The 2015 Sampson Avard Golden Scepter Award

[_Doctor Scratch]

Friends and Colleagues, today is the day of the Autumnal Equinox. Today heralds in the changing of seasons, and it marks a time in the year where the day is equally as long as the night. What that also means is that the time has come, once again, to award the annual Sampson Avard Golden Scepter Award to a particularly noteworthy recipient. As you no doubt will recall, the Golden Scepter was created by Dean Robbers as a means of of recognizing someone--usually a TBM--"whose role in the course and/or study of Mopologetics has had an enormous and undeniable impact on the field." The past 12 months have seen a number of developments in Mopologetics, but the role of one individual stood out in particular for myself and the other award judges. This year's winner is deserving of special recognition for his stalwart efforts in defending Mopologetic orthodoxy, and in confronting one of the greatest nemeses that the apologists have ever known. As the B.H. Roberts Chair of Mopologetic Studies at Cassius University, it's my special privilege to announce each year's Golden Scepter award, and this year, it pleases me greatly to present the Scepter to a young Mopologist who bravely stood up to a threat when others would not--someone willing to take on Philip Jenkins when the Senior apologists were mostly silent. I'm talking, of course, about Neal Rappleye:



Brother Rappleye was absolutely indispensable this past summer as he put forth a monumental effort towards defeating Philip Jenkins's arguments. Indeed, Jenkins himself had praise for Rappleye:

I have had a couple of exchanges with Neal Rappleye in the past. Then as now, he strikes me as smart and literate.

But there was criticism, too:

I am no less struck by the puzzling disconnect between the articulate nature of what he writes, and the startling lack of sophistication of his arguments. By far his weakest spot concerns his use of far-fetched and wildly unconvincing analogies, which instantly destroy the credibility of his arguments – more on that shortly. This may all reflect the fact that Book of Mormon apologists really never engage with mainstream scholars. Virtually no mainstream academic takes his cause seriously enough to be worth arguing with, so an apologist never has an opportunity to test his/her arguments in that setting.

Hence why we have Neal to thank for providing us with this crucial insight into the Mopologetic endeavor. Ultimately, of course, Rappleye had to beat a hasty retreat. Even though he was using the best weapons that had been provided to him by Gardner, Hamblin, Tvedtnes, and others, he finally wound up having to concede:

And if a "distinguished professor" writing in a bombastic style, with a healthy dose of snark and mockery directed at one's religious beliefs, critiquing a student who hasn't even finished he undergraduate work, who isn't really trying to "debate" him in the first place can impress you, then you have a pretty low standards for what you will be impressed with.

Is it possible that we would have been more impressed if Peterson, Midgley, Gardner and others had jumped into the fray? Possibly. But it was Neal Rappleye who did it--with brio--and for that reason he is the winner of the 2015 Sampson Avard Golden Scepter Award. I hope you'll join me in giving him a laudatory round of applause!

[_sock puppet]

Hear, hear. Raise your glasses to toast Rappleye--or should it be, Rappl--closed--eye--s.

[_malkie]

Bro Rappleye is also engaging the enemy at Zelph on the Shelf - for example in the comments on Why Are Apologists Doing The Prophet's Job?

[_Maksutov]

Bro Rappleye is also engaging the enemy at Zelph on the Shelf - for example in the comments on Why Are Apologists Doing The Prophet's Job?

Not only the master of petulance in impotence but a genius of irony. That's some kind of distinction.

[_Gadianton]

It's a great honor to receive this award and someone must feel very proud right now.

A heroic rush into battle against all odds deserves special recognition even when the odds hold up.

[_Everybody Wang Chung]

Congratulations, Mr. Rappleye!

Never in the field of mopologetic conflict was so much long-term damage inflicted by so few. Mr. Rappleye can proudly state he was one of those individuals, along with Hamblin.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Allahu akbar, Mr. Rappleye!

[_malkie]

It's a great honor to receive this award and someone must feel very proud right now.

A heroic rush into battle against all odds deserves special recognition even when the odds hold up.

I wonder if he measures distances in leagues (or, perhaps, half-leagues).

[_Kishkumen]

But it was Neal Rappleye who did it--with brio--and for that reason he is the winner of the 2015 Sampson Avard Golden Scepter Award. I hope you'll join me in giving him a laudatory round of applause!

Neal sure has guts. His writing style is quite good as Jenkins pointed out. And, at the end of the day, I would go get an ice cream cone with him. I can't say that about every young Mopologist we have seen come and go. I just hope he figures out, sooner rather than later, that Mopologetics of the classic-FARMS variety are a dead end.

Congratulations, Neal. I, for one, was favorably impressed by your efforts, quixotic though the quest may be.

[_Doctor Scratch]

Bro Rappleye is also engaging the enemy at Zelph on the Shelf - for example in the comments on Why Are Apologists Doing The Prophet's Job?

Thanks for the link, malkie! Boy, that thread is a real hotbed of Mopologetic activity: Trevor Holyoak, Rappleye, Smoot, Droopy--there is a whole swarm of them over there. If they want to engage critics, why don't they sign up here at MormonDiscussions.com? In any case, this post from Rappleye was striking:

We do not receive SEO help from the Church. I probably know what it is you think constitutes "the Church" helping us on SEO, but that is not what happened. And, in fact, a FairMormon member asked a friend, who does SEO for the Church, if he would personally help us on SEO, and he refused specifically because he didn't want to make it seem like the Church was providing us support.

(emphasis mine)

Basically, the Mopologists are hitting "Zelph on the Shelf" extra hard because someone has leveled the allegation that FAIR receives financial support from the Church. What Rappleye is saying here is remarkable, though: there is apparently a culture--or subculture--within the Church that has instilled in itself a fear of even giving the appearance that the Church in any way approves of or supports FAIR. The problem is the organization's non-profit status: Rappleye, Holyoak and others can claim that no support is given either by the Church itself, or via some cover organization, but the fact remains that the donations remain anonymous in the documentation. So even if Rappleye & Co. say, "You have no evidence that the Church has paid us!" the truth is the the Mopologists have no proof that the Church didn't donate via backchannels (and I was told by a reliable source that this is exactly how the payments work). The other day, CBS news featured a story about a non-profit called "The Center for Consumer Freedom," headed up by a vaguely Mopologist-esque guy named Richard Berman. From the article:

Berman has been the subject of many websites and articles. His organization, which got its start with a donation from Philip Morris to fight anti-smoking regulations in bars and restaurants, now has a host of non-profit educational entities funded by donations from food companies and others. His targets have included unions, the Humane Society and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

But the best, most relevant quote, was this:

We run all of this stuff through nonprofit organizations that are insulated from having to disclose donors. There is total anonymity. People don't know who supports us.

All the signs point to FAIR getting support from the LDS Church. Rappleye and his comrades can insist that there isn't evidence to prove it, but then again, they have no evidence to disprove it. If they want the accusations to go away, they're going to need to itemize and publish the donations, and I think we all know that that will never happen.