Is FARMS Making Money Off of the General Authorities?
Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 6:28 pm
The following link was passed along to me via an anonymous informant:
http://www.mormonmentality.org/2007/07/ ... packer.htm
The posting is about President Boyd K. Packer, and his various "quirks". What is of interest to me, though, is the fact that the poster, Dan Ellsworth, is a former FARMS employee:
Now, this is fascinating. It appears that there is an undercurrent of insolence among the FARMS employees in regards to the GA's authority. Can you imagine a normal, TBM shaking his/her head in disbelief at the Brethren? It turns out that feeling was mutual. This next bit, from the "Comments" section, really blew me away:
Wow! Many of us have asked in the past, "What do the Brethren think of FARMS?" and now we have at least one answer. Notice, too, that some FARMS "top personnel" were apparently speaking disrespectfully about Elder Packer. This tidbit also reminds me of the whirlwind of activity surrounding the plans for the building of the ziggurat. You'll recall that FARMS's massive fundraising efforts attracted the attention of BYU and the Brethren, and this led to FARMS being formally integrated into BYU.
In case anyone doubts "anothernonymous"'s comments, here is Dan Ellsworth to back him/her up:
I guess this lends support to my earlier supposition that FARMS was brought into BYU because it had begun to threaten the Brethren's authority in certain ways. If FARMS was going to be making money (and it had a multi-million dollar budget prior to being sucked into BYU), the Brethren wanted to make sure that the money would get siphoned back into the Church, rather than into the apologists' pockets.
http://www.mormonmentality.org/2007/07/ ... packer.htm
The posting is about President Boyd K. Packer, and his various "quirks". What is of interest to me, though, is the fact that the poster, Dan Ellsworth, is a former FARMS employee:
My first encounter with someone’s discomfort with Pres. Packer was when I worked at FARMS after my mission; one day I heard a discussion in the office about an incident that has generated some strong feelings about Pres. Packer among folks in the Provo area. Pres. Packer came to speak at a large gathering — I don’t recall what kind of conference it was, and please correct me if you are better familiar with the details – and the people attending the meeting were seating away from the podium and toward the edges of the building, as if to make it easy to be early out the door and miss traffic on the way home. One of the local leaders noticed this, and at the beginning of the meeting, he asked the people to move and fill up the center seats, up to the podium. People responded at first, and then many gradually moved their seats farther away during the meeting and its intermission. When it came Pres. Packer’s turn to speak, he got up, said a few pleasant words, then sat back down without giving his talk. My co-worker at FARMS was still shaking his head in disbelief over the incident; he was really bothered by what he saw as an unwarranted reprimand of the entire audience over something as small as seating.
Now, this is fascinating. It appears that there is an undercurrent of insolence among the FARMS employees in regards to the GA's authority. Can you imagine a normal, TBM shaking his/her head in disbelief at the Brethren? It turns out that feeling was mutual. This next bit, from the "Comments" section, really blew me away:
(emphasis added)anothernonymous
Wed, Jul. 25 @ 1:43pm
Funny you mention FARMS personnel shaking their heads at Pres. Packer. I remember during my stint at FARMS being present when a couple of top personnel at FARMS were commenting that he had apparently made some remarks to the effect that he believed that FARMS was trying to “make money off of the general authorities”. I was surprised that they would be talking about an apostle that way, but then again maybe they were surprised that an apostle had apparently made those types of comments about them (FARMS).
Wow! Many of us have asked in the past, "What do the Brethren think of FARMS?" and now we have at least one answer. Notice, too, that some FARMS "top personnel" were apparently speaking disrespectfully about Elder Packer. This tidbit also reminds me of the whirlwind of activity surrounding the plans for the building of the ziggurat. You'll recall that FARMS's massive fundraising efforts attracted the attention of BYU and the Brethren, and this led to FARMS being formally integrated into BYU.
In case anyone doubts "anothernonymous"'s comments, here is Dan Ellsworth to back him/her up:
Dan Ellsworth wrote:That’s a great story. I had a good experience at FARMS for the most part, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he said that; he wasn’t the only one who felt that way, I’m sure.
I guess this lends support to my earlier supposition that FARMS was brought into BYU because it had begun to threaten the Brethren's authority in certain ways. If FARMS was going to be making money (and it had a multi-million dollar budget prior to being sucked into BYU), the Brethren wanted to make sure that the money would get siphoned back into the Church, rather than into the apologists' pockets.