What motivates a man like Gerald Bradford

[_Kishkumen]

The extent of involvement in the article fiasco is what I find interesting here and the possibility that there could actually be Brethren who enjoy Mormon Stories and hate the mopologetics. I wish we knew how it actually played out and to what extent that is true. I get the impression that there are multiple factions and that the Brethren promote people that they care about and so if a Seventy went with a concern, I could see regardless of their position the leader who originally placed him in that position supporting their man.

I don't know whether any GA or apostle really supports Mormon Stories per se, as something that they personally agree with or what have you. I think it might be more the case that they, like John Dehlin, see that ostracizing family members and friends over their feelings about gays in the Church or the historicity of the Book of Mormon is actually counterproductive and harmful. If anyone wants to know why there are so many bad feelings about the Church, beyond vaguely attributing it all to Satan, then I would say that stigmatizing the loss of faith in the way it has traditionally been stigmatized is a fairly decent explanation.

So, what do you do with Mormon Stories? Cut it off at the knees, when it has had such an appeal to those who are on the margins or still attached to the community, but non-believing? Or try to allow the people in that place to have some breathing room to just be, and thus avoid creating angry enemies of the LDS Church? I think that the latter path is the way to go, but it is the path that classic-FARMS rhetoric has little or no tolerance for.

[_Droopy]

The extent of involvement in the article fiasco is what I find interesting here and the possibility that there could actually be Brethren who enjoy Mormon Stories and hate the mopologetics.

Wouldn't it just be really cool if there really were General Authorities of the Church who were themselves dabbling in apostasy and Neo-Orthodoxy? Wouldn't it be nice if John Dehlin's story was true?

I wish we knew how it actually played out and to what extent that is true.

So do I. What's interesting, as I scan the world of Internet anti-Mormonism, is that, even thought there is no evidence whatever that Dehlin's personal anecdotal narrative is true, it has been taken at face value, without corroboration or documentary evidence, as settled fact.

I get the impression that there are multiple factions and that the Brethren promote people that they care about and so if a Seventy went with a concern, I could see regardless of their position the leader who originally placed him in that position supporting their man.

Yes, play that angle up. Get Scratch worked up into a thick and frothy lather. Its about time to resurrect the "Packer Faction" and its squabbling dissenters, isn't it?

If an apostle was involved in Dan's dismissal as well, then I think Bradford should have told him and I feel really bad for the amount of egg that is going to be on all the mopologist's faces when they eventually come to that realization.

I'm quite satisfied at this juncture that John Dehlin is eventually going to close up shop, pack his bags, go back to his choir, and wait for another auspicious opportunity to attack and impugn the Church and its defenders. I think that the wind is going to go out of Dehlin's sails once he milks the public teet of NOM sympathy and crocodile tears for all he can extract from it, and, since he actually has no evidence, facts, or rational basis for his claims regarding the NMI purge, the 100 page essay on his beliefs and activities, and his Blue Meanie narrative of anyone who doesn't credulously imbibe his ideology and goals in wide eyed gullibility (or self serving gratitude), he will retire and live to fight another day, on another field of battle.

[_Morley]

I'm quite satisfied at this juncture that John Dehlin is eventually going to close up shop, pack his bags, go back to his choir, and wait for another auspicious opportunity to attack and impugn the Church and its defenders. I think that the wind is going to go out of Dehlin's sails once he milks the public teet of NOM sympathy and crocodile tears for all he can extract from it, and, since he actually has no evidence, facts, or rational basis for his claims regarding the NMI purge, the 100 page essay on his beliefs and activities, and his Blue Meanie narrative of anyone who doesn't credulously imbibe his ideology and goals in wide eyed gullibility (or self serving gratitude), he will retire and live to fight another day, on another field of battle.

A veritable plethora of mixed metaphors.

1) close up shop, pack his bags, go back to his choir
2) the wind is going to go out of Dehlin's sails once he milks the public teet of NOM sympathy and crocodile tears
3) his Blue Meanie narrative of anyone who doesn't credulously imbibe his ideology and goals in wide eyed gullibility

I can't begin to choose.

