Why Does Bill Hamblin Hate Sunstone?

[_Mike Reed]

The thread was closed now, and Hamblin (who apparently violated forum rules about Godwin's Law) remains free from public reprimand.

sigh...

Looks like I don't have to go back to church after all.

LOL! I guess not.

[_Yoda]

Gee whiz, Hamblin is really out of control over there. His rant is reminiscent of his disgusting outburst on RfM some years back.

Hey, Scratch, what happened on RfM?

[_Runtu]

Gee whiz, Hamblin is really out of control over there. His rant is reminiscent of his disgusting outburst on RfM some years back.

Hey, Scratch, what happened on RfM?

I'm not Scratch, but Dr. Bill used an extended analogy that employed racist terms and some rather ugly stuff regarding Jews. Apparently, anti-Semitism is the closest thing he sees to criticism of the church.

[_Mike Reed]

Hamblin wrote: "But whatever proportion they might be, the level of anti-Mormon static [at Sunstone] is too high. (And I have a very high tolerance for this type of crap, by the way.)"

[_Doctor Scratch]

Gee whiz, Hamblin is really out of control over there. His rant is reminiscent of his disgusting outburst on RfM some years back.

Hey, Scratch, what happened on RfM?

As I understand it, Hamblin and DCP used to post on RfM. They were booted off several times by the mods, but kept sneaking back in using different aliases. (You may have heard DCP complain that RfM is "one-sided" and that it "doesn't allow opposing viewpoints," which is more or less correct, but by golly if he and his pals didn't try and change that.) Anyways, Prof. Hamblin, in an apparently hate-fueled rage, posted the following to RfM:

"I get mad every time I think about those Kikes. The Kikes are so clannish; and they wear funny cloths. Those stupid Kikes always do what their Rabbis tell them. They think they should be obedient to God. What mindless Kikebots. They actually have 613 commandments; count ‘em--six hundred and thirteen. This proves they're a mind-control cult. You know, Kikes have committed murder and embezzled money. In fact, when a Kike commits murder, it's because he's a Kike. There is something about those Kikes that makes them violent. The Kikes are all rich, too. They control the money and politics of New York. Not just New York, they control Hollywood too, and want to control the politics of the entire country. Indeed, they are a threat to freedom and democracy. And their kosher rules are so-ooo stupid. They make me want to gag. Why shouldn't I eat a cheeseburger if I want to? You can't get a good ham sandwich in a Kike deli. I want a ham sandwich, and I'm not going to let those Kikes stop me from eating it. I sure hate those Kikes! They drive me nuts."

Pretty disgusting, right? He was (as he was doing on the recent MAD thread) trying to make a point about how critics of the Church--such as those at RfM--are actually a lot like raging anti-semites---i.e., he's comparing RfM digs at things like funeral potatoes and jello salad to the anti-semitic stuff about ham sandwiches and whatnot. You can read the post in its entirety here:

http://www.fairlds.org/Anti-Mormons/The ... space.html

[_Yoda]

Pretty disgusting, right? He was (as he was doing on the recent MAD thread) trying to make a point about how critics of the Church--such as those at RfM--are actually a lot like raging anti-semites---i.e., he's comparing RfM digs at things like funeral potatoes and jello salad to the anti-semitic stuff about ham sandwiches and whatnot. You can read the post in its entirety here:

OMG!

This is in horribly bad taste. I can't believe he posted something like that.

[_Doctor Scratch]

Pretty disgusting, right? He was (as he was doing on the recent MAD thread) trying to make a point about how critics of the Church--such as those at RfM--are actually a lot like raging anti-semites---i.e., he's comparing RfM digs at things like funeral potatoes and jello salad to the anti-semitic stuff about ham sandwiches and whatnot. You can read the post in its entirety here:

OMG!

This is in horribly bad taste. I can't believe he posted something like that.

Yup. What's equally remarkable are the various ways that the apologists (including DCP and The Nehor, the latter of whom claimed to have gotten approval of the remarks from a Jewish friend---i.e., that he, The Nehor, showed Hamblin's rant to a Jewish friend and the friend said that the remarks "weren't bad," or something like that) have tried to defend Hamblin's appalling behavior. It seems that Prof. Hamblin is consumed with abject hatred, which has in turn caused a very deep bias in his view of Church critics (hence his irrational dismissal of Sunstone).

[_Gadianton]

Another fine article, Doctor. It looks like Dr. Hamblin is in a real pickle here. Did he jettison Sunstone due to the acrostic incident, or due to a betrayal of Hugh Nibley? I'm glad I'm not an apologist in his situation, I'd be looking for a rock to hide under.

I also disagree that he has a high tolerance for the Sunstone "crap". I think he is very sensitive to it, it galls him.

Hamblin is also wrong to make the analogy to anti-Semitism. For many reasons. Among the top of the list of reasons, is that anti-Semitism comes from "Aryans", outsiders, while the "anti-Mormonism" at Sunstone, the jokes and so on, come from "Cultural Mormons".

Mormons are allowed to make fun of Mormon culture in the same way blacks are allowed to call each other the N* word and Jewish people are allowed to make fun of Jews. There was a hilarious episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm many years ago on this topic, and of course, since Larry David is Jewish he could pull it off.

[_Kishkumen]

The simple fact is that Hamblin was wrong, but the way in which he was wrong is very revealing. Revealing of what? His distorted view of Sunstone, which derives from his hostility toward a small number of its participants. It is also revealing of the very narrow way he constructs proper Mormon identity. For him, Mormon identity is only appropriate if it is orthodox along the lines of orthodoxy in Judaism. All other Mormon identities are evidently deserving of being associated with Neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers. So, regardless of how reasonable this Hamblin fellow might be in other respects, he is clearly off his gourd on the subject of Sunstone. The man is simply incapable of being the least bit fair or objective about it. This is what many Mormons get from one of the guiding lights of Mopologetics? Disturbing.

[_William Schryver]

I've lately been, as someone I know is wont to say, "inundated with professional commitments," but I'm glad I happened on this tonight:

Bill Hamblin wrote:

"I get mad every time I think about those Kikes. The Kikes are so clannish; and they wear funny cloths. Those stupid Kikes always do what their Rabbis tell them. They think they should be obedient to God. What mindless Kikebots. They actually have 613 commandments; count ‘em--six hundred and thirteen. This proves they're a mind-control cult. You know, Kikes have committed murder and embezzled money. In fact, when a Kike commits murder, it's because he's a Kike. There is something about those Kikes that makes them violent. The Kikes are all rich, too. They control the money and politics of New York. Not just New York, they control Hollywood too, and want to control the politics of the entire country. Indeed, they are a threat to freedom and democracy. And their kosher rules are so-ooo stupid. They make me want to gag. Why shouldn't I eat a cheeseburger if I want to? You can't get a good ham sandwich in a Kike deli. I want a ham sandwich, and I'm not going to let those Kikes stop me from eating it. I sure hate those Kikes! They drive me nuts."

For the record, Bill Hamblin is my kind of apologist.

His epic dismantling of Apologetic and Critical Assumptions about Book of Mormon Historicity is one of the canonized standards of polemical apologia-- at least in my personal canon. It should be required reading for everyone entering the Academy of Apologetics.

And yet, judging by the orgy of condemnation being heaped (almost, as it were, in a circle) upon his little "kike" parody, it is apparent -- yet again -- that the irony sensor is the first thing to wither into complete dysfunction once the exmormon is liberated from the chains of his former faith.

Go Bill!

Oh, and -- for the record -- I wouldn't be seen at Sunstone either, except perhaps as a heckler.

Come to think of it, that's not a bad idea ...