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One of the most fascinating revelations to surface in the Maxwell Institute shake-up was the fact that Daniel C. Peterson had been lying for years about whether or not he got paid to do Mopologetics. I know that there were several threads here on MDB that discussed precisely this topic, in which DCP himself participated, and in which he repeatedly denied getting any monetary compensation for his work on the FARMS Review. Either that, or he would insist that it was some "miniscule" amount. Well, we now know for certain that he was paid. The question remains: How much did he typically make?

It turns out that we may now have an answer. In an effort to drum up donations, the team at Mormon Interpreter have included links to their monthly expenses:

http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/expenses/

This is indeed a fascinating document. We learn, for example, that they paid nearly $500 dollars just to rent out a "conference room." (For what purpose?) It also shows that they were apparently dropping some serious coin in order to ensure that the Sept. "Conference" guests were well-lubricated with nearly 50 dollars-worth of water.

But the most jaw-dropping figures on the account sheet are directly related to the question I posed at the outset. What were the typical "fees" for the editing and administrative duties back at the old, classic-FARMS MI? What did DCP & Co. consider a reasonable fee to be? Get a load of this:

Time Donations (estimated cash equivalent)
Administrative 80 hours x $50 $4000
Editing 20 hours x $50 $1000
Technology and Media 110 hours x $50 $5500

Holy smokes! $50 an hour?? Are these guys editors, or attorneys, for heaven's sake? In fact, the account sheet actually lists Attorney's Fees (pro bono), and these amount to only $1500. I have to admit, I'm aghast at these figures. Did Dan Peterson really intend to compensate himself $5,000 to edit the trainwreck first issue of Mormon Interpreter? (Bear in mind that most of this had already been written--it was merely sitting in the can, as it had been set to appear in an issue of the Mormon Studies Review prior to being shelved by Dr. Bradford.) Think about the shoddy quality of the writing and "scholarship" that plagued that issue. This was supposed to be worth $5,000 in labor costs? Are these guys Mopologists, or shady auto mechanics?

This really makes me wonder how much DCP was being paid during his reign at FARMS, though. If these were the sorts of fees he was demanding, then I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that he was collecting, in any given year, some $20,000 or more for his Mopologetics. On average they published two issues per year. So how many labor hours was he able to bill the Maxwell Institute for? If this is true, it's not just shocking, it's absolutely appalling.

In Dr. Peterson's defense, maybe he was saying that no tithing dollars were used and that past renumeration came solely from donations and revenue from Church businesses.

How Much Was DCP Paid to Edit the "Review"?

Too much.

Dr. Scratch,

If the Mopologisis were real professionals with Ph.D.s, engaged in real consulting work, $50 dollars would have been a very reasonable hourly rate. In fact, $50/hr is at the low end of the scale. Certainly no senior level professionals in science, engineering, medicine, finance / accounting, or law would work for that rate (or anything close to it).

This doesn't mean that one who had the key to the cashbox could not easily pad their hours, or count tangentially related activities as consultant work and in this way increase what they were actually paid for their "work product".

Our consultants receive a pre-agreed amount for delivery of a work product that meets specification. By this measure of value for money, DCP, and most other Mopologists, would seem to be real rip-off artists. Their written work products, in general, are of very poor quality, as indicated by the comments they receive in venues where comments are allowed and by their inability to have their (pseudo) academic work published in mainstream, peer reviewed, journals.

The key here would seem to be the key to the cashbox. in my opinion these guys are (were) running a con.

What I see as the real significance of your OP is the fact that DCP lied, boldface and often, about being compensated for his work as a Mormon apologist.

There was a time when I saw DCP as a somewhat narcissistic and self-important, but nonetheless basically honest professional who, although clearly misguided, tried to do what he thought was right.

His behavior so far in 2012 (some of which has been quite childish and even bizarre) leads one (me, at least) to conclude that DCP is a basically dishonest and small individual who tries to compensate for his inadequacies with lies and bluster, and whose well-founded self-loathing is beginning to show through.

moksha wrote:In Dr. Peterson's defense, maybe he was saying that no tithing dollars were used and that past renumeration came solely from donations and revenue from Church businesses.

Hope this is another one of your humorous comments and that you are not being serious. If so, the ad hoc re-definition of words such as "payment" and "compensation" might best be left to DCP himself.

I charge at least $70 an hour for long term engagements and as close to $200 an hour I can get for short term.....

SteelHead wrote:I charge at least $70 an hour for long term engagements and as close to $200 an hour I can get for short term.....

Exactly.

On our current overseas projects, none of our professionals are charging out to the local government at less than $25,000/month plus expenses long term. While in-country, our North American and European subcontractors charge out at between $1,600 and $2570 per day, plus expenses. Our lowest charge out rate for a junior professional in the US is $800 / day. So $50/hr ($400/day) is quite a bargain.

That said, I have also worked as an associate editor for a peer reviewed scientific journal for the princely sum of exactly zero. The only compensation was my name on the masthead and free ride, including a nice hotel room, to the annual meeting of the society that sponsored the journal. This is not uncommon. While the senior full time editors and Editors in Chief of academic journals get paid, some quite well, Associate Editors with full time positions in academia often do not.

With a full time academic position, DCP was doing well to get paid for his work at the Review. This fact that DCP had a full time academic position at BYU made his claim that he was not getting paid for his apologetic work seem credible to me.

reading the phrase "time donations" as i think is implied that DCP and others work,if u call it that, is simply an estimated "in kind " donation for which a $ value is estimated but not paid.

at the non profit i run we take volunteer hours and value each at 2o dollars/hour and report that on our irs 990. vols of course receive no greenbacks.

i see no real dollar payoff for the DCP - now there may be a dollar cost for the actual number of krespy kremes he devours in an hour of mopologetic .

just sayin

k

Type setting/editing went from 45 to 50 dollars per hour from August to September. That's a raise I can believe in.

Bond James Bond wrote:Type setting/editing went from 45 to 50 dollars per hour from August to September. That's a raise I can believe in.

I was intrigued by that, too, Bond. I wonder if DCP decided to give them a discount due to the fact that Issue 1 was so riddled with sloppiness and errors.

It goes without saying that I am knuckle-bitingly excited for the October Statement.