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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Australian author who wrote that D-N-A evidence fails to support the ancestral claims outlined in the Book of Mormon has been excommunicated by The Church of Jesus of Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Simon Southerton told The Associated Press in an e-mail today that he was excommunicated after a three-hour disciplinary council meeting Sunday in Canberra, Australia.
Southerton is the author of "Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA and the Book of Mormon."
Southerton was charged by church authorities with "adultery" but finally excommunicated for "having an inappropriate relationship with a woman." He doesn't deny the relationship, but says it happened while he and his wife were separated.
They've since reconciled, and his wife spoke on his behalf at the church meeting.
Southerton says he asked local leaders why he was not answering to charges of apostasy, for having widely published his doubts about the church and his beliefs about DNA science.
A Mormon church spokesman in Salt Lake City today said church officials do NOT comment on the decisions of local church leaders.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
