DCP: "There was a literal attempt to destroy the FARMS Review"

[Doctor Scratch]

Despite declarations to the contrary, Dr. Peterson still cannot let go of the "old" Maxwell Institute--he's still smarting over his dismissal, and, it would seem, he's concocting bizarre conspiracy theories, claiming that some kind of digital "book burning" was underway. Over at SeN, he remarks in an entry entitled "Backgrounding" that one needs "background information" in order to fully understand/appreciate the complexities of Joseph Smith's life and claims, and in an aside, he writes:

There are some excellent scholarly resources on the question — including, for example, Gregory L. Smith’s review “George Smith’s Nauvoo Polygamy,” in the now defunct FARMS Review 20/2 (2008): 37-123 (miraculously still available online, despite the odds,

Huh? Why wouldn't it still be online? It's unclear what his concerns are, but things get more interesting down in the comments. Rick Anderson, apparently from the BYU Libraries, leaves the following note:

There's no miracle involved in the preservation of the _FARMS Review_ -- just lots of good (and ongoing) work by my colleagues in the BYU Library, who have archived the full run from 1989 to 2011 at https://scholarsarchive.byu.... This archive one of the many things that make me proud to work in that library.

And here is Dr. Peterson's response:

I'm deeply grateful for the Library's preservation of those materials.

I was using the word miraculously with some irony. There was a literal attempt to destroy the FARMS Review and other publications of the pre-2012 Maxwell Institute. Fortunately, it did not entirely succeed.

This is quite a spectacular claim. A "literal attempt to destroy the FARMS Review"? Who was (allegedly) attempting to do this? Gerald Bradford? And *why*? And *how*? I mean, we are talking about quite a niche publication with articles that, at best, are of substandard quality. Who would want to bother one way or the other? And plus, these things were all *digital.* Are we actually meant to believe that DCP, Midgley, Parker, Roper, and the rest of "The Crew" hadn't saved like a million copies of these?

I could see how the Powers That Be might have had a "Meh" attitude towards these Mopologetic publications, and might have felt unmotivated to keep the digital archive up to date, but to "literally destroy" them? This sounds like full-blown, cockamamie nonsense--one of the most ridiculous assertions that Dr. Peterson has ever made, and that's really saying something. Without details to substantiate his claim, I am going to call him out right now for either lying or exaggerating about what happened.

[drumdude]

He really loves playing the victim!

[malkie]

Ahhhh, but in the minds of some people, a "literal attempt to destroy" may be something quite different from an "attempt to literally destroy".

Perhaps the former was a "literal attempt to [metaphorically] destroy"?

[Tom]

I assume the proprietor is referring to the following tempest in a teapot: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=151815

Is he still angry about the decision to pulp excess copies of RBBM/FARMS Review of Books/FARMS Review/Mormon Studies Review sitting in dust and cobwebs in the Maxwell Institute warehouse? If the proprietor needs physical copies of the issues, he should contact me. I'm glad to donate my collection to him.

[drumdude]

Well, I’m hoping that all of these valuable materials won’t simply be lost. That would be an offense against the authors and a real disservice to those who have found these materials helpful or might have done so in the future.

I’ll try to find out more about what’s happening when I get back to the States.

Some would argue the words are an offense to the trees they're printed on and the silicon circuits they travel upon.

[Doctor Scratch]

I assume the proprietor is referring to the following tempest in a teapot: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=151815

Is he still angry about the decision to pulp excess copies of RBBM/FARMS Review of Books/FARMS Review/Mormon Studies Review sitting in dust and cobwebs in the Maxwell Institute warehouse? If the proprietor needs physical copies of the issues, he should contact me. I'm glad to donate my collection to him.

That’s very kind of you, Tom. It’s not clear to me which of these events he’s referring to. If it’s the “pulping,” then that hardly amounts to “destruction,” since the digital copies remain. And if it’s the broken links… Well, that’s not destruction either.

[Philo Sofee]

A much better and more realistic account of what would constitute the attempt at destruction is Brigham Young and the Brethren recalling ALL copies of Lucy Mack Smith's History of Joseph Smith in order to destroy it because it has, as he read it, many falsehoods in it, and her memory was bad. (you can see this in Lavina Fielding Anderson's outstanding book Lucy's Book, A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir). They called for a church-wide sweep of all bookshelves of the Saints who were obligated to respond and send the book to the church so it could be destroyed.

Literally nothing even remotely similar like this has been the case with the FARMS materials. Peterson is clueless.

[Everybody Wang Chung]

Does DCP ever tell the truth? It's just one lie after another with him.

[drumdude]

I have to admit I’ve done a lot of negative apologetics in my lifetime. FARMS Review is partly born to do that. I sometimes think Jack Welch, who asked me to do it, twenty-two years ago, must have occasionally wondered what kind of monster he’d created, because he had in mind just this little pamphlet that would be a guide to the literature on the Book of Mormon. Instead, it turned out to be this “thing” that takes on critics, and just smashes them sometimes. It’s so nasty and mean, and so much fun for a few of us, anyway. I’ve enjoyed knocking down the critics. You’ve probably seen the Far Side cartoon with the two deer, and one is saying to the other, who has a big target on his back, “Gee, bummer of a birthmark!” Honestly, I look at some critics, and I think, “Oh man! Bummer of a birthmark!” I can’t NOT take aim! It’s like they walk around with a sign on their rear ends that says, “Kick me!” What can I do? As Lou Midgley puts it sometimes, I am sort of like the drunk who walks by the swinging doors of the tavern, and says, “Oh, one last time!” I just can’t not do it

https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/wp- ... terson.pdf

[Kishkumen]

Well, that’s just it, isn’t it? You behave aggressively, make people angry, and look what happens!