Revisiting the story of Paul H. Dunn

[Guest]

I had the opportunity head up the Sunday session of a youth convention, at which we had secured Elder Dunn as the final speaker.
He related his baseball and war stories. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. In the period afterwards I was congratulated on a tremendous convention and in particular how strong the Spirit had been during the Sunday session.

Two questions I have subsequently pondered:
1. If that was the Spirit people felt then lying can't be against God's wishes?
2. If that wasn't the Spirit how can you differentiate between the Spirit and emotion?

[_Stormy Waters]

The Sunstone article is quite good and probably the best known work about Dunn and his stories and shady activities. Packer wrote another article that is less well know that was published about a year later. This was published in Utah Holiday and deals with Dunn's business schemes. Packer always said this was the real story, the baseball/military stories were dessert.

After reading the Utah Holiday article now I don't think there is any room left to say that maybe he was simply a misguided but well intentioned person. It's too bad they didn't emphasize the business dealings. I think a lot of future problems with Mormons and MLMs could have been avoided if they'd made a bigger deal out of it, or if the church had publicly condemed him for using his leadership position as leverage into business dealings.

I don't understand, why ignore the business part of the story?

[_kjones]

Specifically I was thinking of whether or not it effected the testimonies of the people who lived through it, or if it was even a big deal at the time.

I don't recall it causing anyone to lose their testimony. I think people were angry and/or felt sorry for him.

Most people did and do not now about the business shenanigans.

Rumor (and this is all it was. I was never able to confirm this) that he was released from being a Seventy because of Packer's news stories. Rumor went so far as saying he was disfellowshiped. I think this last rumor was just that, rumor, with no truth.

This all happened around the same time the SCMC was exposed at Sunstone when Gene England made his now famous comment. And with in a year of Packer's article the six people were excommunicated and disfellowshiped in September. It was pointed out that none of these people took others life savings in a Ponzi scheme. Then after this Paul Poelman (Ronald Poelmans brother)was released as Stake Pres. and excommunicated for being arrested after soliciting a prostitute.

Packer told the audience that he felt “[President Poelman had] stepped forward in a way that took courage,” Packer said. “I felt relieved about President and Sister Poelman. Whatever else will take place, there will be no eternal consequences.” Then he asked the audience to keep the matter confidential: “President and Sister Poelman’s lives need to be private now… The Lord directed us to be brothers and sisters. We are a family. A family keeps things private. A family draws close together. These things are to be kept private.”

Those were fun times!

I have a very specific question here. Did Elder Packer really say, at the conference in which Pres. Poleman was released as SP...did he really say "there will be no eternal consequences". Or is this just your memory?

[_kjones]

Packer told the audience that he felt “[President Poelman had] stepped forward in a way that took courage"....

He was busted, wasn't he? Is this the sp who was actually caught in his car with a hooker, in the act, etc, etc? So I don't know where the idea came from that he "stepped forward in a way that took courage". Usually people who are caught doing that kind of thing have been in the habit of doing it for a long time. Somebody does not suddenly get the idea to go out and get a hooker. It's like a DUI. A first time drinker does not get a DUI, rather the people who get DUIs are people who have made a habit out of drinking and driving and then one day they get busted. So I don't know where the "stepped forward in a way that took courage" came from.

Unless this was Elder Packer being merciful, which I am all in favor of.

[_Dr. Shades]

Packer told the audience that he felt “[President Poelman had] stepped forward in a way that took courage,” Packer said. “I felt relieved about President and Sister Poelman. Whatever else will take place, there will be no eternal consequences.” Then he asked the audience to keep the matter confidential: “President and Sister Poelman’s lives need to be private now… The Lord directed us to be brothers and sisters. We are a family. A family keeps things private. A family draws close together. These things are to be kept private.”

It seems strange that Packer would want to keep Poelman's dirty laundry under wraps but then turn around and air Dunn's dirty laundry to the wind. Why the double-standard, I wonder?

[_sock puppet]

When the Sunstone article came out, I was amused. The guy who supposedly died in Dunn's arms in one of his war stories, was actually alive and well. Haaaa Haaaaa!!

I hope the life insurance company got paid back.

After being exposed, I think it was Dunn who came out with the explanation comparing the stories he told to the parables of Jesus.

Yeah, nothing like a professed disciple of Jesus dragging Jesus down to the level of the disciple's shenanigans. Big differences: Jesus didn't put himself in the middle of these stories as the heroic protagonist and I don't think reporter Lynn Packer has yet disproved the parables.

I have to get some of those Paul Dunn cassette tapes. What a great white elephant gift they would make.

Still go to holiday parties with mos, huh?

[_Jonah]

I have to get some of those Paul Dunn cassette tapes. What a great white elephant gift they would make.

Still go to holiday parties with mos, huh?

Haaaa Haaaa!! Naaaawwwwww. I was put on the "Do not invite...do not contact" for parties list after bringing edible underwear to the last Elders Quorum white elephant X-mas party I attended. Banana flavored for him, wild cherry flavored for her.

[_Stormy Waters]

I found an interesting comment from Lynn Packer in the August 1992 Edition of Sunstone. Pg 66

https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/088-63-69.pdf

Mormon JOURNALIST Lynn Packer recently said that if he had known that he would lose two jobs because of his news stories about the LDS church he would not have done them. "I’m not a martyr," he told the Salt Lake Tribune. "With benefit of hindsight, I wouldn’t do it again." Packer said he lost a job as a reporter for the Church-owned KSL-TV because of his aggressive reporting on the Church’s involvement with convicted murderer and document forger Mark Hofmann. Packer also said he was denied continued employment as a non-tenured BYU journalism instructor because of his investigations into the finances and baseball and war stories of Elder Paul H. Dunn, which were reported by the Arizona Republic, Utah Holiday, and SUNSTONE

[_sock puppet]

I've wondered why some reporter, in the vein of Lynn Packer, has not exposed Gene R Cook for that whopper of a story he concocted and told repeatedly about talking to Mick Jagger on an airplane ride on October 30, 1983 from Mexico City to Texas (date per Cook's son, Troy, in a February 18, 2010 posting here, claimed to have been taken from Cook's journal, though Cook won't release his journal and Troy won't quote from the October 30, 1983 entry).

[_Stormy Waters]

I've wondered why some reporter, in the vein of Lynn Packer, has not exposed Gene R Cook for that whopper of a story he concocted and told repeatedly about talking to Mick Jagger on an airplane ride on October 30, 1983 from Mexico City to Texas (date per Cook's son, Troy, in a February 18, 2010 posting here, claimed to have been taken from Cook's journal, though Cook won't release his journal and Troy won't quote from the October 30, 1983 entry).

I've thought that perhaps Jagger was mocking Cook but that Cook didn't understand.