Another LDS Scholar Faces Excommunication
Southerton Wrote about DNA and the Book of Mormon
By David J. Olsen
17 July 2005
Six months after the LDS Church disciplined Grant
Palmer for his views on the origins of Mormonism, another Mormon
scholar faces excommunication. Simon Southerton, from Canberra, Australia,
has been summoned to a July 31 disciplinary council. Southerton is the
author of Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA and the Mormon
Church. The book reviews DNA evidence supporting the view that
native Americans are descended from Asians--a view that has been standard
among scientists for many years. The scientific view stands in direct
contradiction with the Introduction to the Book of Mormon, which states
that the Israelites are "the principal ancestors of the American Indians."
Thomas Murphy is another scholar who has argued that DNA evidence disproves LDS claims about the Israelite lineage of the native Americans. Murphy was threatened with excommunication in 2002, but that disciplinary council decided to postpone indefinitely any action against Murphy.
