Conclusion

The fundamental point that a reading of the Tanners' material demonstrates is that they are incapable of seriously dealing with academic studies and issues surrounding questions of archaeology and geography of either the New or Old world. Their failure in recent years to significantly respond to the work of what could be called the New Book of Mormon Archaeology has clearly demonstrated the bankrupt nature of their enterprise. My advice to the Tanners—which I really don't expect them to follow—is to stick to their search for foibles of Latter-day Saint leaders, and their facile, ad nauseam demonstrations of Latter-day Saint doctrine bears little relationship to fundamentalist Protestant doctrine. By moving beyond these subjects they will only embarrass themselves further.