Yes, I am very well aware of all of that, Everybody Wang Chung. I was there, and I recall it all well enough. I understand that there is a need to continue to justify this endless crusade to make fun of DCP and stoke outrage against him by making sure no one forgets all of his many wrongdoings.Everybody Wang Chung wrote: ↑Thu Mar 25, 2021 11:14 pmKish,
DCP has been very malicious in his attacks against Robert Ritner. Robert Ritner was even contemplating suing DCP.
Remember this post from Kevin Graham:
Here's the thing, though, we don't really gain anything by keeping this up, if our overall goal is to overturn bad apologetics. This is wasted effort. It is true that if our goal is to double down on convincing the world and re-convincing ourselves that DCP is a total scum bucket, then, sure, this method works wonders. People are eager to fight me over the importance of continuing with this crap. Gotta be hella important, I'd say.
I just don't see what attacks on DCP's character have to do with the effectiveness of LDS apologetics except in mirroring Mopologetic character assassination as a method of robbing one's opponent of their apparent legitimacy.
In other words, people point out that DCP and others insinuated that Ritner had it in for Gee for turning Ritner down sexually. OK, now we see that the argument against Ritner was so weak that people chose to focus on some alleged social conflict between the two, and this example was great because of rampant LDS homophobia.
So now we spend forever dredging up this story because it works wonders for reminding others how awful DCP must be to either be homophobic or play on the homophobia of his friends and readers in attacking Ritner.
Of course, the better way to do this is probably just to remind people that the papyri are not Bronze Age documents and their Egyptian does not translate into the Book of Abraham. It really is that simple. If your belief in Mormonism was standing or falling on the accuracy of Joseph Smith's Egyptian translation skills, then by all means you should not be Mormon.
Problem solved. No wallowing in the muck of rumors and character assassination.
We should really want people to make the best choices for themselves based on the merits of the case for Mormonism. People who spend their time attacking personalities are on the wrong track. I would say that it's just masturbatory nonsense. Everyone gets worked up because so and so is an awful person, but what does that say about Mormonism?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
What it may do, however, is suggest to others that we are somehow obsessive and unable to let go of these old battles. They might think that our decisions about Mormonism were overly impacted by our anger or dislike for DCP. We would be allowing ourselves to be offended, in LDS speak, and not focusing on the question of the truth of the Gospel. We would be straining at a gnat to swallow a camel, as it were.
So, how effective is this continuing assault on DCP's character for convincing others that we made the right decisions for the right reasons in our quest for truth?
