"Interpreter" Recruits a BYU Undergrad to Attack Jonathan Neville
Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:23 am
It's hard to believe that only two weeks have passed since "Mormon Interpreter" published a dismayingly anti-LGBTQ+ article to start of Pride Month, leaving Dr. Moore to wonder aloud if it was a "new low" for the blogging website. Today they seems to be once again reaching for new depths in the form of a piece entitled, "An Unfortunate Approach to Joseph Smith’s Translation of Ancient Scripture," by Spencer Kraus. The entire article appears to be something of a "hit piece" directed at Jonathan Neville, with even the abstract declaring that Neville "describes Joseph as a liar, reinvigorating old anti-Latter-day Saint claims that Joseph simply recited a memorized text, even to the point that Neville defends hostile sources while targeting Church-published histories and publications."
It would seem that the impetus behind all of this is a rather strange belief on Neville's part that Joseph Smith did not actually use a seer stone to "translate" the Book of Mormon. Well, okay. There are reasonable ways to disagree with that assertion. As usual with the Mopologists, though, the article works very hard to frame Neville as an anti-Mormon who is deliberately trying to undermine Church authority. So, par for the course.
But take a look at the Author Bio for Spencer Kraus:
Really, though, the biggest shame here is on the senior Mopologists, who seem to be "using" this BYU undergrad to do their dirty work. What, was Greg Smith too busy to go trolling through Neville's Facebook page? I get that DCP is too busy traipsing around Europe, "luxuriating" in the "meaning" of the Nazi death camps, but what about Midgley? Or Allen Wyatt? Or even Jeff Lindsay? Quite shameful if you ask me. If they want to write "hit pieces" in an effort to get one of their sworn enemies excommunicated, they ought to do it themselves.
It would seem that the impetus behind all of this is a rather strange belief on Neville's part that Joseph Smith did not actually use a seer stone to "translate" the Book of Mormon. Well, okay. There are reasonable ways to disagree with that assertion. As usual with the Mopologists, though, the article works very hard to frame Neville as an anti-Mormon who is deliberately trying to undermine Church authority. So, par for the course.
But take a look at the Author Bio for Spencer Kraus:
On the one hand: kudos to Kraus for being enterprising and for getting his name in print. Then again, there is a part of me that wants to flag him down and grab him by the lapels and tell him to run for the hills as fast as he can. Getting caught up with "Interpreter" and the people running it can only lead to disaster.About Spencer Kraus
Spencer Kraus is a student at Brigham Young University majoring in Computer Science and minoring in modern Hebrew and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. He works with Book of Mormon Central as a research associate and also as a research assistant for Lincoln Blumell studying early Christianity and the New Testament.
Really, though, the biggest shame here is on the senior Mopologists, who seem to be "using" this BYU undergrad to do their dirty work. What, was Greg Smith too busy to go trolling through Neville's Facebook page? I get that DCP is too busy traipsing around Europe, "luxuriating" in the "meaning" of the Nazi death camps, but what about Midgley? Or Allen Wyatt? Or even Jeff Lindsay? Quite shameful if you ask me. If they want to write "hit pieces" in an effort to get one of their sworn enemies excommunicated, they ought to do it themselves.