My Work Here is Done
Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 7:57 pm
My dear friends and colleagues: it is with a full heart that I hereby announce my having accepted "emeritus" status at Cassius University. While this status can be reversed at any time by the Dean, I don't foresee it happening any time soon. And bear in mind that "emeritus" status does not mean that I am leaving MDB, or that I am withdrawing from scrutiny of Mopologetics, or any such thing. It simply means that, to a certain extent, I have "retired."
Some six years ago I embarked on an ambitious, Mormon-related project, and I have just recently brought this project to a conclusion. Obviously, I owe an enormous debt to the many people who helped me along the way--I won't name names; I'll simply say, "You know who you are." When I first began my re-exploration of Mormonism-in-cyber-form back in 2005, I was amazed at what I discovered. At first, my interest was only in learning all I could about the many things that tend to be omitted from correlated, "official" LDS publications. As I did this, though, I eventually encountered the work of the Mopologists (and again, I won't name names: you know who they are by now). I don't know that I've ever been more disgusted in my entire life. Will Bagley noted rather recently, in his Mormon Expressions podcast, that he very much feels badly about the way he was treated by these figures in Mormon Studies. (He characterized them as "vicious.") I continue to believe that the Mopologists are the most poisonous and evil element in contemporary Mormonism--worse, even, in my view, than anything that the institutional Church does. Being persuaded to give up huge chunks of your time and money under false pretenses is one thing; doing this and then getting crapped on and kicked in the teeth during moments of enormous spiritual pain is quite another.
In response to what I was seeing from the Mopologists, I felt that something needed to be done. Sure: there was already a fair amount of outspoken criticism directed at these apologists, but a lot of it was ineffective. What I noticed is that the apologists tended to work chiefly in the realm of aggressive, polemical rhetoric, which often meant that "objective," scholarly response to them was fruitless. People like Dan Vogel and Chris Smith can hold their own, and they subsist like rocks in the midst of the stream, but I think their arguments are drowned out by the endless invective and attack. For non-Mormon outsiders, the arguments of Vogel and Smith are like preaching to the choir. The audience that most needs to hear Vogel, Smith, et al. are the TBMs, but the arguments, in this case, are rendered ineffective by the apologists' well-honed use of ad hominem attack, polemics, and invective.
So, like I said, something needed to be done. The scales of justice had been thrown out of whack by the 30-odd-year war that the Mopologists waged on decent society. What I realized, as I surveyed this situation, is that the best strategy was to focus on the leaders of the Mopologetic polemical movement, and so that's what I did. I concentrated my scholarly efforts on breaking down and deconstructing the rhetorical strategies and tendencies of Mopologetics' most important leaders.
Today, this leadership has retreated into near-silence, and I consider this a real victory. I don't like to brag, but I believe that I've contributed something genuinely valuable and good to the world of online, Mormon-related discussion and debate. If I can take credit for having helped to disrupt or eliminate what had been a 3-decades-long polemical assault, then I can't help feeling awfully good about my place in the grand scheme of things. This is a fundamental good. Now, I can already anticipate somebody saying that people deleting their MDB accounts or disappearing into the cyber-ether is "bad" on principle, to which I'd respond, simply, that if these folks hadn't created a poisonous atmosphere to begin with, there never would have been a need for a Mopologetics Studies Department at Cassius.
But, in conclusion, it really does seem that there is no reason to worry about this anymore. The seas are calm; the Mopologetic leadership is aging and defeated, and so I shall retreat to my cozy den, where I shall yet again become absorbed in my various and sundry academic interests. So long as the key Mopologists refrain from their attacks and viciousness, I shall remain (per the Dean, of course), in my "emeritus" status.
Life is good; the sun shines brightly on this lovely October day. And I am glad to report, dear friends, that justice really does exist in this world.
Some six years ago I embarked on an ambitious, Mormon-related project, and I have just recently brought this project to a conclusion. Obviously, I owe an enormous debt to the many people who helped me along the way--I won't name names; I'll simply say, "You know who you are." When I first began my re-exploration of Mormonism-in-cyber-form back in 2005, I was amazed at what I discovered. At first, my interest was only in learning all I could about the many things that tend to be omitted from correlated, "official" LDS publications. As I did this, though, I eventually encountered the work of the Mopologists (and again, I won't name names: you know who they are by now). I don't know that I've ever been more disgusted in my entire life. Will Bagley noted rather recently, in his Mormon Expressions podcast, that he very much feels badly about the way he was treated by these figures in Mormon Studies. (He characterized them as "vicious.") I continue to believe that the Mopologists are the most poisonous and evil element in contemporary Mormonism--worse, even, in my view, than anything that the institutional Church does. Being persuaded to give up huge chunks of your time and money under false pretenses is one thing; doing this and then getting crapped on and kicked in the teeth during moments of enormous spiritual pain is quite another.
In response to what I was seeing from the Mopologists, I felt that something needed to be done. Sure: there was already a fair amount of outspoken criticism directed at these apologists, but a lot of it was ineffective. What I noticed is that the apologists tended to work chiefly in the realm of aggressive, polemical rhetoric, which often meant that "objective," scholarly response to them was fruitless. People like Dan Vogel and Chris Smith can hold their own, and they subsist like rocks in the midst of the stream, but I think their arguments are drowned out by the endless invective and attack. For non-Mormon outsiders, the arguments of Vogel and Smith are like preaching to the choir. The audience that most needs to hear Vogel, Smith, et al. are the TBMs, but the arguments, in this case, are rendered ineffective by the apologists' well-honed use of ad hominem attack, polemics, and invective.
So, like I said, something needed to be done. The scales of justice had been thrown out of whack by the 30-odd-year war that the Mopologists waged on decent society. What I realized, as I surveyed this situation, is that the best strategy was to focus on the leaders of the Mopologetic polemical movement, and so that's what I did. I concentrated my scholarly efforts on breaking down and deconstructing the rhetorical strategies and tendencies of Mopologetics' most important leaders.
Today, this leadership has retreated into near-silence, and I consider this a real victory. I don't like to brag, but I believe that I've contributed something genuinely valuable and good to the world of online, Mormon-related discussion and debate. If I can take credit for having helped to disrupt or eliminate what had been a 3-decades-long polemical assault, then I can't help feeling awfully good about my place in the grand scheme of things. This is a fundamental good. Now, I can already anticipate somebody saying that people deleting their MDB accounts or disappearing into the cyber-ether is "bad" on principle, to which I'd respond, simply, that if these folks hadn't created a poisonous atmosphere to begin with, there never would have been a need for a Mopologetics Studies Department at Cassius.
But, in conclusion, it really does seem that there is no reason to worry about this anymore. The seas are calm; the Mopologetic leadership is aging and defeated, and so I shall retreat to my cozy den, where I shall yet again become absorbed in my various and sundry academic interests. So long as the key Mopologists refrain from their attacks and viciousness, I shall remain (per the Dean, of course), in my "emeritus" status.
Life is good; the sun shines brightly on this lovely October day. And I am glad to report, dear friends, that justice really does exist in this world.