BMAF retrospective

One of our favorite M2C organizations was the Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum, or BMAF. 

They were a delightful group of hard-core M2Cers whose logo depicted M2C:

Their website has been scrubbed (the link bmaf.org now goes to Scripture Central, of all things), but of course it is archived.

And their google group is still available. They will probably delete it after this post, but it is all archived already. If they delete it, we'll post their articles here anyway.

The BMAF google group introduction is a good summary of how they saw the world. Original in blue, my comments in red, emphasis added.

We hope you will enjoy becoming a member of BMAF (Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum)  a not-for-profit organization dedicated as an open forum for research and evidences regarding Book of Mormon archaeology, anthropology, geography and culture within a Mesoamerican context.   

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This exclusive focus on Mesoamerica was also in their official purpose statement, as we can see in their website from 20 years ago. 

After I emphasized that point a few years ago, they edited their statement to make it more general, but they forgot about their google group, which makes their obsession with Mesoamerica even more explicit (see below).

While not associated with the LDS Church, we espouse it's doctrine and scriptures and all our content is pro-Mormon.  

Our website (www.bmaf.org) is one of the most-visited Book of Mormon apologetic sites on the internet with over 300 scholarly articles.  

Whether they are scholarly is obviously debatable, but it probably was one of the most visited sites, given the participation of various BYU scholars and even emeritus General Authorities, all trying to persuade Latter-day Saints to reject what Joseph, Oliver, their contemporaries and successors taught about the New York Cumorah.

Our contributors range from ordinary people who love and study the Book of Mormon to PhD's and university professors.  We also post articles from current and former members of the RLDS church.  

We maintain a Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/groups/bmaf.org/?fref=ts

as well as many You Tube videos of presentations at our conferences at http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bmaforg&oq=bmaforg&gs.

Unfortunately, much if not all of that material has been purged from the Internet, except what is still in the archives at Scripture Central.

Though we edit all material before we present it to the public, we do not require that it conforms to our ideas.  You will often read articles from several points of view.  

Such openness is rare among academics.

Our only absolute criteria is that the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica.  

Oops! Their "only absolute criteria" is intolerance of the views of faithful Latter-day Saints--including what Joseph and Oliver taught. So much for academic freedom, inquiry curiosity, transparency, etc.

We encourage comments and feedback from our members and often put them on our website. You may quote any material on this site as long as you give attribution.

Given this "absolute criteria," it is useful to see who was involved with BMAF.

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10 years ago, BMAF sent this invitation:

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BMAF's 2016 conference featured some of the usual suspects, including Brant Gardner whose recent series in the Interpreter and Meridian Magazine continues to promote M2C:

Finally, all the way back in 2008, they reported on their Book of Mormon tours and the speakers at their annual gathering:

2008 BMAF CONFERENCE SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18TH
at the Red Lion Hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah

MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW! CHECK SOON FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE.

Spring 2008 BMAF Book of Mormon tour

Every Spring BMAF sponsors a one-week tour with an LDS scholar to Book of Mormon lands. Each year a different area of Mesoamerica is explored. Past tours have included most of the proposed Book of Mormon sites.

Since BMAF is a non-profit organization it is able to provide the best possible study/touring experience at the lowest possible prices.

On February 11th, 2008, BMAF tour members visited the famous archaeological site of Copan in Honduras and Quirigua in Guatemala and explored the Lago de Izabel area on the Caribbean coast of Guatemala by boat.

The BMAF tour in 2007 visited many of the famous Olmec (possibly Jaredite) sites along the Gulf of Mexico.

5th annual BMAF conference a huge success!

Saturday, October 20th goes down in history as the most successful conference held by the Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum to date. Well over 200 people attended a packed hall at the Red Lion Hotel in Salt Lake City to hear John W. Welch , the keynote speaker; John Bytheway , the featured lunch speaker; Dr. John Lund , Brant Gardner , Dr. F. Richard Hauck , Michael Ash , and Elder Ted E. Brewerton .

[Click on each name for a brief synopsis of their presentation. Complete transcripts of all presentations from this conference as well as prior conferences will appear on this website in the near future. All presentations can be downloaded free of charge from the BMAF website.]

BMAF conducts a Book of Mormon archaeological forum once each year in October.

M2C theme music

 

deadmau5 - Quezacotl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_x3DaZAGAg&list=RDmSXoTWvs-OQ&index=8