Time to Place Your Bets: What Does FAIR's Name Change Mean for Mopologetics?

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dastardly stem
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Re: Time to Place Your Bets: What Does FAIR's Name Change Mean for Mopologetics?

Post by dastardly stem »

What a confusing bunch. Just a few months back they were trying their best to approach their efforts with a flare of pizazz and angst. They put out a host of TITS videos to say, "We aren't going to let some anti-Mormons get away anything without us taking swipes at them". Now they are innocently pretending that they never attempted a new innovative means to attack in order to attract the younger people? After that TITS video fiasco they're like, "we just need to be nice to everyone. Christlike and loving...and other such stuff."

As I recall one of their main justifications for the videos was it'll bring greater attention to FAIR and that is, in the end, a good thing, because FAIR is so good. Now I go to youtube and search for FAIRMormon videos and the TITS videos are not there anymore. They really brought a spark to FAIR for a minute--as the TITS videos reached number of views that would probably have soon eclipsed the number of views that all other FAIR videos reach combined.

It could be that Scott Gordon and company were afraid of a hostile Maxwell Institute-level take over. There seems to be a lot going on behind the scenes there.

As memory has it I thought Dehlin and the guy who did the TITS videos (can't remember his name now) were going to get together and do a podcast or something. Guess that fizzled too.
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Dr Moore
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Re: Time to Place Your Bets: What Does FAIR's Name Change Mean for Mopologetics?

Post by Dr Moore »

Kishkumen wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 10:41 am
The faculty at Cassius University deserves a great deal of credit for being on the right side of history on this one all along. By shining a bright light on hit-pieces and other un-Christlike apologetic tactics, we hastened this day. And, frankly, so too did FAIR by arrogantly, angrily, and tastelessly stepping way over the line with “This Is The Show.” Someone or many someones in the COB saw those videos and sat back, looking out their COB office window and thoughtfully surveying the urban vista, and said to themselves, “You know, Cassius University was right; and now this has gone too far!”

We should have a grand celebration to mark our great victory over Mopologetics. What will Mopologetics be now? A mere shadow of its former self, and it is the dedication of Cassius Faculty, standing on the vanguard against this injustice, that led the charge against the now defunct Mopologetics!
Indeed!

We have two threads on this topic, and this one appears more about speculating on the future. As I speculated on the other thread, I wonder if someone will claim this shift was the result of revelation? Undoubtedly the true story has everything to with surveys and analysis of the data, likely with an un-acknowledged assist by John Dehlin, concluding that indeed, FAIRMormon did vastly more to wreck testimonies than help. This seems a great opportunity regardless, for Nelson or perhaps Oaks to claim a revelation of the "eternal truth" that Jesus never won a single convert through sarcasm or cheap polemical book reviews.

Logically, "knock it off" was the only possible outcome that could rescue the brethren from their FARMSian Frankenstein, and all of its children. But what happens now?

I wonder who will dare break from this newly defined boundary on apologetics? Is the ground now completely fallow for Doctor Scratch's distinguished department? Or, to the contrary, will is this the beginning of an even more interesting landscape? I really do wonder how the new FAIR, Faithful Answers, Informed Response, will operate. With a fresh set of marching orders to be Christ-like, will FAIR embrace other attributes commonly associated with Jesus, such as honesty?
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Re: Time to Place Your Bets: What Does FAIR's Name Change Mean for Mopologetics?

Post by Philo Sofee »

Simpleton faith promoting Sunday School answers aren't going to cut it for the world either. They still have to try and present something that is well thought out and coherent, not just regurgitating what the "Brethren" say to say because it comes form them. The Brethren have not been in touch for a looooong time with the way the world sees things. It is going to be interesting to see
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Re: Time to Place Your Bets: What Does FAIR's Name Change Mean for Mopologetics?

Post by Equality »

Looks like these are back on the agenda!

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Re: Time to Place Your Bets: What Does FAIR's Name Change Mean for Mopologetics?

