Jeff Bradshaw giving a fireside on the Masonic temple rites in 8 hours - zoom link

[IHAQ]

Interpreter remains unapologetic about securing a copy of a book they wished to rival in order to use its contents to rush one of their own out alongside it.

But yes, we thought it a good idea to have our book come out near the much-trumpeted publication date of Method Infinite. I don't see anything wrong with that.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... qus_thread

Bradshaw remaining silent on the matter?

Meanwhile Peterson distances himself and Interpreter from one of its own VP's...

One clarification about the Loyd Ericson matter probably needs to be made here: Of course I'm not claiming that a book published by the Interpreter Foundation has no connection with the Interpreter Foundation. (I thought that would be obvious, but apparently it wasn't. Nothing is impossible to miss for those who're strongly disinclined to see.)

But the offense, if such there actually was, doesn't lie in Interpreter's having simply published a book. It lies, if it lies anywhere, in the manner by which Jeff Bradshaw -- not Interpreter -- obtained an Advance Reader Copy of the book, which he then used, to some degree at least, in completing his own book, which was then submitted to the Interpreter Foundation for eventual publication. And of that topic I know essentially nothing beyond Loyd Ericson's claims. I hadn't heard of any complaint in this regard, let alone of Mr. Ericson's claims about it, until very late last night.

Should Interpreter not suspend Bradshaw (and take down his publication) whilst they investigate this?

[Kishkumen]

What it looks like is that they viewed Method Infinite as a threat from the outset, and they were determined to use early access to the book to create a kind of rebuttal to land on shelves at the same time as Method Infinite. What this shows is that they are not really interested in understanding Method Infinite or in helping to advance the historical discussion of the relationship between Mormonism and Masonry. No, Interpreter is engaged in a kind of propaganda gag of the kind you see in American politics these day. The idea here is to push people to buy the sham rebuttal and never look at Method Infinite.

If Bradshaw and Interpreter were truly interested in understanding the relationship between Mormonism and Freemasonry, then they would have waited to digest Method Infinite and they would have watched how discussion of the book starts to unfold. With the benefit of reflection, and much further research, they could carefully argue their own well-informed position.

But, I don't see that this is the case. Honestly, I do not recall many times when it was the case. Because, honestly, what they are engaged in is not good faith research and scholarship in order to increase our understanding of these issues. They have their minds made up, and they are fighting a rearguard action to make sure that people do not even come into contact with different takes on these issues. They would be perfectly happy if no one read Method Infinite, just as they hoped that people would not read The Mysteries of Godliness or Refiner's Fire. If LDS people simply stuck to correlated Church materials, the Interpreter folks would have nothing to do.

Of course, the funny thing is, that most people will not read Method Infinite anyway. The LDS Church has always feared these minority voices and scholarly takes on things. They bluster in GC about how terrible it is to be in study groups or to go to "certain symposia," and most members just sit their slightly puzzled but convinced that the Lord's Anointed has some reason to be legitimately, deeply concerned. Little do they know how silly it is that Sunstone was ever a topic broached in GC by a worldwide Church's leaders.

[Philo Sofee]

The really zany thing is the book Method Infinite has actually helped me see Joseph Smith in a new light that is far more authenticating than I had been viewing him these last several years!

[Kishkumen]

You kill me, Shades.

Do you always judge individuals and organizations on the same basis?

It depends on the organization. If it’s, say, the Nazi party or the KKK, then yes, I tend to judge individuals and organizations on the same basis.

I guess you read right over the word "always." I could just as easily ask if you are equating FAIR or Interpreter with the KKK and the Nazi Party.

I mean, Kevin Barney, one of my favorite people, once was on the board at FAIR. FAIR has pulled some real crappy moves in the past. Does that make Kevin Barney individually responsible for all of these things?

I’m sure not every member of the Crips has a proclivity toward violence, but the fact that they choose to affiliate with such a group is a respectably accurate window into their character.

You might be aware, as someone who has some relationship with the law enforcement profession, that not every person who is pressed into a gang does so voluntarily. So, what kind of bizarre comparison are you making here? I don't think you have thought this through.

How much time have you spent in organizational meetings, hashing things out with other people, some of whom you deeply disagree with?

With organizations with whose ideology and methodology I fundamentally disagree? No time whatsoever.

