I'm going to hazard based on tacit agreement that he's more conservative and anti-Muslim than you think. His current Church associated employment prevents him from expressly speaking his mind, when he's posting as DCP that is.
I really don't know what his views on Islam are, to any degree. A question did arise in my mind in the interview he did in which he states that he didn't feel free to criticize some aspects of Islam openly because, as I recall, he wished continued access to certain people and institutions relative to his scholarly interests. I can also understand that there may be some church related cautions involved.
Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father [in Heaven] and how familiar his face is to us
- President Ezra Taft Benson
I am so old that I can remember when most of the people promoting race hate were white.
Droopy wrote:So, being that Don Bradley was just re-baptized a couple of years ago, if he still believes his "gripes" about the Church are genuine, and "wishes the Church were true," can you tell me why he re-entered the Church, and what he feels his role within it to be?
Don't be an ass, Loran. Don went back to the church and believes in it. You should be welcoming him, not showing him the door.
If there's one thing I know about Don, his motivation in returning to the church was pure, and it is a testament to his character that he followed his spiritual beliefs.
I do remember him saying, however, long ago, that Islam needed a thorough reformation, something alone the lines of the Protestant Reformation.
A number of other conservative intellectuals would agree.
Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father [in Heaven] and how familiar his face is to us
- President Ezra Taft Benson
I am so old that I can remember when most of the people promoting race hate were white.
I really don't know what his views on Islam are, to any degree. A question did arise in my mind in the interview he did in which he states that he didn't feel free to criticism some aspects of Islam openly because, as I recall, he wished continued access to certain people and institutions relative to his scholarly interests. I can also understand that there may be some church related cautions involved.
Yes. There really is no such thing as academic freedom, even here in the USA.
Don't be an ass, Loran. Don went back to the church and believes in it. You should be welcoming him, not showing him the door.
Please cease your sanctimonious bleating, John. Wipe the foam off the floor and ask Graham the same question I asked him. He's the one who has implied directly that Don still harbors doubts and reservations on certain key Church teachings, not me.
Had Kevin not brought it up, I wouldn't have thought of broaching the subject in this thread.
Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father [in Heaven] and how familiar his face is to us
- President Ezra Taft Benson
I am so old that I can remember when most of the people promoting race hate were white.
Droopy, the fact that Don has left the Church and then came back, and still disagrees with your attitude towards "apostates," is further evidence that you are simply out of touch. Don't presume that just because DOn came back, that he in any way agrees with you on this. He and other LDS folks like Bokovoy and Hauglid are among the few who actually "get it." No wonder you can't stand them.
They have more insight into what goes on in the mind of an apostate than you ever will. All you ever do is judge, and you do so based on what the Church tells you to think about us. As I told Don today, I truly wish the Church were true. But it isn't. It is really that simple. All this psychobabble about why people leave the Church is just crap Mormons say to make themselves feel better about the fact that others have taken an intellectual path and it led them out of the Church. The rest of you are hunkering down in your faith of what you want to be true, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I don;t know the details of Don's apostasy, why he left, or why he returned. You can ask him if you like, though I doubt you will. The point is Don and others are in a better position to speak on the apostate's psyche, and they clearly disagree with you are your ilk.
According to you, we're all just a bunch of disgruntled people who are driven by hate. Nothing could be further from the truth, and those in the Church who actually take the time to get to know us, can testify to this. But that would require a Christian heart and desire to understand. Something which you, and the Church as a whole, sorely lacks.
Droopy wrote:Please cease your sanctimonious bleating, John. Wipe the foam off the floor and ask Graham the same question I asked him. He's the one who has implied directly that Don still harbors doubts and reservations on certain key Church teachings, not me.
No, he didn't. He said nothing about Don't doubts or reservations, because Don has not expressed any.
Had Kevin not brought it up, I wouldn't have thought of broaching the subject in this thread.
Except Kevin didn't bring up Don's personal feelings about the church. You did.
Last edited by cacheman on Mon May 07, 2012 11:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I really don't know what his views on Islam are, to any degree. A question did arise in my mind in the interview he did in which he states that he didn't feel free to criticism some aspects of Islam openly because, as I recall, he wished continued access to certain people and institutions relative to his scholarly interests. I can also understand that there may be some church related cautions involved.
Yes. There really is no such thing as academic freedom, even here in the USA.
No there isn't. The LDS pov can get you blacklisted from many graduate schools or tenure. Same goes for a conservative pov. Conservative speakers often can't give a speech at many universities without interruption or violence etc. The world of academia is no longer academic. Same goes for journalism.
I will say this, however. I understand from private communication with another member of the apologetic community that Don is part of a small group of LDS scholars who are convinced that the Book of Abraham was the product of Joseph Smith's imagination, and is best understood as 19th century religious literature similar in nature to the way in which Anthony Hutchinson perceives the Book of Mormon, as "inspired fiction," and that, although the Book of Abraham contains, in some sense, inspired teachings, it is not an authentic ancient document, and the original author was not Abraham.
I understand Hauglid is friendly to this point of view as well.
Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father [in Heaven] and how familiar his face is to us
- President Ezra Taft Benson
I am so old that I can remember when most of the people promoting race hate were white.