Outing other Exmos or exmo sympathisers

[_Trevor]

I do know that members who confess sin to their bishops are encouraged to "tattle" on anyone else involved in the deed.

Sadly, I know this from personal experience. I consider my participation here part of my penance.

[_antishock8]

I've met and spoke with... *mumble mfrfffr*... Dan Peterson *oh yeah.. oh.. mrrphh mrphh*... several times in several capacities and can say the man *mumblemrph... gasp... mrph mrph...* creeps me out in no way. I'm not a star witness, obviously, but Nehor hit the nail on the head. *glbphb.. mumphrhpph...* Scratch takes character assassination and unbelievably oversensitivity to a new level in her pursuit of... *nnmm lrmph...* DCP.

I'm sorry, but you're going to have to take his dingle dangly out of your mouth before you attempt to speak...

[_KimberlyAnn]

I do know that members who confess sin to their bishops are encouraged to "tattle" on anyone else involved in the deed.

Sadly, I know this from personal experience. I consider my participation here part of my penance.

Sorry about that, Trevor. You did what you thought was right at the time, I'm sure.

The only thing I ever confessed to the bishop was, pathetically enough, French kissing. He did ask me who my partner was and I refused to tell him. I'm still amazed that I didn't fold under pressure, but the "sin" was mild, and I suppose uncovering the identity of my kissing partner wasn't too big a deal to the bishop or he would have pressured me further, undoubtedly causing me to crumble and rat out the Stake President's son, who never confessed his part in the deed. Smart boy.

KA

[_Trevor]

Sorry about that, Trevor. You did what you thought was right at the time, I'm sure.

That is the even sadder part of the tale. I felt awful about it. I knew there was something wrong with it. The guy badgered me repeatedly and tried multiple tactics to extract the information out of me. I should have remained adamant, but I finally caved. It was a moment of moral failure about which I remain deeply ashamed. I am only too happy to tell others to stonewall these guys when they pull this BS. I can only hope that they will do better than I did.

[_Jason Bourne]

Edit: I would add that if the SCMC existed in the form you imagine, you would be the ideal person to run it.

Dang Nehor!!! Good POINT MAN! I agree. Scratch's rumor mongering spin jobs and sad conclusions often reached are pretty sorry stuff. But he/she is pretty good and digging up stuff.

[_Jason Bourne]

For those of you who don't know what it looks like to an outsider. When posters on boards speak of "outing" others, it just screams "cult".

I'm so not kidding.

Well there is no policy for outing anyone in the LDS Church that I am aware of and I have never heard it promoted. Oh sure there are some odd ducks like Will what is his name that threaten and bluster. But nobody ever talks about outing anyone.

[_Mercury]

Merc,

In all the years I attended churches, I never once heard anyone use the term "outing" anyone for disbelief. I wish you could know how that is received by someone who isn't LDS. So here's my question for the masses:

WHY "out" someone?

My doubts, outed in a roundabout way by a former companion of mine were used to show loyalty while I was on my mission in 99. Its often that we were asked by both mission presidents on more than one occasion how our former companions responded to "anti-mormon propaganda". Its a loyalty game and its more than just response to negative information about the church. Does your companion masturbate in teh shower, does he flirt with females, does he etc etc etc.

[_Mercury]

I've met and spoke with... *mumble mfrfffr*... Dan Peterson *oh yeah.. oh.. mrrphh mrphh*... several times in several capacities and can say the man *mumblemrph... gasp... mrph mrph...* creeps me out in no way. I'm not a star witness, obviously, but Nehor hit the nail on the head. *glbphb.. mumphrhpph...* Scratch takes character assassination and unbelievably oversensitivity to a new level in her pursuit of... *nnmm lrmph...* DCP.

I'm sorry, but you're going to have to take his dingle dangly out of your mouth before you attempt to speak...

LOL. You are the chosen one come to help the great Merc. Gotta warn you though, the contract desires your soul and twenty billion years in my service. Medical benefits are not that bad though, the copay is low.

[_Bond...James Bond]

Nor have I ever posted private information, as juliann and Pahoran did on their "Mr. Itchy" blog.

