Ever been to Bethlehem? I have. It’s basically a suburb of Jerusalem. In fact it is a Semetic evidence of the Book of Mormon that such phraseology is used because it was a common near Eastern practice to refer to a town by its regional setting in proximation to a nearby large city.
(Yeah, right...so if I prophesied you'd be born in the "Zion" state of Utah in a town called Hildale...and you were actually born 8 miles away in the town of Colorado City, AZ, that'd be "close nough" eh?)
Or, if Mormon Christmas carol writers started writing about how Jesus was born in Jerusalem, that'd be OK with you?
Or if Mormon leaders started crossing off Bethlehem in their carols and Christmas cards, and started inserting "Jerusalem," that'd be OK?
Or, are you now telling the Pew Forum folks who did this survey that if anybody answered "Jerusalem" as Jesus' birthplace on this survey, that their answer was correct, too??? [Jerusalem was one of the multiple-choice options on this quiz]
Nice try but this glossing over doesn't cut it. The Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. It was a critical component in validating the identity of the Messiah. Reread Mathew 2:3-6 and you'll be reminded of the importance of Bethlehem. If you asked me where the Red Sox baseball team was located and I said Massachusetts, would accept the answer as correct? I doubt it. You'd want me to be more specific because the team is associated with Boston. Just like the Messiah's birth is associated with Bethlehem, not Jerusalem. Glossing over something like this shows a lack of understanding of the importance of true prophecy.
In fact it is a Semetic evidence of the Book of Mormon that such phraseology is used because it was a common near Eastern practice to refer to a town by its regional setting in proximation to a nearby large city.
Or if you apply Occam's Razor, it is much more logically explained as an error in the "most correct book of any on earth."