The Maxwell Institute and High-Pressure Sales Tactics
Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2011 11:59 pm
I recently came across an interesting tidbit that helps shed further light on the way that the Maxwell Institute operates:
http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/BYU/fu ... itute.html
In the past, we've discussed a variety of things having to do with the ways that money is handled within the ziggurat-like bowels of the MI, but I was surprised to see how nakedly so many things were admitted on this "fundraising" Web page. Here is a small sampling of key items:
As you can imagine, I was aghast as I read this. "[M]aking friends for the university and the Church worldwide"? What is this nonsense? Have the "fundraisers" actually been reading the material that FARMS puts out? How are Midgley's numerous assaults on Evangelical critics supposed to be understood as a gesture of "friendship"? If anything, the flagship publication of the M.I. has been one gesture of hostility after the next.
Even more significant is this bit about "disintegrating world." In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is one of the most revelatory and deeply explanatory things that has ever been said about the Mopologists.
Of course, pretty much everyone has been led to believe that millennialism has been banished from the Church--both in terms of doctrine and folk beliefs, and yet here we can see that professional, well-funded apologetics is actually being peddled on the basis of scare tactics. A "disintegrating world"? What is that supposed to mean, exactly? And how are the publications of Gee, Midgley, Hamblin, Roper, and etc. supposed to protect us from said "disintegration"?
The other portion of this Web-vertisement that I found interesting was this:
Wow! Quite an admission! I understand this to be a not-so-carefully veiled statement that donors' funds will be used to help pay for the apologists' cushy globe-trotting. "Establishing contacts...worldwide"? One can envision Ed Snow rubbing his palms together Rasputinishly as he helps to plot out the 5-course dinners that Bill Hamblin will shovel into his craw after he's finished up a hard days' work of taping YouTube episodes for his "Hamblin in Israel" series and cracking jocular, wiseacre jokes about his "Metcalfe is Butthead" acrostic. This seems money well spent, eh? The logic here seems to be that donors must finance the jet-set exploits of the M.I. Mopologists in order to stave off the terrors of a "disintegrating" society.
In any event, I must say that the whole pitch struck me as problematic on a number of levels. I'll go ahead and admit that I experienced a very dark feeling as I read it.
http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/BYU/fu ... itute.html
In the past, we've discussed a variety of things having to do with the ways that money is handled within the ziggurat-like bowels of the MI, but I was surprised to see how nakedly so many things were admitted on this "fundraising" Web page. Here is a small sampling of key items:
Why It Is a Priority [i.e., to donate beaucoup $$$ to the M.I.]
The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship is blessing lives in profound ways: making friends for the university and Church worldwide, providing educational tools and resources for scholars and laypersons alike, and defending faith in a disintegrating world.
As you can imagine, I was aghast as I read this. "[M]aking friends for the university and the Church worldwide"? What is this nonsense? Have the "fundraisers" actually been reading the material that FARMS puts out? How are Midgley's numerous assaults on Evangelical critics supposed to be understood as a gesture of "friendship"? If anything, the flagship publication of the M.I. has been one gesture of hostility after the next.
Even more significant is this bit about "disintegrating world." In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is one of the most revelatory and deeply explanatory things that has ever been said about the Mopologists.
Of course, pretty much everyone has been led to believe that millennialism has been banished from the Church--both in terms of doctrine and folk beliefs, and yet here we can see that professional, well-funded apologetics is actually being peddled on the basis of scare tactics. A "disintegrating world"? What is that supposed to mean, exactly? And how are the publications of Gee, Midgley, Hamblin, Roper, and etc. supposed to protect us from said "disintegration"?
The other portion of this Web-vertisement that I found interesting was this:
As a part of BYU, the Maxwell Institute builds bridges to other cultures and peoples by contributing to scholarship in many disciplines and establishing contacts with scholars at universities and centers of learning worldwide.
Wow! Quite an admission! I understand this to be a not-so-carefully veiled statement that donors' funds will be used to help pay for the apologists' cushy globe-trotting. "Establishing contacts...worldwide"? One can envision Ed Snow rubbing his palms together Rasputinishly as he helps to plot out the 5-course dinners that Bill Hamblin will shovel into his craw after he's finished up a hard days' work of taping YouTube episodes for his "Hamblin in Israel" series and cracking jocular, wiseacre jokes about his "Metcalfe is Butthead" acrostic. This seems money well spent, eh? The logic here seems to be that donors must finance the jet-set exploits of the M.I. Mopologists in order to stave off the terrors of a "disintegrating" society.
In any event, I must say that the whole pitch struck me as problematic on a number of levels. I'll go ahead and admit that I experienced a very dark feeling as I read it.