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FARMS H-bombs the Three Nephites

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 6:08 am
by _Mister Scratch
As Dr. Gadianton has aptly demonstrated, FARMS has it in for Chapel Mormons. The niceties of community-based faith have no place in the cutthroat, pirhanna-like atmosphere of the l-skinny crowd.
(But...but...Mr. Scratch! You don't know anything about l-skinny! DCP won't tell you anything, and the multiple l-skinny postings available for our reading pleasure across the web are... Well, okay. I admit it. We know that the l-skinny people are real bastards. Honesty is always the best policy, after all.) So, it would make sense that the FARMS Review would launch a full-blown nuclear strike against anything which would even remotely try to posit the Three Nephites as a legitimate doctrinal truth. While Lamanites and golden plates are a-okay in the world of Internet Mormonism, things such as the Three Nephites get ridiculed in much the same light as bat babies in the latest issue of the National Inquirer.

Of course, I am speaking of Richard L. Hill's piece on About the Three Nephites. As DCP has admitted elsewhere, virtually all of these reviews are commissioned, so one can just imagine The Good Professor yukking it up, and drooling over the delicious thought of the authors of About the Three Nephites getting the "l-skinny treatment". (Hey, now, Mr. Scartch, er, uh, Scratch... I told you that you didn't know anything about that!) But, the conspiratorial antipathy is quite obvious:

About the Three Nephites broadens the body of Latter-day Saint rumor, folklore, and apocryphal stories. Despite its stated objective in the Preface of "dispelling some of the rumor and myths which circulate from time to time" and "to quash rumor and untruth" (p. vii), this amateurish book carelessly and commercially propagates faith-promoting rumors, myths, and folklore under the guise of religious scholarship.


Gee, couldn't this be a self-description of the FARMS Review? But, it gets better, and even more conspiratorial:

But more disturbing yet, About the Three Nephites appears to be a blatant and disgraceful rip-off of two earlier out-of-print books, The Three Nephites by the prolific and prominent polygamist author Ogden Kraut,2 and The Three Nephites: The Substance and Significance of the Legend in Folklore by professional folklorist Hector Lee.3 About the Three Nephites appears to have copied a substantial part of its chapter 1 from Kraut's work. In addition, this book appears to have copied almost all of its chapter 6 from Lee's work.

However, it does not stop there!


No, it sure doesn't! Indeed, the FARMS snowball rolls on, accumulating all manner of crap in its rolling. No doubt this Hill piece received the same "careful" commissioning, vetting, administrative debating, and publishing that every piece in FARMS Review has received. I must say, I am in awe of the administrative and editorial acumen on display here.

Re: FARMS H-bombs the Three Nephites

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 6:14 am
by _Daniel Peterson
Mister Scratch wrote:As Dr. Gadianton has aptly demonstrated, FARMS has it in for Chapel Mormons. The niceties of community-based faith have no place in the cutthroat, pirhanna-like atmosphere of the l-skinny crowd.

Simply bizarre.

Does the Scartchmeister really believe the nonsense he posts?

Mister Scratch wrote:one can just imagine The Good Professor yukking it up, and drooling over the delicious thought of the authors of About the Three Nephites getting the "l-skinny treatment".

Imagination: The magic Scartcholeptic tool inside your head.

You're a malignant and obsessive loon, Scartch. Get help.

Re: FARMS H-bombs the Three Nephites

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 6:17 am
by _Daniel Peterson
The following is a standard response: Master Scartch has devoted himself since at least 2006 to publicly defaming me while maintaining his anonymity. I flatly deny virtually every allegation Master Scartch has ever made against me, and this one is no exception. I regard Master Scartch as an obsessive and malevolent loon, and have decided to refrain from further gratifying his weird fixation on me and those connected with me. Attempting conversation with him over the past many months has accomplished precisely nothing, and is, plainly, a complete waste of my time, especially given the fact that it's his self-described "mission" and "amusement" to be "perceived" by "Mopologists" as "full of hate." (Scartch, MDB, 1 October 2008)

Re: FARMS H-bombs the Three Nephites

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 6:24 am
by _Mister Scratch
Daniel Peterson wrote:
Mister Scratch wrote:As Dr. Gadianton has aptly demonstrated, FARMS has it in for Chapel Mormons. The niceties of community-based faith have no place in the cutthroat, pirhanna-like atmosphere of the l-skinny crowd.

Simply bizarre.

Does the Scartchmeister really believe the nonsense he posts?


If I was the author of the 3rd Nephite book, would I be allowed to participate on l-skinny? Y/N? Would I ever be invited to do a review for FARMS Review?

