''The Foundation for Indigenous Research and Mormonism''

[_Mister Scratch]

Mister Scratch should seriously get on to this:

Specials.

Hi there, Ray. Thank you for summoning me out of the abyss.

Indeed, I have been ruminating at length on the issue of FIRM: is it a money-making scam? Is it a "rotten enterprise," as I believe FARMS is (well, the apologetics portion of FARMS, anyway)? To be honest, I'm not sure. Being the nice guy that I am, I would prefer to give Brother Meldrum the benefit of the doubt. Certainly, I get more of a sense of earnestness and faithfulness from him than I do from the typical FARMS drone. That is to say, I come away feeling that Bro. Meldrum is, in effect, trying to do something positive within the confines of his faith. And I just cannot say the same of FARMS/FAIR/SHIELDS. These latter organizations are interested in tearing down and destroying.

Ultimately, I think that Bro. Meldrum and his organization simply lack sophistication and experience. If he had in his employ a professional, highly compensated LDS "fundraiser," then I'm sure he'd be getting a lot of advice regarding disclosure of certain costs and expenses. FARMS was very wise to associate itself with BYU, and thus to conceal its "non-profit" financial reports.

In short: I don't think that Meldrum's organization is any more of a "money-making scheme" than FARMS, or the LDS Church, for that matter. Further, if we are to treat FIRM as an "apologetic" organization, then I would say that it is a far, far better animal than FARMS and its ilk.

[_Mister Scratch]

Do you "predict" a time when the Maxwell Institute will get out of Mormon issues entirely to concentrate on projects like ISPART?

No.

Nor do I anticipate, await, expect, prophesy, foretell, imagine, or forecast such a time.

You see, Dr. Shades, ISPART/FARMS/MI has never really been about Middle Eastern texts, or Islamic studies, or anything like that, per se. I have speculated for a long time that its chief function is first and foremost Mopologetics. The other stuff is a ruse, meant to help lend credibility to the true function, which is LDS apologetics.

Has the Maxwell Institute done worthwhile, non-Mormon work? Yes, most definitely. Would it have done such work if it didn't have to? I sincerely doubt it.

[_Persephone]

You see, Dr. Shades, ISPART/FARMS/MI has never really been about Middle Eastern texts, or Islamic studies, or anything like that, per se. I have speculated for a long time that its chief function is first and foremost Mopologetics. The other stuff is a ruse, meant to help lend credibility to the true function, which is LDS apologetics.

One word: DUH!

You do have to admit that it was a masterstroke on the part of the illustrious Arabist, Daniel Peterson, to identify something like medieval Islamic texts as something MI could get involved with that was low-risk and high-reward. In the first place, the actual translation process is inherently uncontroversial, and if you are simply methodical and relatively precise (things Mormons are generally quite good at) then you will be able to produce a product that will garner universally positive reviews for the project – and by extension, for the institute itself. And, in the end, without ever having had to risk anything (or to produce any scholarship of real substance), the institute achieves a semblance of scholarly gravitas from the unsuspecting people around the planet who will read a METI publication of something by Maimonides and, as expected, applaud on cue, publishing positive reviews of the “valuable contribution to scholarship” being made by the Maxwell Institute.

I’m telling you, it is a brilliant approach to the ongoing challenge of people not taking FARMS and BYU seriously.

In the meantime, the “heavyweights” of the whole FARMS cabal (Peterson, Midgley, Roper, Hamblin, etc.) can focus on the matters of paramount importance: debunking the evil critics on one hand and the orthodox fundies like Meldrum on the other.

[_Daniel Peterson]

METI as Trojan horse.

ROTFL!

Great stuff here. So seemingly earnest, so bizarrely wrong-headed.




.

[_christopher]

That is to say, I come away feeling that Bro. Meldrum is, in effect, trying to do something positive within the confines of his faith.

I have always felt the same way about Paul Osborne and his Book of Abraham/egyptology stuff.

Ultimately, I think that Bro. Meldrum and his organization simply lack sophistication and experience.

Again, the same with Osborne.

[_Mister Scratch]

METI as Trojan horse.

ROTFL!




.

Your laughter does very little to explain why the Church/BYU decided to sanction the unholy union of apologetics and METI work, and to house them under one roof. Why, one has to wonder, would these two seemingly unrelated departments be housed together? Why not have an Institute devoted solely to apologetics? It is a very legitimate question---one for which Mopologists have never provided an adequate answer.

[_Daniel Peterson]

I've explained it on numerous occasions.

I've even explained it in firesides.

the unholy union of apologetics and METI work

LOL.

[_Mister Scratch]

I've explained it on numerous occasions.

I've even explained it in firesides.

Feel free to enlighten us.

[_Persephone]

METI as Trojan horse.

ROTFL!

Great stuff here. So seemingly earnest, so bizarrely wrong-headed.




.

Not a Trojan Horse, by any means.

More like a legitimate, and yes, even profitable, front business for something somewhat less respectable going on in the back rooms.

Chicago-style entrepreneurialism, in the heart of Zion.

[_Daniel Peterson]

First of all, Persephone Scratch, let me say that it’s great to have you here along with your kinsman Mister Scratch (the chieftain of the clan) and his subordinates Gadianton Scratch and Rollo Tomasi Scratch. Perhaps your participation here will console us for the sad absence of Kishkumen Scratch, who, after only a brief sojourn in our midst, appears to have gone on walkabout. Your panegyrics to the insights of Mister Scratch are every bit as full-throated and devout as those of the departed Kishkumen Scratch, which suggests that your soprano/tenor duets with your fellow encomiast Gadianton Scratch, who tends to take a more personally reverential tone toward the Master, will fill the void left when the old countertenor/tenor duo broke up.

Perhaps Mister Scratch has found his Homer(s). The Trojans would probably have been largely forgotten had it not been for the original bard.

Feel free to enlighten us.

I've always felt free to do that. But my efforts have fallen on pretty barren soil with you, so I don't think I'll waste my time any more. It just gets me tangled up with endless, pointless, fruitless attempts at conversing with you, in which you inevitably claim that I'm lying.

Any non-Scratch who is actually interested in the history of METI, though, and in how it came to be associated with FARMS (and then, ultimately, with the Maxwell Institute) is welcome to contact me by PM. I'll happily answer. (Conspiracy-fantasists will be disappointed, I'm afraid; It's a very prosaic story.) It may even be, for that matter, that I've already told the story somewhere on line or in print. I just can't recall at the moment.