A Mopologetic Conference Center?

[_harmony]

the apologists are men of great wickedness and pride.

And on it goes from there, with harmony singing back-up.

I never sing back up. And I never said that.

[_Mister Scratch]

I can understand Scratch's concern, and his strong disagreement with my proposal. Let it not be said that we always agree on everything. Some apologists might be elitist enough that they'd worry about the center being seen as a kind of "trade school". But I remain optimistic that such a center is plausible and could work.

Oh, no---don't think that I am disagreeing with you, per se, Dr. Robbers. I was merely wondering about some of the details. The devil is in the details, as the old saying goes.

I don't think it's viable yet, I think the various organizations need to gain some momentum first before a hub be founded. I guess in a way, kind of like a Time Share, there would first need to be enough going on to keep the center busy as it would primarily be for holding conferences and presenting papers, that sort of thing. I imagine a main hall with seating for maybe 250. Then one computer resource center with seating for about 15. Two libraries, one open access for all those with a membership, and the other would be locked under roughly the same conditions as the locked parts of the BYU library. I think a kitchen would be good. And definitely a small hall for memorabilia.

Huh. Do you foresee entrance requirements of some kind? I.e., would there need to be the Mopologetic equivalent of a Temple Recommend in order to get in?

[_harmony]

Huh. Do you foresee entrance requirements of some kind? I.e., would there need to be the Mopologetic equivalent of a Temple Recommend in order to get in?

A TR would be a necessity. Probably would need some sort of verification of education too. No high school grad only need apply. Advanced degree preferred.

[_solomarineris]

The game has grown old, Scratch.

don't you get it DCP?
People figured this this out long time ago.
nobody's buying it anymore.
How long you're gonna last?
I feel sorry for you.
Nobody can save LDS.
If I were you I'd jump ship;
Not today.
Yesterday

[_Gadianton]

Huh. Do you foresee entrance requirements of some kind? I.e., would there need to be the Mopologetic equivalent of a Temple Recommend in order to get in?

Sorry for the delay in my response, Mister Scratch. My morning had been tied up working on my presentation for the SMPT. I've just got to get underneath the last 150 words or so now to finish it off and then give it a quick polish.

Anyway, my answer is "no" and "yes". The only enterance requirement, or rather, the only requirement to get a yearly membership to use the facility, would be to pay the annual membership fee. Currently, there are no further requirements beyond financial to become a member of FARMS (a.k.a. "the review", FAIR, or SMPT (a.k.a. "the society" not to be confused with the port 25 thingy). I imagine scraping up these funds will be difficult for some of the junior apologists.

However, to enter into the locked library, there most certainly would be additional paperwork. Though, I imagine some if not all of this could be waived for a substantial non-refundable "deposit".

[_harmony]

...and the helpful negative hyperbole of harmony, who imagine a "Mopologetic Conference Center" from which images of Christ are wholly absent

Okay, you can have as many paintings of Christ as are normally allowed in LDS chapels. That would be... none.

We're rebels here. We still have ours, even though we've been ordered to take it down.

[_The Nehor]

Okay we have a fictional conspiracy of evil apologists who allegedly buy up book stores and will soon be forming an exclusive conference center. We know that it will not represent Christ lest it be seen as religious and will only have token General Authority pictures. It will have strict standards to keep out the riffraff through a combination of academic and spiritual credentials combined with a hearty dose of financial support. We'll add in a secret library that is only accessible in exchange for cash or a very strong need to know.

This is like one of those stories you add on to.

Here we go. We can get the Quorum of the Twelve Apostates a special room in the basement so they can sacrifice goats and licked cupcakes. We could put in a planetarium for Kolob hunting. Then we should hire some security with 'shoot to kill' orders for the non-initiated. I say we go with a blue carpet.

[_Daniel Peterson]

Okay, you can have as many paintings of Christ as are normally allowed in LDS chapels. That would be... none.

We're rebels here. We still have ours, even though we've been ordered to take it down.

There are pictures of Christ all over my home ward's building and the stake center in which I serve as a bishop. There are three paintings of Christ in my office alone, and they were there before I arrived.

There were pictures of Christ all over the chapel in California where I attended as a boy.

I've never heard of any policy forbidding paintings of Christ.

I was in the Church Administration Building on Friday, and there were paintings of Christ throughout it.

[_antishock8]

There were zero pictures of Christ in my ward building. We shared the building with three other wards (at one time four). As far as I know it was forbidden to place any pictures on the wall. How do I know? Because us "crazy" youth thought there should be a huge painting of Christ somewhere in the building.

It was denied. Four times.

[_John Larsen]

With a growing number of independent Mormon communities, especially apologetic communities, and very especially Provo centered apologetic communities, one wonders if it would be of any benefit for these organizations to coordinate their efforts? Well, we know that there is the purchasing of bookstores, why not a conference center of sorts that could be used for regular and special meetings? A center that could house a library of the most important Mopologetic books, and even office space for the most important administrators and senior apologists to work out of where there could be increased personal interface between various apologetic organizations?

I imagine that this center might have paintings of the great founders of apologetics such as Hugh Nibley. Of course, there could be token pictures and paintings of the prophets to maintain the "front". Such a center could even generate revenue by selling memberships, a kind of Mopologetic YMCA. This way, aspiring junior apologists and even mid-tier apologists lacking the heavy money flows could take advantage of the repository of materials without having to constantly make expensive book purchases -- as not all qualify for deep discounts or can afford travel to remote conferences.

It's just a thought. Certainly, some conferences would need to be held remotely at non-LDS schools to sell the appearance that the apologists are famous and that apologetics is very scholarly. Also, there shouldn't be too much integration between groups so each one can have plausible deniability with respect to the others, allowing for greater redundancy to ensure if one apologist or group makes a serious mistake, it doesn't carry any weight.

I don't know, maybe in twenty years or so such a thing could be a good idea? What do you guys think?

Wasn't this FARMS before the Church take over? I remember that little house they used to reside in just south of Campus. Maybe they are still there and were just annexed. I don't know.