So has the truth finally come out on this issue?

[_Daniel Peterson]

Reality check time!

For Trevor: You are quite right to have been "creeped out" by me. I'm extremely creepy. Horses neigh, dogs howl, flowers wilt, lights flicker, and thunder crashes when I walk by.

For Jersey Girl: I've never heard of anybody "outing" anyone because that person had "doubts," let alone of any ecclesiastical directive to do so. Nor, as a bishop, would I welcome the kind of snitch-like behavior that you rightly term "cultish." I think you're too trusting of the portrayal of Mormonism that you get from some on this board. At the least, the church depicted by several of the posters here bears little resemblance to the community that I know.

For antishock8: You need to get back on your lithium.

I do nothing different from what routinely appears in the pages of FARMS Review.

Sometimes I almost think that Scratch actually believes that's true.

Nor do I do anything much different than DCP's "RfM sig-line archive."

Which has now swollen to a massive 42 items, averaging roughly two lines each.

There's some pretty funny stuff in it. I use my little collection, mainly, as signature-line material in e-mails to friends.

Never have I, for example, contacted somebody's family, as DCP has done.

I've known GoodK's father for roughly twenty years. There's no secret about GoodK's atheism; GoodK's father has been fully aware of it for a long time, as have I. That wasn't the issue. When I saw GoodK posting mocking words about his father on a public message board, though, and realized who GoodK must be (since his father had sent the same letter about GoodK's critically ill sister to me that GoodK was lampooning here), I was shocked and appalled. I went back and forth. I didn't want to add to my friend's stress, since having a daughter hospitalized at death's door was already horrible, but I reasoned that, if it were my son who was making fun of me as a superstitious fanatic and a blowhard on a public message board while my daughter (his sister) was fighting for her life, I would want to know. So, finally, after several hours of internal debate, I sent a note to GoodK's father calling his attention to GoodK's comments about him. I also apologized to GoodK's father if my action was inappropriate.

Scratch can paint my action as malicious and underhanded if he wants. (And, of course, he does want.) Candidly, I wasn't sure myself whether or not I was doing the right thing. But I do know, as I've said, that I would want to have been told.

I've never ripped into somebody's professional credibility, as have DCP, and Bill Hamblin, and many others who sought to destroy Quinn's career as a historian (and arguably succeeded, at least in certain circles).

None of us has ever "sought to destroy Mike Quinn's career as a historian." We don't have any capacity to do so in any event, and I have no reason to believe that anything I've done has anything to do with his career troubles. Frankly, they surprise me.

As far as "ripp[ing] into somebody's professional credibility," well, that's occasionally what book reviews (and movie reviews and music reviews and drama criticism) do. If a book is bad, a reviewer has to say so. Will that reflect upon the credibility of the book's author? Yes. Is it, to use Scratch's favorite word, a "smear"? No. Is it a "smear" to say that the dialogue in a play is stilted, or that a novel's plot is unimaginative, or that a symphony is unsatisfying, or that a film is dull, or that an actor's performance is poor? Not in any normal English-speaker's lexicon. Yet, in every such case, the reviewer has effectively "ripped into somebody's professional credibility."

I've never engaged in the sort of real-life gossip akin to what Gee and The Good Professor were doing to Prof. Robert Ritner.

I have not gossiped about Professor Ritner. But there is more to the story of Dr. Gee and Dr. Ritner than is generally known, and, as one of John Gee's former teachers, I know much of it, as I was in contact with Dr. Gee all through his years in graduate school at Berkeley and at Yale. Scratch and others would be well advised not to draw conclusions from the little portion of the story that they know (some of which, by the way, isn't true).

Am I sometimes kind of a bastard, and do I sometimes question the character of Mopologists [sic]? Yes, that's no doubt true.

Finally, something that Scratch and I can agree on -- except that I would delete both occurrences of sometimes.

But nowhere have I ever meddled in people's in real life worlds in the way that these Church defenders have.

I flatly deny any such meddling. I wouldn't do it, I can't do it, and I haven't done it.

Shalom!