FOREWARD TO PROPHECIES AND PROMISES

Bruce Porter and Rodney Meldrum invited me to write the foreward for their new book, Prophecies and Promises. It follows. It will be the essence of my remarks at the Friday morning session of the Book of Mormon conference in Midway, October 3, 2009.

FOREWARD

Before I confess that Prophecies and Promises provoked a personal “paradigm shift” about Book of Mormon geography, I should thank Steve Covey for making the notion of changing our “mental maps” a proactive idea. What I have so easily accepted, embraced and believed about a Central American setting for the Book of Mormon—my Mesoamerica paradigm—has shifted.

Before Prophecies and Promises, I did not profess to KNOW where the events described in the Book of Mormon took place. I still don’t KNOW. What I do KNOW is that the Book of Mormon is an authentic ancient record. What I do KNOW is that the characters identified were living, breathing human beings. What I do KNOW is that their world was in an actual place. Prophecies and Promises is a wonderful exploration of WHAT IF. I find it fascinating, enlightening and even persuasive in a very positive way.

What I KNOW for sure about the Book of Mormon does not come from architectural remnants, internal references to geography, hypothetical maps or the myriad scholarly efforts in quest for evidence of place. I KNOW the book is authentic through a spiritual conviction. That is a process understood only by those who have experienced it. My clear conviction about WHAT it is does not include any sure knowledge of WHERE it all took place.

That said, I must confess, looking north instead of south has reignited my fascination, added to my testimony and allowed me to “see” the players and places in a whole new and exciting way. If you’ll excuse a lowbrow metaphor of popular culture, rereading the Book of Mormon with my new mental map is like watching a favorite and familiar movie remade in a different time and place. As the movie in my mind unwinds I find it a magnificent new epic of unexpected proportion.

It has been eleven years since President Hinckley asked me to create a motion picture for the Joseph Smith Memorial theater that presented our belief in Jesus Christ. The film was to replace Legacy, the first of the motion pictures I wrote, produced and directed for the theater and the film that gave the theater it’s name.

I met with the First Presidency in the room once used as the office of President Heber J. Grant. As always, President Hinckley went right to the heart of our purpose. “We are here to discuss a replacement film for LEGACY.” He said the time had come to create a new motion picture about the Savior. The First Presidency wanted every visitor to temple square, members, nonmembers, Christians and non-Christians, to understand that Latter-day Saints believe in Jesus Christ. He emphasized the importance of the film. He admonished that the portrayal of the Savior be of singular importance. And then he added, “We wish to portray him from the perspective of the Book of Mormon.”

The biggest challenge for me was to avoid being paralyzed by the importance of the project and the gravity of the responsibility. The prophet’s charge plunged me into the domain of Book of Mormon scholarship. People and places. Players and geography. If the film was to portray the Savior from the perspective of the Book of Mormon we had to choose a setting for Book of Mormon lands. The overwhelming favorite at the time of course was ancient Central America.

The year I graduated from BYU I played tennis with noted Book of Mormon archeologist, Tom Ferguson. In later years I would be in business with his son. I was a good friend of Paul Chessman, who focused much of his life in search of Zarahemla. I roamed the jungles of the Yucatan and imagined Lamanites and Nephites in cities I supposed must have looked something like the stone cities abandoned five centuries too late. I gave casual thought to “where” it might have taken place but it was never an issue of driving importance. Like other readers of those Books of Mormon, illustrated by Arnold Friberg, it was his cast of characters I imagined. It was the ancient world of his creation that I saw. [And I like every other Elder in the church wished I looked like Friberg’s Stripling Warriors.]

In writing the script for TESTAMENTS, assembling the team and envisioning the film requested by President Hinckley, there was only one very brief discussion at any level about “where” the events took place. I’ll share that in a moment. The magnificent books by John Sorenson, Dr. Joseph Allen and others—all of them persuasively arguing in favor of a Mesoamerica setting— became my standard works. Within ten days of the First Presidency edict, I was tromping the jungles of the Yucatan, scouting locations in and around Palenque, the Mayan City State in southern Mexico that flourished in the seventh century. Having been there several times, I could easily envision the remnants of the Mayans as a fitting backdrop to the movie sets to be constructed. I carried pictures of those ruins when I was a missionary in Denmark and driven by more zeal than knowledge, declared them as “evidence.” I am not alone.

I returned to Salt Lake and reported my plan to President Faust. I have never forgotten what happened. A clear recollection of that moment rushed up from memory the first time I saw Meldrum’s DVD, the first time I attended Porter’s presentation and once again as I read Prophesies and Promises.

