Doctor Scratch wrote:Yes: by definition, Mopologetics is "evil." * * * it's not about defending the Restored Gospel. It's about the seriously misguided hope that they can stomp the everliving bejesus out of Church critics.
Indeed. Mopologetics is about defending "the Church" against the words and deeds of JSJr and BY, and pockets of other pronouncements ascribed as 'God's commandments' like the 1949 statement of the FP on blacks and the priesthood. The prevalence of those words and deeds in this digital age is as daunting as Santa Ana's 1,500 troops must have been in the late winter of 1836.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Lou, Dan and Bill have been wielding their knives in what has been and always will be a gun fight. Slashing and jabbing at anything that will bleed, vainly hoping that the sight of red blood will encourage the Mormon garrison. But they are not noble and heroic like Bowie, Travis or Crockett. They are punks like a street gang in east LA.
Doctor Scratch wrote:Yes: by definition, Mopologetics is "evil." That's because it's different from basic apologetics, which is simply a defense of the faith. Thus there is a noticeable gulf between something "apologetic," like, say, Rough Stone Rolling, and, e.g., "Text and Context," or the latest Midgley piece in the MI. Mopologists don't really have any remaining decency or scruples--they've cast aside the etiquette of normal scholarly (or, heck, just normal day-to-day) interaction in favor of ad hominem attack, smear campaigns, character assassination, and "hit pieces." There is no "good" in this; it is entirely about revenge. It's not about saving people's testimonies (or, at least, it is only tangentially about this); it's not about defending the Restored Gospel. It's about the seriously misguided hope that they can stomp the everliving bejesus out of Church critics. It's about them taking out all the old grudges that the feel over getting made fun of for believing in Mormonism.
This isn't to say that the Mopologists don't also do regular apologetics. I would just say that, by definition, "Mopologetics" is the "defense of the faith" that crosses over into genuinely bad and unscrupulous behavior.
I agree. It's all about personalities, grievances, and revenge.
"It doesn't seem fair, does it Norm--that I should have so much knowledge when there are people in the world that have to go to bed stupid every night." -- Clifford C. Clavin, USPS
"¡No contaban con mi astucia!" -- El Chapulin Colorado