DiscussMormonism.com

Happy New Year, Friends & Colleagues!

I hope you are ready for 2023, and have a nice celebration all lined up for this evening. In predictable fashion, the Mopologists are marking the occasion by nursing old grudges and asking gullible Mormons to fork over their hard-earned money. Check it out:

Sic et Non wrote:Roughly nine years ago, a sublimely self-confident pseudonymous critic on a small, extraordinarily nasty, and mostly atheist ex-Mormon message board took it upon himself to prophesy:

“By Jan. 1, 2014 Interpreter will be dead. . . . Either totally dead or down to token ‘blog’ style postings.” (Bond James Bond, 25 January 2013)

The Interpreter Foundation was about 5.5 months old when he pronounced his oracle.

I hope that “Mr. Bond” kept his day job. (Actually, I didn’t see anything at all from him for several years. Perhaps, I thought, he was totally dead. At the best, he no longer seemed to be up to making even token “blog style” posts. Lately, though, I think he may have resurfaced under a slightly altered pseudonym.)

"totally dead"? Wow: that's not a very kind thing to say. And if "Interpreter" really is something to be proud of, then why not highlight its accomplishments? Dr. Peterson does wind up doing so in the next paragraph, but it's a lot shorter than the space he devotes to attacking Bond:

DCP wrote:The Interpreter Foundation was launched almost precisely 546 weeks ago. Today marked the 545th consecutive week that it has published at least one article — which is not to mention its books, its blog, its scripture roundtables, its weekly radio programs, its film efforts, its conferences, and so forth.

As for "token blog style posts": I see they're still running the self-serving and really pretty stupid "Interpreting Interpreter" series by Kyler Rasmussen. Are they really that hard-up for content? They need summaries of their articles? Maybe Dr. Peterson can clarify what they're trying to accomplish here. In any event, DCP continues with his usual plea for money:

That poor “Mr. Bond’s” prediction was proved wrong about eight years ago is entirely due to generous donations of time and labor and, yes, money from a great many people, to all of whom I’m deeply grateful. Our operation is almost entirely volunteer. We have no salaried employees. Although our bylaws allow the Foundation’s top leadership to draw up to $500 annually for their services, none has ever taken any such compensation. Nor are our authors paid. This is a labor of love, passion, and commitment.

It's also an operation where people on the Board steal material from other authors so that they can hasten their own competing books to press. And a slip-shod operation that has struggled repeatedly with editing problems, and which was once "called on the carpet" by the the Brethren for bad-mouthing the JSPP.

But it has, admittedly, provided a fair amount of entertainment. So, here's to you, Mr. Bond: we'll sing a rousing rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" as we commemorate you for being such an exceptional thorn in Dr. Peterson's side for 9 long years. Perhaps in 2023 he'll make a resolution to stop carrying so many grudges?

Imagine holding a grudge against an anonymous internet poster for 9 years! And believing that he might be back under a different name.

Obsession indeed.

The Interpreter died a long time ago. If the Church is a churro and the Maxwell Institute is a taco, The Interpreter would be a diarrheato supreme.

Exactly, Doctor Scratch; why not highlight it's accomplishments? In the 540 articles, has any outside academic been the least bit impressed with the case for the Book of Abraham, the Book of Mormon, the witnesses, etc? It seems like they haven't made even the smallest dent in gaining academic acceptance. Indeed, the proprietor had to reach way back and dig up a "prediction" that sets the bar about as low is it possibly can be -- "I predict that the blog won't even exist in x years!" and then hop over it. Well, that's great, I mean, I'm sure some of the followers are so desperate for a win that proving a critic wrong on such a small point lends a great deal of hope.

Gadianton wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 01, 2023 1:08 am

Exactly, Doctor Scratch; why not highlight it's accomplishments? In the 540 articles, has any outside academic been the least bit impressed with the case for the Book of Abraham, the Book of Mormon, the witnesses, etc? It seems like they haven't made even the smallest dent in gaining academic acceptance. Indeed, the proprietor had to reach way back and dig up a "prediction" that sets the bar about as low is it possibly can be -- "I predict that the blog won't even exist in x years!" and then hop over it. Well, that's great, I mean, I'm sure some of the followers are so desperate for a win that proving a critic wrong on such a small point lends a great deal of hope.

Indeed. And that is the perfect way to sum up “Interpreter”: 540+ weeks and nothing of note to show for it. Bond may have been off in the particulars, but overall, he was quite right. The “foundation” has never evolved beyond a half-baked notion dreamed up by David Bokovoy at the Olive Garden as a means of assuaging DCP’s hurt feelings. He really has no metrics of success beyond sticking it to Bond.

Lol. I see that the Interpreter President’s final post of 2022 is one in which he chooses to emphasize the importance of the Catholic Church. Okay. Interesting.

What I hope for Dr. Peterson in 2023 is that he finally recognizes how much pain he’s inflicted on people and how much irrevocable damage he’s done. He’s never going to apologize—that’s a forgone conclusion. But he could at least acknowledge that he’s hurt thousands of people. That would be a good start for 2023–a good, Christ-centric start.

Not only was it about the pope, it was about how he was personally involved with something involving said pope.

He’s such a clout chaser. Any time someone famous dies that he was in the least significant way possible related to, he is sure to let you know.

I predict that the Interpreter will be grasping for Mormon validations for another nine years and will only falter in its Friday deadline due to natural disasters/legionnaires disease outbreak at the Orem Golden Corral/Dr. Peterson's flight being stuck at Zurich Airport.

One thing the Interpreter has not done in its glory of 8-9 years of surviving, they have not converted any scholars nor all that many regular folk into Mormonism who have stayed and contributed articles, books, and films along with Interpreter. THAT would be milestones worth crowing about, not proving some ole critic was wrong. CHORTLE!

Philo Sofee wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 01, 2023 6:22 am

One thing the Interpreter has not done in its glory of 8-9 years of surviving, they have not converted any scholars nor all that many regular folk into Mormonism who have stayed and contributed articles, books, and films along with Interpreter. THAT would be milestones worth crowing about, not proving some ole critic was wrong. CHORTLE!

The Interpreter definitely hasn't converted any scholars or regular folk. It's mainly been a platform for the Mopologists to tear down scholarship and scholars (both Mormon and non-Mormon) they don't agree with.

I would love to know how many people have gone to the Interpreter sincerely looking for answers and ended up leaving the Church? I bet it would be in the hundreds, if not many more.