Post by Lem »

Doctor Scratch wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 2:58 am
...Still, there have been at least two "scoldings" in a fairly short time span: we had Gee and Peterson chastised for their attacks on the JSPP, and then we get this astonishing about-face from FAIR, where they are totally abandoning apologetics and trying to "visualize every participant as a child of God." Hilariously, someone on this Trib comments makes this point:
I think a first step for FAIR in "avoiding personal attacks or derogatory language" is to remove the satirical videos. The personal attacks on Jeremy Runnells and John Dehlin are ridiculous.
LOL! Yes: we'll see if those come down.
Gabriel wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 5:36 am
I just did a search on YouTube. It *does* appear that "This is the Show" has been pulled. All I can find in my search there are all the TITS reaction videos that were spawned by that absolutely uninspired, tone deaf train wreck.
it appears this statement was added after the fact to the trib article, or at least the last sentence:

FAIR drew some flak recently for enlisting a handful of Brigham Young University actors and writers to produce satirical videos that targeted the writings of a particular church detractor. Some saw the snarky, mocking tone as out of place; others viewed the videos as a novel, humorous way to reach younger Latter-day Saints.

After online publication of this story, the links on the FAIR website to those YouTube videos were removed.
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Re: Time to Place Your Bets: What Does FAIR's Name Change Mean for Mopologetics?

Post by Lem »

dastardly stem wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 3:47 pm

It could be that Scott Gordon and company were afraid of a hostile Maxwell Institute-level take over. There seems to be a lot going on behind the scenes there.
I could see that. That's how FARMS was ultimately dismantled, right?
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Kishkumen
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Re: Time to Place Your Bets: What Does FAIR's Name Change Mean for Mopologetics?

Post by Kishkumen »

Dr Exiled wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 2:06 pm
Perhaps the "hit piece" approach will die down for a while and the softer, gentler approach may remain officially among the church supported apologist sites. I have a hard time thinking that the retribution/attack style will completely leave the scene, however. People have a tendency to become defensive when others poke fun at their silly beliefs. Also, people want to be left alone and will poke fun at those who try and force their silly beliefs onto them. So, I think as long as the church pushes missionary work and is intent on bothering the world, there will be those who push back and some of the members will want to push back against those non-member/"apostates" that are pushing back. Then enter the DCPs and Midges of the world with their aggressive defenses and "hit pieces" satisfying the demand. So, I think there will always be an appetite for this sort of thing, regardless of how mollified FAIR wants to portray itself now and in the future.
I agree, Dr. Exile. What we have here is an institutional decision on the part of LDS Church leadership that will make it difficult for people who seek that leadership's approval. That does not mean that there will not be people who buck such directives and continue to attack the critics sharply.
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers.”~Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
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Kishkumen
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Re: Time to Place Your Bets: What Does FAIR's Name Change Mean for Mopologetics?

Post by Kishkumen »

Dr Moore wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 4:24 pm
Or, to the contrary, will is this the beginning of an even more interesting landscape? I really do wonder how the new FAIR, Faithful Answers, Informed Response, will operate. With a fresh set of marching orders to be Christ-like, will FAIR embrace other attributes commonly associated with Jesus, such as honesty?
Yes, we really need to know what Faithful Answers, (and) Informed Response looks like. Will they stick their toes over the boundary of niceness to give the critics a little kick here and there? I like your prognostication about a more interesting landscape. The landscape is indeed becoming interesting. It was interesting, and it continues to develop in interesting ways.
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers.”~Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
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Re: Time to Place Your Bets: What Does FAIR's Name Change Mean for Mopologetics?

Post by Everybody Wang Chung »

Equality wrote:
Mon Mar 22, 2021 6:25 pm
Looks like these are back on the agenda!

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Re: Time to Place Your Bets: What Does FAIR's Name Change Mean for Mopologetics?

Post by Aristotle Smith »

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Last edited by Aristotle Smith on Sat Jun 12, 2021 1:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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