Sorenson’s Inaccurate Narrow Neck of Land – Part I

One might wonder why so much is written in these posts about John L. Sorenson. But look on any site regarding the Book of Mormon geography, and he is considered the guru of the subject. However, despite all his work and effort, he has centered the Land of Promise in Mesoamerica—a location that simply does not match the scriptural record. This is thoroughly covered in the book “Inaccuracies of Mesoamerican and Other Theorists.” For this post, let us deal with one of these ideas:

The Small or Narrow Neck of land

Sorenson writes: “In the history of LDS thought on the Book of Mormon, only a few correlations have been seriously proposed between the geography of the record and the map of the western hemisphere. First of all, few possible "narrow necks" are worth considering. The oldest view supposed Panama to be the narrow neck of the Book of Mormon, with South America, or some portion of it, the land southward. The dimensions of Book of Mormon lands alone rule out the whole continent, while any attempt to consider just a part of South America as the land southward runs afoul of a number of points in the text (for example, Alma 22:32, "nearly surrounded by water"). The idea sometimes suggested, that part of the South American continent could have been submerged beneath the sea, leaving a reduced land that the Nephites occupied, is without merit, as abundant geological and archaeological evidence shows.”

Now the interesting fact is, the geologic record shows that most of South America was once under water—in fact, almost all the land east of what is now the Andes Mountains. The Amazon basin, an area larger than the United States, is still under or right at sea level. The drilling results of the “Glomar Challenger” deep-sea drilling rig has shown that Panama was totally underwater in recent times and that it was not connected to South America above sea level. Charles Darwin (not a favorite of mine) said in the early 1830s when traveling over the Andes, that those mountains were once at sea level and that the Atlantic Ocean reached that area in very recent times.

It is not that there is no geologic record, or information available, Sorenson simply chooses to ignore it. His comment that “The idea sometimes suggested, that part of the South American continent could have been submerged beneath the sea, leaving a reduced land that the Nephites occupied, is without merit” merely shows his lack of knowledge and prejudicial attitude.

But what is more amazing is his choice of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico as the narrow neck of land. In addition, his Land of Promise has no southern terminus—it has no ocean to the south, yet the scriptural record says that the Land of Nephi and the Land of Zarahemla “were nearly surrounded by water, there being a small neck of land between the land northward and the land southward” (Alma 22:32)

Now the word “nearly” means “almost, within a little” and surely, that little, as Mormon explains, was the narrow neck. The word “surround” means to “encompass, to inclose on all sides, to surround on all sides.” Thus, Mormon’s statement actually tells us: “The Land of Nephi and the Land of Zarahemla were surrounded by water except for the small neck of land leading into the Land Northward.” Of course, Sorenson cannot say this because it would disqualify his Mesoamerica model.

He has also said, “Another correlation has been suggested that calls the Yucatan peninsula of southeastern Mexico the land northward, the land southward being in Guatemala and Honduras. The most obvious weakness of this scheme is lack of an acceptable "neck." The base of the Yucatan peninsula will not do at all, while attempts to identify a bit of land here or there as a "narrow neck" in other than the literal sense of an isthmus with sea on either side directly contradict plain statements in the scripture itself. The only "narrow neck" potentially acceptable in terms of the Book of Mormon requirements is the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico. All LDS students of Book of Mormon geography who have worked systematically with the problem in recent decades have come to agree on this.”

It is not difficult to see his prejudicial attitude by his use of the word “scheme.” However, that aside, there are several inaccuracies in his statement:

1. The lack of an acceptable "neck" in the Yucatan. While this is true, there is also a lack of an acceptable “neck” in all of Mesoamerica.

(See the next post, “Sorenson’s Inaccurate Narrow Neck of Land – Part II,” to see how Sorenson’s Gulf of Tehuantepec does not match the scriptural record, as well as the other points listed)