Forty Hours Per Week?

[Marcus]

A family member quit his very lucrative job and sold the family home st a significant loss to go on a senior mission. I got very strong vibes that he was pushing for a GA or MP position. The joke was on him however, as it was his wife they really wanted. She is a nurse, and they needed her to oversee all the kiddies with mental health issues (even though that was far beyond her medical expertise). He twiddled his thumbs for a whole mission, and came home to no place to live and a precarious retirement.

Maybe Peterson is just afraid he won't merit the special treatment he thinks he deserves.

[huckelberry]

I certainly think it makes sense for Mr. Peterson to make up his own mind about senior mission. Not going makes sense to me but I wish well to someone who decides to do it.

[drumdude]

A family member quit his very lucrative job and sold the family home st a significant loss to go on a senior mission. I got very strong vibes that he was pushing for a GA or MP position. The joke was on him however, as it was his wife they really wanted. She is a nurse, and they needed her to oversee all the kiddies with mental health issues (even though that was far beyond her medical expertise). He twiddled his thumbs for a whole mission, and came home to no place to live and a precarious retirement.

Maybe Peterson is just afraid he won't merit the special treatment he thinks he deserves.

Daniel Peterson is smarter than that. He knows the church will take as much as one is willing to give. Without regard to the well being of the member.

Dan would never put himself in a vulnerable position where the church might bankrupt him or prevent him from perusing his own self interest.

He just needs to convince everyone around him (and possibly himself) that he is still “serving” his church.

[Doctor Scratch]

I’d happily chip in $100 for that bet, Dr. Robbers. But we both know he won’t do it—either because he doesn’t actually believe that Church leaders are led by God, or because he doesn’t care.

And the exchange with David Sanders was epic! DCP is lashing out in a rage. He himself has tried to make the case that his Interpreter stuff is equivalent to a senior mission, and the second that Sanders points out that it’s not, he’s erupting with anger. lol!!

[Everybody Wang Chung]

I was really hoping that DCP would choose to follow the prophet and serve a senior mission. The selfish part of me REALLY wanted him serve a Spanish speaking mission, if for no other reason, than to hear how learning perfect Spanish permanently changed his accent. I imagine DCP would come back from his Spanish mission sounding just like Hervé Villechaize, that actor who played Tattoo on Fantasy Island, who would always shout, “De plane! De plane!”

Most important, nobody could replace what DCP is doing now. Nobody could spend 8 hours a day attacking both members and non-members online, promoting books he will never finish (or even start), travel blogging about eating beef pizza in exotic locales, and making a hit piece film about the Community of Christ that is so anachronistic and bad it would make Ed Wood blush with envy. Nobody.

[drumdude]

Most important, nobody could replace what DCP is doing now. Nobody could spend 8 hours a day attacking both members and non-members online, promoting books he will never finish (or even start), travel blogging about eating beef pizza in exotic locales, and making a hit piece film about the Community of Christ that is so anachronistic and bad it would make Ed Wood blush with envy. Nobody.

[huckelberry]

fallowing the link Shades provided.

Dan, I think part of the confusion is that your apologetic work is not a Church calling. I believe you are a self-appointed apologist and your work with the Interpreter is not the same as working for, or serving a mission for the Church. It’s interesting to learn that Rodney Meldrum has also stated he believes his work with FIRM takes the place of him serving a Church mission too. There are many self-appointed apologist out there and many different organizations these apologists have founded, but they are not the Church. in my opinion, the Church’s counsel to serve a mission applies to self-appointed apologists too, regardless of how important these apologist may believe their work is.

It's pretty rich to watch you, of all people, presuming to speak for the Lord, usurping the role of the Brethren, disingenuously trying to dictate how I should live my life. I guess it's good for you to be able to enter the new year with a strong sense of self-importance

It seems to me that David Sanders creates an ugly inflation of church authority demands and Peterson has the good sense to decline. Maybe church rigidity has increased in recent decades but I do not really recognize the sort of lockset uniformity that Sanders wants to foist off on Peterson.

I think it is possible that Mr. Sanders feels he is correctly reflecting church demands and creating an implied criticism of the church by bouncing it off a reasonable dimension of Peterson.

[drumdude]

The Interpreter Foundation was launched almost precisely 598 weeks ago. Last Friday marked the 597th consecutive week that it has published at least one article — which is to say nothing of its books, its blog, its scripture roundtables, its weekly radio programs, its film efforts, its conferences, and so forth.

That poor “Mr. Bond’s” prediction was proved wrong precisely ten years ago today 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.

I think the issue here is that Daniel thinks projects like this should count as church service. Dan wants us to believe that if they aren’t more demanding than an actual senior mission, then they are at least equal.

Publishing spurious papers from his friends, which would never hold up to any legitimate academic scrutiny, seems to hardly be very hard work to me.

But who are we to interrupt his patting his own back?

[Imwashingmypirate]

Pirate’s commentary is important and accurate. What is the ultimate contribution? The idea seems to be that it’s either Mopologetics or the crappy movies.

It's easy for people to justify their own lives to themselves. Peterson's delusion about the Church having anything to do with libertarianism is on full display in his recent posting. My life isn't easy, seriously guys! Doing what I personally want to do everyday is still a lot of work!

I've also put myself under a heavy burden in the past to further my personal hobbies. But that isn't real faith in the Lord now, is it? Atheists like me do that all the time. Real faith is to tell the Lord that you will go where HE wants you to go, not where you want to go and then claim that it's a lot of work for a good cause.

I propose an offer. If Peterson puts his papers in to serve a mission, and he's called to a service mission that is CES related, or somehow related to Mopologetics; put right back as chairman for Interpreter as his mission, or called to Switzerland to translate CES materials into perfect German; basically anything like that, I'll find a guy who knows a guy, and relay to him a 100$ gift certificate to Seasons 52. Not sure how far that goes these days as I don't frequent upscale restaurants, but if anybody wants to add to that amount then feel free to indicate so. I'll be fair about it. If he's called to Africa and schmoozes his way into a totally admin, intellectual position that escapes proselyting for the most part or service to the poor, and ends up doing what he wants, I'll still consider that a victory for him as he went through the proper channels to accomplish it.

Look, there are Steve Youngs out there. But ever since it was revealed that Steve was advised not to go on a mission because he could do more good for the Church playing football, a lot of people have decided it's the same for themselves, that they can do more good for the Church pursuing their life interest than serving a traditional mission. In Dan's case, an argument can be made that he's exactly where the Lord, through the direction of the Brethren, want him to be. I'd say the odds are higher for him that he's right than anyone else I'm aware of who is Mormon. But, this isn't about odds, it's about his own personal faith. He needs to put his fate in the hands of the Lord and submit his papers. The Brethren know who he is, if they prayerfully see fit to put him to work as a Mopologist, then so be it. He'll get to do exactly what he wants, plus a gift certificate and bragging rights to say he was right all along.

OOF!!!

[Imwashingmypirate]

Does his wife have an opinion?