President Faust shook his head. His face softened into one of his inimitable smiles. He put a hand on each of my shoulders, looked me in the eye and said, “Kieth, Kieth, Kieth.” He always addressed me that way when I was too zealous, excessively stressed or forgetting the principal of counselors. “We don’t want you to include any existing or recognizable landmarks in the film,” He said and in essence explained that to do so would be liking saying ‘this is where it happened.’ Then he said, “We do not know where it all took place.”

The authors begin their engaging book with a clear affirmation of what I heard a member of the First Presidency say to me in person.

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has made no official statement on the geography of the Book of Mormon. Therefore, every theory proposed for a geographical setting of the text is exactly that, theory.”

In making TESTAMENTS, I was influenced by the most popular, prevailing theory. The film was made on the island of Kauai. The city of Zarahemla was the largest set ever built in the state of Hawaii. The production designers used their imaginations, my vast collection of books by Sorensen, Allen and others, the abundant collection of art from the talented LDS community of artists, my own sketches and the jungle setting of the islands to re-create the world of the Book of Mormon. Every choice supported the prevailing theory. As a result the setting of the movie implies a Mesoamerica setting in every way. Jungles. Pyramids. A curious and creative mix of remnant cultures that included Mayan. Aztec, Olmec and Toltec.

Movies demand making decisions about time and space. They demand choosing or creating a world in which the drama plays out. The world of TESTAMENTS was clearly influenced by the prevailing theories, poplar opinion and the remnants of Mayan monuments that post dated the final days of the Book of Mormon, some by as much as 500 years.

I’m not sure why I was honored by an invitation to write a foreward to this important work. Probably because of the many among us who have some sort of ‘vested interest’ in keeping the Book of Mormon lands in Guatemala, I am perceived as one who jumped ship early and swam north. When I sent an e-mail to the authors and scolded them for writing their book ten years too late, they must have figured that in me they had an open-minded friend. And they do. Life is filled with woulda, shoulda, coulda, but I do wish I had had cause to evaluate the Hopewell culture, consider the North American perspective, examine an alternative theory and explore the exciting “evidences” proposed.

Having made the biggest film the church has ever produced and being—I’m afraid to confess—singularly responsible for the choice to set the Book of Mormon segments of that movie in a Mesoamerica setting, one might imagine my “vested interest” would prompt me to preserve the status quo. Not rock the boat or get excited about the buffalo, one might say.

Why don’t I? What am I excited about Prophesies and Promises? There are three reasons. First. We don’t know where the events of the Book of Mormon took place. President Faust doesn’t know (or if he did he promised not to tell). I don’t claim to know. The authors of Prophecies and Promises don’t claim to know. Second. This book took me back to primary and the soft spoken voice of Sister Hess, “What would Jesus do?” The authors have caused me to ask, “What would Jesus say?” They caused me to wonder. “What DID Jesus say about the lands of the Book of Mormon?” Then finally, as night follows day, comes the question, “What did Joseph Smith know? What did he say?”

A reexamination of what Jesus said as he stood on this land is compelling. What Joseph Smith said as he walked across what he called the “Plains of the Nephites” is likewise suddenly monumental. The words of Christ are scripture. The words of Joseph Smith have been called by some “mistaken.” Really?

When I was asked to rewrite the Oakland temple pageant in 1986 I reframed the script with a narration by Lucy Mack Smith, mother of the prophet Joseph. I immersed myself in her recollections. History of the prophet Joseph Smith by his mother is arguable one of the most insightful and authentic accounts in our vast library of other historical documents. I remember reading it for the first time. A few of the things she said etched their way into my memory.

“During our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of travelings, and the animals upon which they rode; their cities, their buildings, with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life among them.” Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith by his Mother.

From that day to this I have believed Joseph Smith knew more than was every recorded. I do not think he was mistaken and that has opened my mind to all sorts of previously disregarded possibilities.

Zealous as they have the right to be, Porter and Medlrum take a steady, objective and straightforward approach to their theory and supporting indications. It is void of pitching or proselytizing. I have been surprised by the vigor of the criticisms thrown their way. There is nothing at stake here but the exploration of new possibilities, enlightenment and a likely increase in faith. And who knows, we might be on a path that may yet lead to unexpected evidences for the “most correct of any book on earth”.

Read Prophecies and Promises. Open your mind to the possibilities. Reread The Book of Mormon and see if you don’t discover a wondrous new movie of the mind unreeling in your imagination. Enjoy those tempting, tantalizing thoughts — what if this WAS the place it happened?