were signed up 10 days in advance for the conference sponsored by LDS Promised Land, a travel company, at SouthTowne Expo Center in Sandy. That conference also is Thursday and Friday.

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