Peterson and Schryver: Slavery Was a Blessing to Blacks

[_Carton]

The more I have thought about what Peterson and Schryver have done, the more it befuddles me.

Consider what we know about the past few days:

Peterson and his wife apparently went down to southern Utah to watch the eclipse of the sun with Schryver and his family. This, on the face of it, seems a bit strange. You would think that Peterson would want to do everything he can to keep his distance from Schryver.

Instead, Peterson blogs about the experience immediately after the fact and announces that his "friend, Will Schryver" has started a blog.

Peterson characterizes Schryver as "an interesting thinker and a true original". He endorses Schryver's blog, and links to it.

Then, obviously already aware of what Schryver has blogged about, Peterson concludes his own blog post by citing the anecdote from Uncle Tom Sowell.

To me, it is totally obvious that Peterson and Schryver planned this whole thing out beforehand. The question is ………..

WHY?

Surely they knew or could anticipate how people would react to their tag-team apologetics for slavery blog posts! I mean, they simply HAD TO KNOW. In fact, we know they knew, because Peterson tries to preempt any criticisms by putting in all that stuff about how he really believes slavery is bad, etc., etc.

So the question remains: WHY? Why did they do this? What is their point? What were they possibly thinking? I mean, having obviously planned the whole thing out beforehand, what did they hope to achieve?

I just don't get it. Please, someone, help me understand!

Are they really just so blind to their own racism that they imagined everyone was going to congratulate them for enlightening us on what a blessing slavery was to blacks because they got a one-way ticket to the promised land? Could they really be that dumb?

[_Carton]

One other thing: this is all happening right after Peterson has been dressed down by at least one GA about the Dehlin hit piece. He's got to know that he's being watched now. That he needs to be careful to not do anything stupid that would make matters worse.

But instead ...

Again, it just makes no sense to me.

[_static]

Carton,

Could you please quote one racist statement by either DCP or Schryver that they actually said or wrote (not quoting someone else)?

Thanks,
Stan

[_Rollo Tomasi]

One other thing: this is all happening right after Peterson has been dressed down by at least one GA about the Dehlin hit piece. He's got to know that he's being watched now. That he needs to be careful to not do anything stupid that would make matters worse.

But instead ...

Again, it just makes no sense to me.

Makes no sense to me, either. One would think that after the Randy Bott debacle (which included Dan's published denouncement of Bott's Post interview), all BYU faculty (particularly Dan) would be VERY careful about what they write or say concerning race.

[_Kevin Graham]

Peterson characterizes Schryver as "an interesting thinker and a true original". He endorses Schryver's blog, and links to it.

Dan doesn't have high standards that's for sure, and I'm not just saying that because he likes Schryver. Years ago Dan got pissed off at me because I criticized Wells Jakeman, who was the moron who interpreted the tree of life stone to represent Lehi and his sons. His reasoning was way out in left field, saying that above one figure was a grain of corn, and the corn God of S. America was called "Nepi." I mean it was some pretty whacked out stuff, and it was so ridiculous that even High Nibley took him to the woodshed in a FROB review. But Dan knew him personally, and got upset with me for saying he was an idiot and he used the Einstein analogy to prove that just because scholars might get things wrong from time to time, doesn't mean they are necessarily idiots.

Besides, Dan is the same guy who had been welcoming every Tom, Dick and Harry to publish in the FROB for over a decade. People who had no particular business writing on topics they knew little about. Dan's primary interest when it comes to "thinkers" such as these, is the strength of their testimony and just how willing they are to humiliate themselves by letting it all hang out. Schryver is always bragging about his bullet proof testimony and Dan also likes the Lou Midgley in him. But Dan is going to regret locking arms with Schryver. That whole misogyny thing is going to come back and bite him in the butt big time, especially since Dan said he saw all the evidence and concluded that Schryver was being unjustifiably demonized.

[_Carton]

One other thing: this is all happening right after Peterson has been dressed down by at least one GA about the Dehlin hit piece. He's got to know that he's being watched now. That he needs to be careful to not do anything stupid that would make matters worse.