[_Morley]

Loose the Hounds of War to howl at the Man in the Moon who is tilting at the windmills of doom till the tide comes in.

[Guest]

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[Guest]

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[_Doctor Scratch]

For me the single biggest piece of evidence concerning an apostle's involvement in L'affaire Dehlin is the fact that the Greg Smith "hit piece" still hasn't been published. I mean, what's stopping them? It would take mere seconds to upload the thing to FAIR. Is Greg Smith worried that he won't have the same massive audience he enjoyed via the Review? Is he concerned that it won't carry the same air of authority? If the purpose of the piece was (as has been suggested) to show everyone that Dehlin is a "wolf in sheep's clothing," then you would think that these guys would feel a certain sense of urgency, and yet.... Nothing. They are probably terrified of getting in trouble with the Q12.

[_Equality]

For me the single biggest piece of evidence concerning an apostle's involvement in L'affaire Dehlin is the fact that the Greg Smith "hit piece" still hasn't been published. I mean, what's stopping them? It would take mere seconds to upload the thing to FAIR. Is Greg Smith worried that he won't have the same massive audience he enjoyed via the Review? Is he concerned that it won't carry the same air of authority? If the purpose of the piece was (as has been suggested) to show everyone that Dehlin is a "wolf in sheep's clothing," then you would think that these guys would feel a certain sense of urgency, and yet.... Nothing. They are probably terrified of getting in trouble with the Q12.

I suspect they may be editing it to soften the tone so no one could reasonably characterize it as a "hit piece." Or maybe Lucy Harris burned the manuscript.

[_lulu]

For me the single biggest piece of evidence concerning an apostle's involvement in L'affaire Dehlin is the fact that the Greg Smith "hit piece" still hasn't been published. I mean, what's stopping them? It would take mere seconds to upload the thing to FAIR. Is Greg Smith worried that he won't have the same massive audience he enjoyed via the Review? Is he concerned that it won't carry the same air of authority? If the purpose of the piece was (as has been suggested) to show everyone that Dehlin is a "wolf in sheep's clothing," then you would think that these guys would feel a certain sense of urgency, and yet.... Nothing. They are probably terrified of getting in trouble with the Q12.

I suspect they may be editing it to soften the tone so no one could reasonably characterize it as a "hit piece." Or maybe Lucy Harris burned the manuscript.

Fortunately, a 2nd set of plates was included in the set.

[_Doctor Scratch]

For me the single biggest piece of evidence concerning an apostle's involvement in L'affaire Dehlin is the fact that the Greg Smith "hit piece" still hasn't been published. I mean, what's stopping them? It would take mere seconds to upload the thing to FAIR. Is Greg Smith worried that he won't have the same massive audience he enjoyed via the Review? Is he concerned that it won't carry the same air of authority? If the purpose of the piece was (as has been suggested) to show everyone that Dehlin is a "wolf in sheep's clothing," then you would think that these guys would feel a certain sense of urgency, and yet.... Nothing. They are probably terrified of getting in trouble with the Q12.

I suspect they may be editing it to soften the tone so no one could reasonably characterize it as a "hit piece."

Hmm. I just can't envision them doing that. For one thing, they have never seemed to believe that anything that do is a "hit piece." They don't even seem to understand if/when their rhetoric crosses over into problem territory. Plus, given the "leaks" at the Maxwell Institute, they would have to be wary of a case where an "enemy" already had a copy of the original on hand for the sake of comparison. If they tried to revise it and publish a "watered down" version, and this original copy were to surface, it would be tacit admission on their part that they were aware of their rotten tone, and knew they needed to address and eliminate it.

But I'm still going with my initial assessment, which is that they are afraid of pissing off a General Authority in the Q12. None of the other speculations re: trying to fix tone, etc., seems as likely to me.

Just my .02.