This is, I admit, one of my favorite moments of the year. The annual Sampson Avard Golden Scepter Award is one of the highest honors that Cassius University can bestow upon a person involved in Mopologetics. As you may recall, Dean Gadianton P. Robbers established the award more than a decade ago to "whose role in the course and/or study of Mopologetics has had an enormous and undeniable impact on the field." 2023 will likely go down as a historic year insofar as it has been chock-full of individuals who were worthy of recognition. But two people clearly rose above the rest of the pack in terms of the impact they've delivered. The first, as I'm sure you could have guessed, is none other than Mike Parker**:
Parker labored for years as the driving force behind the "Neville-Neville Land" blog: a work that redefined the meaning of "obsession" and raised the bar in terms of the ways that Mopologists will pursue a personal vendetta. Unrelentingly vicious, "Neville-Neville Land" showed yet again that the Mopologists are intolerant of the religious views of others--especially other Latter-day Saints who reject their theories about Book of Mormon historicity. Fueled by slavish praise from Dr. Peterson, Parker posted his attacks on Jonathan Neville with a strident regularity, right up until the so-called "Nygren Scandal" effectively brought his reign of terror to an end. To date, the postings on "Neville-Neville Land" have all but dried up.
Speaking of the "Nygren Scandal," we cannot forget Parker's partner in crime, Robert Boylan:
Known for his viciousness and his affiliation with the "Deznat" movement, Boylan made waves this year when he announced on his podcast that "Neville-Neville Land" was actually authored by a Black Latter-day Saint from Alabama named "Richard Nygren." Mike Parker, still pseudonymously posting as "Peter Pan" at the time, encouraged this assertion, as did Dr. Peterson and other Mopologists. Of course, no one could locate anyone named "Richard Nygren" who was associated with LDS apologetics--let alone a Black Latter-day Saint. Increasingly, it came to seem as if the Mopologists were using a phony Black man as a "shield" in order to deflect criticisms away from their toxic behavior.
Of course, Mike Parker was eventually revealed as the true author of "Neville-Neville Land," and in the wake of that revelation, Bill Reel and Stephen Pynnaker hosted a lengthy podcast in which Boylan and Parker were taken to task for what amounts to a kind of Mopologetic "minstrelsy." Parker and Boylan appeared in a podcast of their own in which they swore up and down that they are "not racist." Parker, meanwhile, threatened legal action and even stormed into Bill Reel's workplace in an effort to confront (and presumably harangue) him.
It was quite a spectacle, and as a result, Parker and Boylan are indisputably the two people most deserving of the 2023 Sampson Avard Golden Scepter Award. I hope you will join me in offering them a hearty round of congratulations!
I do have an addendum. Due to the revelations surrounding Parker's role in the "Neville-Neville Land" blog, the Cassius University administration has taken the enormous and unprecedented step of actually revoking last year's Golden Scepter Award. As you may recall, that award was (mistakenly) given to Stephen Smoot under the assumption that *he* was the author behind "Neville-Neville Land." With apologies to Brother Smoot, the Golden Scepter is hereby revoked, and, instead, Cassius has created a brand-new award to be given out on special occasions only (not annually, necessarily) to an individual who has suffered undo abuse--or "friendly fire," even--from the Mopologists. This award is called the Elijah Abel Award, and it is with great honor that we confer this award upon Richard Nygren, whose name was used with reckless abandon by the Mopologists in an effort to avoid accountability. Again: I hope you'll join me in offering up a round of applause for Mr. Nygren and his considerable fortitude.
**Addendum: Thanks to a suggestion from Dr. Shades, Mike Parker has officially been switched into last year’s winner. After all, as Shades pointed out, the 2022 Scepter was awarded for work that Parker was actually doing. Thus, Robert Boylan is the sole winner of this year’s Golden Scepter.