But instead ...

Again, it just makes no sense to me.

Makes no sense to me, either. One would think that after the Randy Bott debacle (which included Dan's published denouncement of Bott's Post interview), all BYU faculty (particularly Dan) would be VERY careful about what they write or say concerning race.

Exactly. And what makes this all the more puzzling is that, from what I can figure, given the information we have learned concerning the Peterson/Schryver tête-à-tête over the weekend, it would appear that they very deliberately set out to do what they did!

So again: WHY?

It almost seems to be a suicide pact of sorts.

At any rate it is one of the strangest things I have ever seen Peterson do. Schryver is known for doing and saying things without taking into consideration the consequences. But not Peterson. So why this, and why now?

[_Kishkumen]

So the question remains: WHY? Why did they do this? What is their point? What were they possibly thinking? I mean, having obviously planned the whole thing out beforehand, what did they hope to achieve?

I just don't get it. Please, someone, help me understand!

Are they really just so blind to their own racism that they imagined everyone was going to congratulate them for enlightening us on what a blessing slavery was to blacks because they got a one-way ticket to the promised land? Could they really be that dumb?

Maybe in an odd way this misplaced sense of being persecuted for something, anything, is satisfying to them.

[_Chap]

Carton,

Could you please quote one racist statement by either DCP or Schryver that they actually said or wrote (not quoting someone else)?

Thanks,
Stan

\

This, of course, would not be a racist statement:

I went over and sat down next to the old gentleman in the white hood on his porch swing, as we sipped an excellent mint julep together. Then, after saying how elegant my pony-tail was, he made one of the most eloquent and impressive speeches I have ever heard in my life:

"Yeah, when Ah strings up on o' them thar darkies with the other guys in the Klan, I has an orgasm with the excitement! Ah loves it! Ah can't want to see every darky in Alabama danglin' on the same branch!"

I embraced him and shook his hand warmly, saying "You sir, are a great gentleman. I am privileged to have met you".

What has the writer said that is racist? All he has done is to say that he enjoyed having a drink with a nice old gentleman.

[Guest]

Here's another gem of a thread created here.

Or perhaps a pearl of great price.

Any effort by most of the posters here to say they don't hate LDS folks like Will or DCP are fooling themselves--they'll read anything into their words in some weird hope they come off as terrible people.

Like their words approving of the idea that slavery was the work of God so that He could rescue those hapless descendants of Cain from darkest Africa.

The fact is, there was slavery.

....among Mormons in Utah.

The fact is, slavery, at least in America, is no more.

Because of a war that the Prophet Brigham Young predicted the Union would lose, on the basis that slavery was the will of God regarding the seed of Ham.

It's not a bad thing that people can feel joy and peace for where they are at. It's a good thing. We can't exactly change history so we might as well accept it, learn from it, and exult in any and all who find themselves in good situations to this day.

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house......."



Sure is funny how official LDS magazines talk about Green Flake but fail to mention that the Church accepted him as human tithing.

http://www.LDS.org/liahona/1989/06/gree ... r?lang=eng

Looks like the Church has a hard time accepting and learning from history.

[_Carton]

... Dan is going to regret locking arms with Schryver. That whole misogyny thing is going to come back and bite him in the butt big time, especially since Dan said he saw all the evidence and concluded that Schryver was being unjustifiably demonized.

This is another good point, Kevin. But it makes this latest thing even more puzzling. Surely Peterson is aware of the fact that Schryver is an albatross just waiting to take the MI down with him. And yet he plays buddy buddy with him and then teams up with him to blog about the great blessings of slavery for African Americans?! And this with the storm from the Dehlin hit piece thing still raging all around him and the Maxwell Institute! It almost makes me wonder if he has decided to go kamikaze on us. Maybe the knowledge that the general authorities have turned on the MI and classic Mormon apologetics has really gotten him so depressed that he has become consumed with some kind of self-destructive urge, and so he's just going to "let it all hang out" and say whatever he wants to say, whenever he wants to say it. He knows he's going down, so he just doesn't care anymore.