First, Yakov ben Tov (YBT) makes a comment responding to the original post:
After sending a couple of emails it wasn't very difficult to find out that the university has been requesting the Maxwell Institute to save themselves and the university time and money to have all of the Institute's materials archived there. Again, Brigham Young University itself requested that they shift to this way of archiving their material. If anyone is interested in accessing the Maxwell Institute's old and ongoing publications they can do so here: https://scholarsarchive.BYU.... No need for conspiracy theories.
Dr. Midgley erupts:
This is pure bunk. It is simply not true. Why? As soon as it was possible to make available pdf and html electronic versions of what was published by the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), they were all made available. None of this was done after the meltdown in 2012 when Jerry Bradford and three other employees of the Maxwell Institute set in motion a plan to fire Dan Peterson, and then make a radical change of direction.
The primary complaint about shifting that massive archive of what was published by the old FARMS and then by the Maxwell Institute prior to the firing of Professor Peterson and the radical change of direction following the Purge, is that shifting that archive to the BYU Library once again breaks all links to all of those publications. And it seems that, at least to this point, one publication that sometimes had some useful information, has not been included.
Another comment from YBT:
I’m not sure what you are talking about here other than regular website maintenance. In fact, since 2012 many old FARMS items that were not available online at all were made available on the archive website. Rather than some odd conspiracy theory you and your friends seem to be arguing here, the Maxwell Institute looked like it was following trends in making those materials more available to wider audience by creating digital copies (which requires de-binding a book) and storing them in one place online.
As a historian of religious history and a sometimes commenter on your blog I will forever be confused about your conspiracy theories. Not so much about Louis’s, that kind of keeps his relationship with BYU (a la Wilkinson) going, although it’s him now claiming that others are acting in bad faith rather than the other way around. Still, very strange.
Dr. Midgley again:
I have exactly no idea what my involvement in making public what I like to call Wilkinson's Watergate has to do with anything. For those interested, the best essay setting out the truly embarrassing details about President Wilkinson's paranoia can be found in an essay by Gary Bergera in the Utah Historical Quarterly. The fact is that Jerry Bradford, who was once a student of mine when I first began teaching at BYU, and who I urged Noel Reynolds to hire to assist in managing FARMS, was involved with three other employees of the Maxwell Institute in a plot to fire Dan Peterson and change the direction of the Maxwell Institute. One of those employees felt deep remorse for being involved in this plot and wrote a long letter in which he expresses his sorrow and apologizes for what he came to see as some evil and entirely unbecoming one who is a Latter-day Saint.
This remarkable confession of evil deeds was sent to all those then employed by the Maxwell Institute, and I witnessed a copy being given to the current BYU President, and I have a copy of the letter, as do at least half a dozen others who were not employees of the Maxwell Institute. I mention this because there is no doubt that there was a plot (or conspiracy) to fire Dan Peterson and make a change of directions at the Maxwell Institute. In addition, one of the three who were asked to make an outside review of the Maxwell Institute, which document was quoted by Elder Maxwell [sic] eight or ten times in the scolding/warning he recently issued to the executive director and employees of the Institute, was David Holland, the youngest son of Elder Holland. And David, who is a former student of mine, must have both interviewed the Institute employee who wrote that letter apologizing for being involved in the plot I described, and it is likely that he had read that stunning letter.
It seems that Yakov ben Tov, who I believe is actually an employee of the Maxwell Institute, must be aware of these kinds of details. So his statement about how, "as a historian of religious history" he should not be unaware of this bit of real history, and hence not genuinely confused about what he seems anxious to brush aside as merely "conspiracy theories." If he still does not want to grant that there really was a very stupid plot involving getting Professor Peterson out of the Maxwell Institute and then changing its direction, he must be deeply into what the French call "bad faith"--that is, self-deception.
YBT responds:
Louis, I agree that Gary's essay highlights the embarrassment for BYU that Wilkinson was, how he treated you, and how he treated so many others at the university during his tenure. The unfortunate thing is, though, that you have inherited some of those traits in many ways. You are all about conspiracy theories and constantly assume the worst of everyone around you that you do not perceive as on your team.
As far as your narrative of the changes at the Maxwell Institute go you enjoy sharing bits of information here and there but never telling the full story. You, of all people, should be able to say the truth that it wasn't Bradford and two others at the Institute that wanted a shift with the journal that Dr. Peterson was editing, and you know as well that Dr. Peterson wasn't fired from all that he was involved in at the Institute either. You have admitted in the past that the decision to change the atmosphere away from attack style apologetics went at least up to Cecil Samuelson. And when you refer to one of our Christian friends and their letter apologizing to Dr. Peterson (which I have read) you should remember that they never claimed anything evil about what happened but rather remorse that things ended up transpiring the way that they did. That individual also was not aware of the involvement of the upper leadership at BYU, and when they asked to make that letter public the leadership outside of the Maxwell Institute put a stop to it.
On your note about the letter being sent to all employed at the Institute at the time, were there no women at the time? And you make a big deal now about the letter being sent to the current BYU president, but in the past you have admitted that, "The previous President at BYU...approved the “new direction” now being followed by the Maxwell Institute, which remains in place." BYU itself, with approval of the board, made the changes at the Maxwell Institute. I believe you mean Elder Holland and not Maxwell, but I assume that you are also aware that Holland's remarks were not meant to be used in the way that you and Dr. Peterson have constantly, literally day in and day out, been using them. If you need clarification on that note chat some more with Dr. Peterson.
You have loved over the years to theorize that I work for the Maxwell Institute, but, again, I do not. I do work for a university and am interested in observing what is going on. I wish that you and Dr. Peterson would both lay to rest the constant paranoia, but clearly you are both incapable of doing so.
Again, the plot at the Maxwell Institute: get Dr. Peterson out as the editor of the journal, have him focus on METI and do other things that he was involved in at the Institute. This isn't a difficult history to get at, unless you have a side project you've been running since 2012 that you are obsessed with pushing a narrative about what happened in 2012 and that audience would be very hurt if that narrative wasn't true. If that audience cared enough to look closer at the things you have admitted over the years then they would see what really happened. But it's a lot easier to get angry, believe that only what Dr. Peterson and Friends are doing what is best for their religious faith, and go on throughout the day in a mix of anger induced by Sic Et Non and Fox News.