Plant geneticist Simon Southerton was a Mormon bishop in Brisbane, Australia when he woke up the morning of Aug. 3, 1998 to the shattering conclusion that his knowledge of science made it impossible for him to believe any longer in the Book of Mormon.

Two years later he started writing "Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA and the Mormon Church," published by Signature Books and due in stores next month. Along the way, he found a world of scholarship that has led him to conclude The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints belief is changing, but not through prophesy and revelation.

Rather, Southerton sees a behind-the-scenes revolution led by a small group of Brigham Young University scholars and their critics who are reinterpreting fundamental teachings of the Book of Mormon in light of DNA research findings. Along the way, he says, these apologist scholars, with the apparent blessing of church leadership, are contradicting church teachings about the origins of American Indians and Polynesians.

"You've got Mormon apologists in their own publications rejecting what prophets have been saying for decades. This becomes very troubling for ordinary members of the church," Southerton said.

And while the work of the BYU apologists ? the term means those who speak or write in defense of something ? remains confined largely to intellectual circles, some church members who have always understood themselves in light of Mormon teachings about the people known as Lamanites are suffering identity crises.

"It's very difficult. It is almost traumatizing," said Jose Aloayza, a Midvale attorney who likened facing this new reality to staring into a spiritual abyss.

"It's that serious, that real," said Aloayza, a Peruvian native born into the church and still a member. "I'm almost here feeling I need an apology. Our prophets should have known better. That's the feeling I get."

Southerton, now a senior researcher with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Canberra, Australia, has concluded along with many other scientists studying mitochondrial DNA lines that American Indians and Polynesians are of Asian extraction.

1. If the past Mormon prophets did not really have any inspiration informing them of the true origins of the pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas and Polynesian islands, why did they personally pretend to know? Why did Kimball make his remarks about American Indian children of church members turning lighter? Why did BYU sponsor a group called "Lamanite Generation" that included all native Polynesians and American Indians as Lamanites? Why do numerous D&C revelations generally refer to North American Indian populations as Lamanites?
2. If there were pre-Lehite inhabitants of the Americas, who came over before the time of Noah's flood, why weren't these original inhabitants of the Americas wiped out in the great flood?
3. At a minimum, is it not the responsibility of inspired Prophets and Apostles to (i) refrain from teaching false doctrine; and (ii) correct erroneous doctrines that are accepted by most, if not all, of the members of the Church? (Why do apologists always think that their great religious leaders can be so easily excused for failing miserably in these responsibilities? And why do the past Prophets and Apostles have such a miserable track record in this regard?)
4. What does it say about the likelihood of the Book of Mormon's authenticity that DNA evidence supports the Siberian land bridge/east-Asian origin theories that were derided by Mormons for so long, while, at best, providing no support whatsoever for the Book of Mormon stories, if not outright refuting them?
5. If so many Mormons over the past several generations have misunderstood the implications of the Book of Mormon regarding the origins of pre-Columbian Americans and Polynesians, what is it that they have "testimonies" of? Do they really understand anything about the Book of Mormon? "The Church is true. The Prophets are true. The Book of Mormon is true. Just don't ask us to carefully define what our testimonies of these things mean and don't try to hold the Church, the Prophets or the Book of Mormon accountable for any past pronouncements. It may have all been a misunderstanding that has been clarified now by our illustrious apologists."

1. President Hinckley spoke one-to-one with Scott Woodward in 2002 or 2001, at which time President Hinckley instructed Scott Woodward to stop some or all of his DNA research at BYU. Scott Woodward mentioned the content of this meeting with President Hinckley during a faith-inspiring message to members of his Belmont Apartments single student ward, BYU 1st stake, while he was serving as Bishop.
2. At the time of the meeting, Scott Woodward was scientific director of the Molecular Genealogy project at BYU. This project aimed to create a large DNA genealogical database to allow people to trace their ancestral homelands through their DNA.
3. At the time of the meeting, Scott Woodward had carried out DNA tests on over 6,000 Native Americans, mostly from Peru. At least 98% of their mitochondrial DNA lineages were most similar to Asian mitochondrial DNA lineages. The results of this research remain largely unpublished today.
4. Some time after this meeting, the BYU Molecular Genealogy research project was moved off campus to the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in Salt Lake City. For a period, Scott Woodward was not affiliated with BYU.

"The authors are correct in saying the historical origins of most Jewish communities are unknown. With no evidence that modern Jewish mtDNA constitutes a valid control of the genetics of ancient Israel, claims of Israelite lineage cannot be either confirmed or denied based on DNA evidence."

"The authors are correct in saying the historical origins of most Jewish communities are unknown."

"With no evidence that modern Jewish mtDNA constitutes a valid control of the genetics of ancient Israel, claims of Israelite lineage cannot be either confirmed or denied based on DNA evidence."

"Geneticists use the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA to track the movement of populations because each is passed unchanged from parent to child, escaping the genetic shuffle that occurs on the rest of genome between generations. Since the Y chromosome passes down only from father to son, and mitochondrial DNA is always inherited from the mother alone, the two elements serve to track the genetic history of men and women respectively."

Was Hebrew DNA recently found in American Indian populations in South America? According to Scott R. Woodward, executive director of Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, a DNA marker, called the "Cohen modal haplotype," sometimes associated with Hebrew people, has been found in Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia.

According to Woodward, the way critics have used DNA studies to attack the Book of Mormon is "clearly wrong." And it would be equally wrong to use similar DNA evidence to try to prove it.

This is because "not all DNA (evidence) is created equal," Woodward said.

It is the misuse of evidence that gave critics fuel to make their DNA arguments in the first place. According to Woodward, the critics are attacking the straw man that all American Indians are only descendants of the migrations described in the Book of Mormon and from no other source