“Objection,” said Sowerby.
Judge Panofsky put his mouth to his microphone. “Mr. Comer, will you state the relevance of your question before carrying us into a religious trial. I hate those.”
“Your Honor, according to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, published by the Macmillan Publishing Company in 1992.” Comer lifted a brown leather-bound notebook from his desk and read his words aloud. “Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, otherwise known as Mormons, believe a number of Israelites settled somewhere in America in approximately 600 BC. The Book of Mormon specifically describes these people and their approximate 1000 year existence, with an included supplementary book describing another group who came from the Old World to the New just after the fall of the Biblical Tower of Babel.” Comer looked up. “John Porter is a Mormon, and I suspect would therefore be more interested in Central American archaeology because of his religion than for scholarly reasons.”
“Objection overruled,” said the judge, looking at his desk. “Proceed.”
“Ms. Alred, based on your knowledge of Ancient Mesoamerica and your personal contact with Mr. Porter, would you say the defendant made no religious connections with Dr. Ulman’s discovery?”
“I do not feel inclined to say such a thing,” Alred said, her eyes relaxed but her head growing hazy. She prayed inside that the Prosecutor would turn the discussion away from religion, then sighed with inner embarrassment for praying at all in any form.
“Porter is a specialist in Ancient Near Eastern Studies,” said Comer, looking back at his notes. “In your expert opinion as a doctoral candidate in Ancient Mesoamerican Archaeology, Ms. Alred, what relationship does ancient Arabia, Egypt, or Israel have with America?”
Alred moved her tongue around in her mouth before speaking. “None.”
“On what basis do you make this decree?” said Comer.
“Archaeologists refute claims that anyone came from the Near East to the Americas in ancient times,” said Alred. She felt her conviction tearing away at her inside. After all she’d studied personally, in Dr. Ulman’s papers, KM-2, and especially KM-3, there ached the constant possibility deep inside her that the connection really was clear. But everything else, all her schooling, every measure of her logical mind told her to ignore Ulman’s finds-they only confused the truth.
“Tell us why then was a scholarly young man like John D. Porter, a specialist in Near Eastern Studies, given the ancient manuscript dug up by an American Archaeologist from Stratford University.” Comer stopped his slow pacing.
“Porter believes there is a connection from both sides,” she said. “This does stem from his faith and more precisely from the Book of Mormon. He has used numerous Mesoamerican texts to back up his claims and has found KM-2 to be the greatest of all, expressing the heretofore undiscovered evidence linking the Old and New Worlds. He is
…motivated by his religious standing.
“I do not concur with these ideas,” said Alred for her own peace. “The bottom line is that both Porter, a Near Eastern scholar, and myself, a Mesoamericanist, were commissioned by Stratford University to complete a project which would result with our Ph. D’s, following our dissertations given on the fifth of May. As does Porter, I have a full Fellowship and am therefore… paid to do exactly what Stratford asks. This was a paid assignment. Porter had more at stake than anyone else relative to KM-2. I do not believe he sought money or even fame from this study, but very much hoped to earn his degree and bring to light what he would deem as more evidence that the Book of Mormon is what it claims to be. Due to a technicality, this excellent student who is on trial today wouldn’t graduate without the KM-2 project. As I said, Stratford took KM-2 away at the last moment, dissolving all possibilities and inadvertently disposing of our work.”
Comer grinned. “And you believe this.”
“I have no religious convictions-”
“You think some underground religious freaks might try to kill the both of you, just as you see others murdered for-”
“I see two Ph. D’s stolen from the hands of worthy students, and a university that is attempting to-”
“Why can’t you see what is going on here?!?” said Porter standing suddenly and speaking fast as one thump of the gavel echoed through the room. “Archaeological evidence in any good textbook confirms the dates suggested in the Book of Mormon, which was written years before our modern information had been found, gathered, and compiled.
“Both modern studies and the Book of Mormon describe a society which lived at the same time and died in the Middle Preclassic period of Mesoamerican history.
“Both sources accurately present us with a new civilization that sprang suddenly out of the Middle Preclassic period, ran for one thousand years, ending with major social catastrophes and changes culminating in the end of the Early Classic civilizations.
“While scholars for decades have called the Mayans a peaceful people, the Book of Mormon describes tribes and kingdoms at constant war with one another. Now archaeologists confirm the description-the Book of Mormon proving to be accurate again. New art filled with armed men and tangible evidence of widespread cannibalism in and around Teotihuacan in the North and Mayan lowlands in Guatemala and the Yucatan begin exactly at the same time as the record of Mormon-describing the same situation-purportedly ends.
“As the Book of Mormon prophesies, in the years following its last pages, as Alred and any competent ancient Americanist will confirm, all major population centers completed a shift from theocratic governments to secular lifestyles. The old ceremonialism was done away with. Mayan and Mesoamerican stones were defaced for reasons archaeologists are unable to give. And from the Middle Classic period on, religion became a means to secular ends just as it too often does today.
“I could cite to everyone in this room, the Popol Vuh and other ancient Mesoamerican documents which describe scenes from the scattering of people from a mountain-your Tower of Babel, Mr. Comer-to the great flood found in the Bible. Parallel stories. I could bring to your attention the Annals of the Cakchiquels translated for the first time into French in 1855 and into English in 1885, or the Title of the Lords of Totonicapan translated into Spanish in 1834 and then English in 1953. Shall I refer you to the painted walls of Bonampak in Chiapas, Mexico, which by the way made it onto the cover of National Geographic a few years back? Wasn’t brought to white man’s attention until the middle of this century. All of these relate detailed Book of Mormon stories.
“The Book of Mormon, which first came to light through Joseph Smith in 1830!
“The KM codices found by Dr. Ulman coincide with these finds and more particularly with the Book of Mormon.
“Think, now. No one wants these things to reach the ears and eyes of the citizens of the world. Can you imagine what would happen if irrefutable proof came clearly pointing out that the Mormons have been professing a religion which is in fact the true faith of God, taught for more than a hundred and fifty years all over the Earth?!? Are you ready to change your lives in the case that occurs?! Can’t you see why people have conspired to cover up the assignment I received from Stratford University-including the University itself?
“They made a serious mistake in giving me the codex in the first place. And all I’ve done is what I was told by them to do. The truth is there. I don’t need to prove it. But…I did not steal…KM-2, nor the ushabti figurines which were placed in my car.”
Alred looked at Porter as if she’d been hit with a blast of cold air. In a short moment of silence, as Porter took a breath, she saw him buckle slightly under the pressure of all the eyes on him. Why had no one told him to sit down? Why hadn’t the bailiffs grabbed him or someone gagged him? No one spoke with such clear words in a court, for what he said would affect everyone in the room.