Unity and Indigenous Erasure in the Book of Mormon: A Conversation with Thomas W. Murphy

In this episode of Dialogue Out Loud, host Caroline Kline speaks with scholar Thomas W. Murphy about his article from the Winter 2025 issue of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, “White Is an Ite: The Book of Mormon’s Misappropriation of the Iroquois Great Law of Peace.”

Murphy examines how Fourth Nephi’s vision of unity and peace parallels—and at times mirrors—settler-colonial narratives, particularly when read alongside the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Great Law of Peace. The conversation explores how universalizing theological claims can obscure Indigenous sovereignty, flatten difference, and reinscribe racial hierarchies, even within texts often celebrated for their egalitarian ideals.

Thomas W. Murphy is a scholar of Mormonism and Indigenous studies whose work focuses on race, colonialism, and the Book of Mormon. He has taught anthropology and religious studies and is widely known for his contributions to critical conversations about Mormon scripture, history, and Indigenous intellectual traditions. Together, Murphy and Kline discuss the ethical stakes of comparative scripture, the responsibilities of readers and scholars, and what it means to engage sacred texts without erasing the peoples whose histories they invoke.