Wow. There you have it—in one fell swoop, over a decade’s worth of our speculation has been proven 100% TRUE. Dean Robbers and I wondered years ago if Mopologists were “set apart” by the Brethren, and we were mocked endlessly by Dr. Peterson, Scott Gordon, and others, and yet here is Dr. Peterson *himself* openly admitting that Sorensen was set apart by President Bateman! (And Bateman apparently did this at Sorensen’s request!)A story that I heard about him many years ago—I can’t remember who told it to me; perhaps it was even John himself—had it that his then bishop was pressing him and his wife to send in their missionary papers. But John felt that he was already on a mission, that he had a specific calling to fulfill and that it was urgently important. He didn’t believe that he should set his work on the Book of Mormon aside, something that very few could do, in order to serve a conventional mission. So he had declined. Repeatedly. But the bishop persisted. One day, John mentioned the situation to BYU’s president at the time, Merrill J. Bateman. President Bateman, who was not only the leader of BYU but a General Authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, listened to him and then responded by setting him apart to continue the work that he was doing, telling him to inform his bishop that he was already serving a mission and could not be spared.
Well, just like the old lie that Mopologists don’t get paid, we can now lay to rest the old baloney claim that LDS apologists “aren’t set apart.” Being vindicated in this way is one of the greatest gifts that a Mopologetics scholar could ask for. Merry Christmas!
