a historic Apologetic Communique Comes to Light

[_Doctor Scratch]

Yikes! This is devestating! It certainly explains why the other apologetic organizations distance themselves from SHIELDS, and why they only enjoy the SHIELDS style attacks from a distance. Truly, with tactics like this, I'm kind of surprised DCP allows them to post his correspondences. I would be very wary about associating with these types. I mean, this is a red flag, a very red one. The questions raised by the complex policies for donating to SHIELDS are pretty well answered by this kind of example of their activities.

It may very well be that Dr. Peterson if anything actually admires and envies SHIELDS. Remember that he was deeply concerned about the effect that incorporation in BYU would have on FARMS. Maybe part of the calculus in his misgivings was the realization that the LDS Church would not want an organization at BYU to be caught doing this type of thing. They had been burned in the past by Wilkinson and his little investigations into commies and atheists on campus. Peterson probably vicariously revels in the freedom that the SHIELDS bozos have had to undertake their Danite tactics on behalf of the LDS Church. Only he could tell us, but I doubt he would be frank about it anyway.

Hmmm. That is an interesting observation, Reverend. I'm not quite sure if DCP was advised to distance himself from SHIELDS, or if he chose to do that himself. J. Tvedtnes, on the other hand, has been a full-fledged SHIELDS man practically from the start. In the mid- to late-1990s, SHIELDS seemed like it could have become a bonafide apologetic organization, but things began to seriously fall apart for them around 2000 or so. I think you'll notice that the vast majority of the unethically posted correspondences from DCP, Midgley, Hamblin and others all date from the late '90s. After this, they turned their energies elsewhere---largely to ZLMB, if I'm not mistaken. Eventually, around 2003-2004, there was a big exodus away from ZLMB to the ironically named FAIRboard, and you pretty much know what happens from there.

What is interesting to me is the way that the rise of SHIELDS corresponds to all the strange maneuvering at FARMS (the Ziggurat, the $20,000 FARMS Chair payment, the mysterious "quip" about FROB, etc.). It makes me wonder if FARMS was indeed ordered to "tone it down", and thus DCP and the other "heavy hitters" needed an outlet for their rage and frustration. If so, SHIELDS would have fit the bill perfectly. One of the mysteries worth considering is why DCP doesn't seem to have much to do with SHIELDS anymore. It seems to me that there was pretty clearly a falling out of some kind. (Kevin Graham alluded to all of this in another thread.)

[_Kishkumen]

Hmmm. That is an interesting observation, Reverend. I'm not quite sure if DCP was advised to distance himself from SHIELDS, or if he chose to do that himself.

Well, if he had aspirations to sit in a big red chair at Conference, that would be an excellent reason to distance himself, but he continues to post on boards, which would utterly defeat such a purpose. There must be other reasons.

J. Tvedtnes, on the other hand, has been a full-fledged SHIELDS man practically from the start.

Of course, he lacks something important to the Mopologetic elite--a PhD. Could credentials have anything to do with how all of this fell out?

What is interesting to me is the way that the rise of SHIELDS corresponds to all the strange maneuvering at FARMS (the Ziggurat, the $20,000 FARMS Chair payment, the mysterious "quip" about FROB, etc.). It makes me wonder if FARMS was indeed ordered to "tone it down", and thus DCP and the other "heavy hitters" needed an outlet for their rage and frustration. If so, SHIELDS would have fit the bill perfectly. One of the mysteries worth considering is why DCP doesn't seem to have much to do with SHIELDS anymore. It seems to me that there was pretty clearly a falling out of some kind. (Kevin Graham alluded to all of this in another thread.)

Perhaps the incorporation of FARMS into BYU had Peterson and others casting about for an exit plan. With their Ziggurat dreams torn from their meaty palms, SHIELDS looked like a possibility. The the Church ponies up with "compensation" to make staying more attractive to the lead Mopologist, so SHIELDS was unceremoniously kicked to the curb, and the high hopes and aspirations of Barker et al. were crushed. Tvedtnes appears to have been the only Mopologist who felt any compunction about this, guilt even, and so he has gone back to them.

At some level, Peterson was not prepared to give up his dreams of academic glory, and SHIELDS, though it could perhaps give him his coveted Ziggurat, could never approach that kind of legitimacy. The Church, sensing this, started to throw around new acronyms like METI, and then they had him. SHIELDS will never be the same.

[_cksalmon]

A bit of backstory: Doug Marshall (as John Larsen explained in a recent post) was one of the founders of SHIELDS. He has since abandoned the LDS faith, and in fact he has expressed a great deal of regret and embarrassment over his involvement in SHIELDS. I should add that UMI=Utah Missions Inc., headed by Mopologetic arch enemy Rev. Dennis Wright. (There is a lot of correspondence at SHIELDS between various UMI people and the apologists. Much of it is quite nasty.)

I think the Mopologists disdained Dennis far too much to consider him an archenemy. Dennis hasn't been associated with UMI for, I'd say, probably 2.5 years or so. I'm not sure to which pastures precisely he's moved on, or whether they're greener.

In terms of this excerpt, I'd like to draw your attention to "RH"'s question, "What is your organization doing to earn UMI's attention?" Notice the cloak-and-dagger tone of this, as if there is some nefarious "plot" to interfere with UMI's activities. (UMI, by the way, is responsible for publishing the rather well-known Evangel, which our very own CKSalmon has been associated with, If I recall correctly.)

You do RC, Scratch. My tenure with The Evangel was rather short-lived but my departure lacked even the slightest hint of any juicy acrimony. We were merely ill-suited lovers. Sort of a live-and-let-live thing.

I have high hopes for The Evangel of the future. The new managing editor, last I heard, was a very competent, very smart woman--and, indeed, a friend--(with a Masters in Biblical Languages) 'round New Orleans parts (my old stomping grounds). If she can successfully make the transition from the John L. Smith tabloid publication to something approaching critical relevance in the Internet age (something I was manifestly incapable of doing, though some of my graphics were quite cool), she'll be doing right in my book.

Time will tell.

cks