Matt Roper-Greg Smith: The Gift of December 2009

[_sock puppet]

Ahh, days gone-by. Two years ago now, mopologist Greg Smith announced on MAD (as MD&D was then so appropriately known) that the mythical "2nd Watson Letter" had been found, and he would shortly be receiving a copy of it from Matt Roper. In cleaning out of FARMS old BYU digs to move into their new NAMIRS ones, Matt Roper had come across the long since misplaced 2nd Watson Letter that Bill Hamblin had cited in a FARMS-published article to crack open the door of possibility from the FP that the Book of Mormon Hill Cumorah was not situate in upstate New York--one of those indefensible, pesky Book of Mormon problems.

With anticipation, bated breath, and impatience, Smith was pestered for going on two weeks before the 2nd Watson Letter arrived to him from Provo. Smith promptly posted it on MAD. But no, it wasn't a letter from the FP's set-apart Secretary (an ecclesiastical position), but from staffer Carla Ogden. It was not on FP letter head, but merely set forward on fax cover sheet. It was not even signed by staffer Carla Ogden. And to top it off, it merely lifted verbiage that had been drafted by an academic and published two years earlier at BYU itself.

You can just hear in your mind to this day the sound of Hamblin's and Peterson's chins hitting a tile floor as their faux pas was being exposed. Protestation by Peterson ensued. He'd held an actual 2nd Watson Letter in his hands, seen it with his eyes. His memory would not play such tricks on him. Yet Roper who was the one who had solicited the Carla Ogden fax back in April 1993 had already identified it to apologist compadre Greg Smith as the 2nd Watson Letter.

And that is how the fiasco unfolded, and it became clear that NAMIRS had merely chosen to inflate and rely on an unsigned fax from a staffer, named Carla Ogden, regurgitating text provided her from a BYU publication to dispute what the 1st Watson Letter in October 1990 had made clear: the position of the FP/Church is that the Book of Mormon Hill Cumorah, where hundreds of thousands had fought a great battle and died in the waning years of the Book of Mormon narrative, was situate in upstate New York, the very hill from which JSJr extracted the gold plates record.

My purpose in recapping this saga in mopologetics at this time is not only to mark its second anniversary, nor only to acquaint those not reading MDB back in December 2009 with these events. My main purpose is to ask if anyone knows what measures may have been taken internally at NAMIRS since then to prevent such 'leaks' like the one that took place at the hands of Roper and Greg Smith from recurring and putting more egg on the face of NAMIRS, and specifically Peterson and Hamblin.

How might that new bureaucratic injunctive have gone down. This is the think tank to defend Mormonism against scholarly criticisms. Could they be so cheeky internally as to say, nothing goes out of NAMIRS offices without first begin passed by Peterson? Not necessary if all you are defending is the truth, but that is a necessary measure for damage control if you have or potentially have something to hide.

It seems that we've now went two years without another damaging leak, so one might conclude that whatever the bureaucratic steps taken internally at NAMIRS have been successful to date in keeping the dirty laundry hidden.

Anyone know of any specifics?

[_Buffalo]