Re: FARMS H-bombs the Three Nephites

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 6:43 am
by _Ray A
Daniel Peterson wrote:The following is a standard response: Master Scartch has devoted himself since at least 2006 to publicly defaming me while maintaining his anonymity. I flatly deny virtually every allegation Master Scartch has ever made against me, and this one is no exception. I regard Master Scartch as an obsessive and malevolent loon, and have decided to refrain from further gratifying his weird fixation on me and those connected with me. Attempting conversation with him over the past many months has accomplished precisely nothing, and is, plainly, a complete waste of my time, especially given the fact that it's his self-described "mission" and "amusement" to be "perceived" by "Mopologists" as "full of hate." (Scartch, MDB, 1 October 2008)


I don't think you are full of hate, Dan. Far from it. As person, I admire you very much, and you know that. But, if nothing else, I think you should stick around to defend why the Review, in some aspects, is, by some appearances, seeking to establish a "rational approach" to the plainly irrational, and treating some critics with scorn (others do deserve it, like Decker)

I suppose, I just don't "get it" how you can believe in things that are so plainly contrary to every historical record we have.

Jesus couldn't foresee the future. Paul and the apostles got the second coming terribly wrong, but you believe that a Christian practising the Law of Moses in 590BC saw the coming of Columbus to the New World?

Re: FARMS H-bombs the Three Nephites

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:50 pm
by _harmony
Mister Scratch wrote: {deleting the first part of this post as immaterial nonsense}
About the Three Nephites broadens the body of Latter-day Saint rumor, folklore, and apocryphal stories. Despite its stated objective in the Preface of "dispelling some of the rumor and myths which circulate from time to time" and "to quash rumor and untruth" (p. vii), this amateurish book carelessly and commercially propagates faith-promoting rumors, myths, and folklore under the guise of religious scholarship.


Gee, couldn't this be a self-description of the FARMS Review? But, it gets better, and even more conspiratorial:

But more disturbing yet, About the Three Nephites appears to be a blatant and disgraceful rip-off of two earlier out-of-print books, The Three Nephites by the prolific and prominent polygamist author Ogden Kraut,2 and The Three Nephites: The Substance and Significance of the Legend in Folklore by professional folklorist Hector Lee.3 About the Three Nephites appears to have copied a substantial part of its chapter 1 from Kraut's work. In addition, this book appears to have copied almost all of its chapter 6 from Lee's work.

However, it does not stop there!


No, it sure doesn't! Indeed, the FARMS snowball rolls on, accumulating all manner of crap in its rolling. No doubt this Hill piece received the same "careful" commissioning, vetting, administrative debating, and publishing that every piece in FARMS Review has received. I must say, I am in awe of the administrative and editorial acumen on display here.


Is the review inaccurate? Incomplete? Unfair?

It would be more effective if you want to indeed review the Review, if you stuck to reviewing the Review instead of spending so much time attacking the editor. If all you want to do is attack the editor, then I'll just ignore the rest of your posts.

Re: FARMS H-bombs the Three Nephites

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:55 pm
by _Dr. Shades
harmony wrote:It would be more effective if you want to indeed review the Review, if you stuck to reviewing the Review instead of spending so much time attacking the editor.


Hey harmony,

LOL! Were you intending to be sarcastic, or were you unaware of the irony in your post?

Re: FARMS H-bombs the Three Nephites

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:20 pm
by _Daniel Peterson
The following is a standard response:

Master Scartch has devoted himself since at least 2006 to publicly defaming me while maintaining his anonymity. A particular focus of his hatred is the FARMS Review, which I founded and edit.

The FARMS Review has been appearing, now, for very nearly twenty years. The entirety of every issue of the Review is available on line, at

http://farms.BYU.edu/publications/review/

Anyone interested in inspecting the FARMS Review for himself or herself, without Scartch’s defamatory spin, without Scartch’s hostile selection and editing, without looking through the distorting Scartchian lens, is entirely welcome to do so.

I regard Master Scartch as an obsessive and malevolent loon, and have decided to refrain from further gratifying his weird fixation on me and those connected with me. Attempting conversation with him over the past many months has accomplished precisely nothing, and is, plainly, a complete waste of my time -- especially given the fact that it's his self-described "mission" and "amusement" to be "perceived" by "Mopologists" as "full of hate." (Scartch, MDB, 1 October 2008)

Re: FARMS H-bombs the Three Nephites

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:44 pm
by _Mister Scratch
harmony wrote:Is the review inaccurate? Incomplete? Unfair?


Yes, in my view it is quite unfair. I also think the review is rather vicious.

It would be more effective if you want to indeed review the Review, if you stuck to reviewing the Review instead of spending so much time attacking the editor. If all you want to do is attack the editor, then I'll just ignore the rest of your posts.


Part of the Review consists of editing, so it makes sense to discuss and analyze the ways the the FARMS editorial processes have affected the final articles.

That said, I highly encourage you to ignore my posts.

Re: FARMS H-bombs the Three Nephites

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:49 pm
by _LifeOnaPlate
I didn't know George A. Smith was an Internet Mormon.