349: Simon Southerton, DNA, Lamanites and the Book of Mormon Pt. 2

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.5 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 May 2012

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Simon Southerton is a native Australian, geneticist, former LDS bishop, and author of the book, Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA and the Mormon Church. Simon was a member of the LDS church for almost 30 years, serving a mission in Melbourne (1981-83), marrying in the New Zealand Temple in 1983, and serving in numerous church positions including four terms as Young Men President, a counselor in several bishoprics and branch presidencies, and finally as bishop. While serving as bishop Simon began studying Native American DNA which he expected to have Middle Eastern origins, given the primary Book of Mormon narrative and longstanding church teachings to this effect. Discovering instead that Native American DNA was almost 100% of Asiatic origin, this seriously challenged Simon’s belief that the Lamanites are the ancestors of the American Indians, and that the Book of Mormon is a historical document. Consequently, Simon resigned from his calling as bishop in 1998 and left the church soon thereafter.

Transcript

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0:30.0	For the full, unedited version of this interview, look for it in the iTunes feed or find it
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0:36.7	There are probably lots of technical papers we can refer people to if they really want
0:40.6	to dive into this stuff.
0:42.0	And so I just want to say for you and for everyone that what we're about to do is not do
0:46.5	a deep dive into the full rough complexities of genetics as it relates to this issue.
0:53.6	But I do think it's important just to lay out kind of the basics, right?
0:58.1	And if people can just understand the basics, then they can decide if they want to kind
1:01.6	of dig a little deeper.
1:03.2	But you know, I guess we can start with just what's the narrative that the church taught
1:07.2	for 150 plus years?
1:09.4	You know, let's start there.
1:10.8	Okay.
1:11.8	Well, if we start with DNA, I think you would readily acknowledge that you look like your parents.
1:16.7	You look like your ancestors.
1:18.4	And the reason you do is that you've inherited their DNA.
1:21.5	There must be unique things in their DNA that you carry.
	...

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