DiscussMormonism.com

It probably won't be up for all that long, so you may want to get over to read sooner rather than later:

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,285545

Steven Benson is providing an account of John Lynch's "sincere" foray into RfM. I actually vaguely remember people talking about this several years ago, and can remember reading accounts of it, but I don't recall ever having seen such full coverage of it. According to Benson, Lynch was portraying himself as a "sincere" TBM who was interested only in "learning" about the ex-Mormon experience. Unfortunately for Lynch, he failed to disclose his association with FAIR, which led to boatloads of mistrust on the part of Benson and the other RfM participants.

There is a bit of an over-emphasis on Lynch being an all-out liar, in my opinion, but Benson's account is a must-read for anyone interested in Mopologetics. Lynch himself protests that "I used my own name!" but he had to realize that his association with the second-most-important apologetic organization would be problematic. I can't help but wonder what on earth he was up to. This bit, from one of his emails, struck me as being perhaps the most sincere of his comments, at least in terms of expressing his actual motives:

John Lynch wrote:I suppose that sensitive feelings are often easily protected behind barbed remarks and humor, but are difficult to protect in moments of serious dialogue. You are a remarkably gifted individual from what I have seen. I venture to guess that much of your genius emenates from your pain (they often say that artistic genius is).

While I was not a party to what caused it, I can see that my status and beliefs no doubt refresh your memory of it. I sincerely pray that the ghosts of anguish that haunt you from troubled times will somehow be relieved, and that you will find the recovery your presence on the exmo boards hints that you seek.

If you ever become willing to share your experience, if even to vent in anger, I will be a willing, safe, and non-judgmental ear.

Kindest regards,

John L.

I dunno. Was Steve Benson wrong to suspect this guy of ulterior motives? How wise would it be to disclose something of this nature to the Chair of the Board of FAIR? I'm reminded of the fact that, less than five years later, it was FAIR that posted that now-infamous letter from Stake President Keyes in an effort to discredit Tal Bachman. Could it be that Lynch was fishing for material to use in a smear campaign against Benson?

Regardless, I highly recommend the thread.

This is a fine bit of research, professor, fully up to your high scholarly standards of scholarship.

I would be interested if this "visit" was a result of coordination from the L-Skinny list-serve. If I had to guess though, this is "payback" from all the times the Mopologists have felt that Ed Decker and his crowd have insincerely expressed love and prayed the apologist would "find the truth."

The wording here is exactly as Decker and others would use if a Mormon were to get bent out of shape after watching The God Makers. Now, are Decker and others sincere when they write pamphlets like, To Moroni with Love? I have no idea. But given the apologists don't believe so and have now adopted this tactic that has so tormented them against their enemies, I think pretty clear how sincere they are.

Your first problem is believing anything Steve Benson says.

Doctor Scratch wrote: I can't help but wonder what on earth he was up to.

My take on it is that the person John Lynch is fishing for information. He appears to be trying to appeal to what he hopes are Steve's vulnerabilities..playing up to his ego ..telling Steve how much he admires his intelligence, playing up to his emotions such as assuming Steve is in pain over Mormonism etc and then offering to be a non judgmental ear to which Steve can confide.

The letter you find sincere, I find manipulative and dishonest.

And if he's wanting Steve to be so open and honest with him, he certainly did not lead by example and openly and honestly reveal who he was.

The letter is full of bull-shit and Steve could see through it obviously.

Lynch's attempts to mine information are very amateur compared to the questions and methods used by certain characters on this board.

The disingenuous quality would set him in good company with those same characters. Perhaps he should be invited to post here?

quaker wrote:Perhaps he should be invited to post here?

Yes, he should be. Please extend him the invitation.

Dr. Shades wrote:Yes, he should be. Please extend him the invitation.

I wonder there isn't more board war action in that direction between here and exmormon.org. Seems like when I was reading over there it was never short of board drama.

LOL, Cam! Gotta love the Matrix!

Were you here when I did this thread?

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=791&hilit=The+Matrix+and+Mormonism