First, read this story….

There has been a change in the Book of Mormon.  This change isn’t to the BoM itself, but is to the introduction written by Bruce McConkie in 1981.  The belief through the prophets, up until the change, was that the natives of North, Central, and South America were ALL (not some but ALL) descended from Lehi and his family that came over from Israel.  By this change, from the LDS Church itself, it goes against this belief by changing only one word.

The original stated, “After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.”

The new statement is now, “After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians.”

This is actually a very profound change as it implicates that there were other inhabitants on these continents prior to the landing of Lehi.  Coupling this with the statement in 1971 by Spencer Kimball where he stated that Lehi was “the ancestor of all of the Indian and Mestizo tribes in North and South and Central America and in the islands of the sea” as quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune.

This comes on the heals of several decades of genetic research showing that the DNA does not match and has no genetic connection with Israel.  Several “former” LDS scientist (the former emphasis is on the LDS part) showed in their research that there is absolutely no connection of any of the Native Americans to Israel.

By the way, I searched the Deseret News for this story and was unable to find any comparable story in that newspaper.  Why would they not cover it?