Whoosh! Right over your head. Evidently. I was not asking you to think of yourself. I was asking you to use your imagination to think of what it must be like to be Kevin Barney when he was on the board at FAIR. Or David Bokovoy, or Blair Hodges, or Kerry Shirts, or Kevin Graham, when they were mixed up with Mopologetics. There are plenty of people whom we have known over the years who were in the thick of Mopologetics. We knew they were good fellows, but they were our opponents all the same. Being good fellows, they eventually thought better of their involvement with Mopologetics.

Might not Jim Bradshaw one day be the next Blair Hodges? I have no idea, but such things have happened.

[Kishkumen]

The really zany thing is the book Method Infinite has actually helped me see Joseph Smith in a new light that is far more authenticating than I had been viewing him these last several years!

Exactly! I could say the same about Early Mormonism and the Magic World View or Refiner's Fire. I could say that about Women and Authority and The Mysteries of Godliness.

I think, at the end of the day, that Mopologetics is about power. It is about propping up the Brethren in their role of arbiters of the teachings of the Gospel and what Mormonism should mean. Scholarship is beyond the control of these authorities who see themselves as the only ones who have a right to decide what the Gospel is. They cannot prevent non-correlated scholarship from happening, but they will do what they can to interfere with people reading it and understanding it. They practically insure that their members won't know what to do with it when they do encounter it, and in that way they actually increase the probability of defection. Yet their consistent response is to throw up interference anytime a truly enlightening and provocative work surfaces.

Bradshaw's book is just the latest example of Mopologetic interference.

[Marcus]

Just a weird point, in looking up and reading DCP's blog entries about this, i also read from his travelogue:

surrounded by the noisy and insistent bustle of New York City — located at the intersection of West 65th Street, Broadway, and Columbus Avenue , near Lincoln Center, the Juilliard School, and Central Park —

No, the Mormon temple is not "near" central park, at least not to a new yorker, but then i read this from the Mormon temple site:

Located at the intersection of West 65th Street, Broadway, and Columbus Avenue, the Manhattan New York Temple stands among some of New York City's most prominent landmarks including Lincoln Center, home of the renowned Juilliard School, and Central Park.
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/ ... rk-temple/

Oh. "Near" does not equal "among."

Plagiarism (badly done) shows up in the weirdest spots.

[consiglieri]

While prepping for the show, Cheryl Bruno told me of her chagrin when she granted the request by Bradshaw to an advance copy of the manuscript only to have him turn around and use it to write an apologetic rebuttal that came out at the same time.

I think Cheryl did not expect this from Bradshaw.

[Kishkumen]

While prepping for the show, Cheryl Bruno told me of her chagrin when she granted the request by Bradshaw to an advance copy of the manuscript only to have him turn around and use it to write an apologetic rebuttal that came out at the same time.

I think Cheryl did not expect this from Bradshaw.

If only getting burned by unethical practices among the apologists were an unusual occurrence. Most of us who have had any dealings with them have seen the ethical problems. I am sorry this happened to Cheryl.

[Moksha]

While prepping for the show, Cheryl Bruno told me of her chagrin when she granted the request by Bradshaw to an advance copy of the manuscript only to have him turn around and use it to write an apologetic rebuttal that came out at the same time.

I think Cheryl did not expect this from Bradshaw.

Perhaps the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition, where Bradshaw works, outputs ethics in an inorganic manner. Either that or it was strictly an LDS apologetics transaction and thus not subject to normal human conventions and ethics.

[Kishkumen]

Jeff and his wife Kathleen are the parents of four children and fifteen grandchildren. He has served twice as a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and twice as a counselor in the Pensacola Stake Presidency (see Mormon Scholars Testify profile). Among other publications on temples and the ancient Near East, Jeff has written two volumes to date for a highly-acclaimed scholarly commentary series on the book of Genesis entitled In God’s Image and Likeness (http://templethemes.net). He is a vice president for The Interpreter Foundation, was a member of the Advisory Board for the Academy for Temple Studies, and is a senior research analyst for the B.H. Roberts Foundation. Jeff is the co-founder of Interpreter Science and Mormonism Symposium series, including the 2013 meeting entitled Cosmos, Earth, and Man and the 2016 meeting entitled Body, Brain, Mind, and Spirit. From July 2016-September 2019, Jeff and Kathleen served missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo Kinshasa Mission office and the DR Congo Kinshasa Temple. They currently live in Nampa, Idaho.

Interesting that he puts this on his professional bio. I have to wonder who is highly acclaiming his vanity published commentary on Genesis? Even the review in BYU Studies notes that it could have used much tighter editing and that it was not peer reviewed.