Master Timeline of Mopologetics

[_Doctor Scratch]

I've heard that Daniel Peterson testified in the trial of the abductor of Elizabeth Smart, and that he threatened legal action against this board. I have no idea about that, why this board would perhaps be considered for legal action by Peterson because he was testifying in the Smart case or when that might have been. If that really happened, that might be worth including in the timeline.

Good call, Holy Ghost. That happened towards the end of 2009, if I'm not mistaken. Basically, Dr. Peterson was called as a witness in the trial--I believe he was testifying that Mitchell was "competent" to stand trial, and some of the folks here began needling DCP. One person--Infymus, I believe--threatened to send a link of DCP's postings on the old FAIR board (such as where he bashes Calvinists, the folks at RfM, and so on) to Mitchell's defense lawyers, and at that point, DCP went ballistic. Peterson sent a very aggressive message to Dr. Shades, threatening to "go after the board." DCP has actually threatened legal action many, many times, but as is so often the case with the Mopologists, the threats were quite hollow.

[_Kishkumen]

Thanks for the continuing assistance in adding to the MToM. I will continue to peck away at it as I have the opportunity to do so.

[_Tom]

What happened to the million-dollar Book of Mormon encyclopedia?

[_Kishkumen]

What happened to the million-dollar Book of Mormon encyclopedia?

I don't know! Did it morph into the Encyclopedia of Mormonism?

[_moksha]

Rustic-looking photos set off the Mopologists? Sounds pretty thin-skinned to me.

If someone has a link to the photos, I'd like to take a look.

Dorothy Lange and Ansel Adams first had to secure permission from President J. Reuben Clark to take pictures of three Utah towns. What they did not disclose was that the photos were to appear in Look Magazine (read at the time by a quarter of all US citizens). Had they made this known, the Church might have withheld its permission. This might sound strange to citizens of the United States from the 21st Century, but this was Utah back in the 1950s.

For what it is worth, the skin thickness of LDS apologists is only 20% of the average human skin thickness. That helps explain the constant need for pitchforks and torches to help prevent dermis injuries.

http://artistsofutah.org/15Bytes/index. ... aboration/

https://www.hcn.org/issues/51.1/books-s ... rmon-towns

[_Doctor Scratch]

Huh. I tried to track down the old threads that Holy Ghost was referring to. It would seem that Dr. Shades deleted them after DCP made his legal threats--a real loss for historians of Mopologetics. But you can see evidence that DCP testified during the time period I had in mind: See here, for example:

https://www.ksl.com/article/8111025

The date for that KSL article is early September of 2009, but good luck finding the old thread where Infymus teased that he would send links of Peterson's posts to Mitchell's lawyers. And I know I'm not imagining DCP's threatening PM to Dr. Shades: a copy of it was sent to me. In it, Peterson says, "I will go after the board," and he quotes from Othello. I hope somebody saved a copy of it!

Another interesting thread from that time period is here. Check out this comment from Ray A:

Dan is someone who enjoys apologetic recreation and calls it "work". Seems like apologetics has been his main work for 20 years now. I don't envy him, trying to sustain the idea that the Book of Mormon is "history" must be like paddling up Niagara Falls. Yet he maintains the “fort”, and even advocates that those who consider it “inspired fiction” should be relegated to possible discipline unless they “keep quiet” in Church. You doubt me? Read his PBS interview. He’s waiting for apostates like David Wright to “come around”. And in the meantime, he’ll use all the intellectual sophistication he can to “convince the doubters” that three 2,000 year old men are still roaming the earth looking for converts to Mormonism. This is what the "professor of Arabic" has spent 85% of his time on.

[_moksha]

It would seem that Dr. Shades deleted them after DCP made his legal threats--a real loss for historians of Mopologetics.

Preparing for the Mitchell testimony practically wiped the history on the MAD board away. The desire to put Mitchell away was strong so posting sacrifices need to be made lest an ungentlemanly defense attorney would try to impeach Dr. Peterson's testimony with bits and flecks of things he might have said in the heat of apologetics.

[_Dr. Shades]

Perhaps another occurrence deserving of mention would be when FAIR formally divorced itself from its own message board, thus giving birth to the Mormon Apologetics and Discussion (MA&D) board.

I apologize for not remembering the date.

[_I have a question]

Wasn’t there something called “The Justice League”, a sort of Mopologetic Avengers aimed at correcting the critics? Or have I made that up....

[_Kishkumen]

Huh. I tried to track down the old threads that Holy Ghost was referring to. It would seem that Dr. Shades deleted them after DCP made his legal threats--a real loss for historians of Mopologetics. But you can see evidence that DCP testified during the time period I had in mind: See here, for example:

https://www.ksl.com/article/8111025

The date for that KSL article is early September of 2009, but good luck finding the old thread where Infymus teased that he would send links of Peterson's posts to Mitchell's lawyers. And I know I'm not imagining DCP's threatening PM to Dr. Shades: a copy of it was sent to me. In it, Peterson says, "I will go after the board," and he quotes from Othello. I hope somebody saved a copy of it!

So Peterson testified in the hearing regarding whether David Brian Mitchell was competent to stand trial, not the trial itself. OK. I need to edit the timeline. That makes sense.