I am not surprised the current line at MI is to try to get people to stop pointing out what they have done and that loyalty is best shown by silence.
I expect those supporting BYU to respond with. "When the director has spoken, the thinking has been done".
"Any over-ritualized religion since the dawn of time can make its priests say yes, we know, it is rotten, and hard luck, but just do as we say, keep at the ritual, stick it out, give us your money and you'll end up with the angels in heaven for evermore."
Hamblin is in a state of apostasy. He is implying that the Brethren have allowed a "junta" to take place at a BYU-affiliated institution. He is, essentially, accusing the Brethren of being asleep at the switch. He is accusing them of incompetence. He is engaging in ark-steadying.
"The Church is authoritarian, tribal, provincial, and founded on a loosely biblical racist frontier sex cult."--Juggler Vain "The lds church is the Amway of religions. Even with all the soap they sell, they still manage to come away smelling dirty."--Some Schmo
Equality wrote:Hamblin is in a state of apostasy. He is implying that the Brethren have allowed a "junta" to take place at a BYU-affiliated institution. He is, essentially, accusing the Brethren of being asleep at the switch. He is accusing them of incompetence. He is engaging in ark-steadying.
Indeed, it's wrong to criticize our university functionaries. It doesn't matter if the criticism is true.
Madison54 wrote:Well, it's obvious where the moderator's on that site stand.
DavidB posted this and the thread was quickly locked after only 3 responses:
......
Ahhh. Just read this thread.... I posted this quote from DavidB on the other MI thread. Unbelievable stuff. What an implosion.
"Jesus gave us the gospel, but Satan invented church. It takes serious evil to formalize faith into something tedious and then pile guilt on anyone who doesn’t participate enthusiastically." - Robert Kirby
Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer. -- Henry Lawson
Bill Tromblin wrote:I'd be perfectly willing to let MI do whatever they want if they hadn't usurped millions of dollars in donations, university funding, land, resources, personnel, etc. to fund Jerry's pet vision. The problem isn't that MI doesn't do good things. It does. The problem is that Bradford and his Junta systematically set out to dismantle classic FARMS and usurp the endowment raised for classic FARMS, and divert it to do their pet projects.
Enemies of the Maxwell Institute would love to know what the MI does with its finances. But it's none of their business, and its none of the donors' business, either. Once you donate money to a charitable organization, it is theirs and you have relinquished the right to question how they use it. The time to question is before the contribution is given. But once we have a testimony of the purposes of the Maxwell Institute, we trust that its directors will use donated funds in the way they are inspired to use them.
Darth J wrote: Enemies of the Maxwell Institute would love to know what the MI does with its finances. But it's none of their business, and its none of the donors' business, either. Once you donate money to a charitable organization, it is theirs and you have relinquished the right to question how they use it. The time to question is before the contribution is given. But once we have a testimony of the purposes of the Maxwell Institute, we trust that its directors will use donated funds in the way they are inspired to use them.
"Jesus gave us the gospel, but Satan invented church. It takes serious evil to formalize faith into something tedious and then pile guilt on anyone who doesn’t participate enthusiastically." - Robert Kirby
Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer. -- Henry Lawson
Kishkumen wrote:Very true, Madison. That has alas always been the case. And, really, that Mopologetic culture is what made the different iterations of the MAD board so unfriendly to questioning members.
As a "believer" I went to MAD for support. I remember DCP et al. treating my question as if it were a personal attack. I attempted to calm the reactions of DCP et al. MAD was the first Mormon friendly message board I visited so I wanted to build some sort of positive message board relationship. I felt like these "FARMS people" likely had the answers I sought. I was young and naïve.
Analytics wrote:They can leave the Maxwell Institute, but they can't leave it alone.
ROFL
About Joseph Smith.. How do you think his persona was influenced by being the storyteller since childhood? Mastering the art of going pale, changing his voice, and mesmerizing his audience.. How do you think he was influenced by keeping secrets and lying for his wife and the church members for decades?
One Mike Parker feels betrayed by the new institute. He confused his donation to Maxwell with his offerings to the Lord it seems:
I've been a FARMS subscriber for at least 20 years. I've never been wealthy and hence have never been able to donate any amount of substance to FARMS/NAMI. I wished I could have (at least until recently).
But I did contribute the minimum annual amount, plus enough to pay for a suscription to the Review. I did so largely because that journal filled a critical need. It has been the ideological successor to the writings of Parley Pratt, B.H. Roberts, Hugh Nibley, and other Latter-day Saint scholars who chose to defend our faith against its critics. There is nothing sordid in that endeavor; it has a long and respectful history.
So my annual contribution — which started, I believe, around $25 a year and was $65 or so when I renewed last spring — was dedicated to supporting an organization that did certain things of which I approved enough to open my wallet. I have been unemployed for over a year now, and that last contribution was particularly difficult for me, but I did it anyway. Consider it my widow's mite.
"Petition wasn’t meant to start a witch hunt as I’ve said 6000 times." ~ Hanna Seariac, LDS apologist