Did DCP deny being paid for apologetics?

[_Doctor Scratch]

There's no question that he tried extremely hard to downplay the fact that he received financial compensation for his apologetics. As others have already pointed out, he typically has played this game of equivocation, where he says, "Not one dime of my salary pays for apologetics." Is this true? And does it answer the question of whether or not he is paid at all for apologetics, and how much? The answer is "No" to both questions.

In the late 1990s (either 1997 or 1998, If I recall correctly), DCP acted as the "Chair of FARMS" and he was paid just over $20,000 (this is a matter of public record, by the way). When we asked him about this, he told us that, in actuality, this 20K had been carved out of his salary. That is: he wasn't paid an *additional* 20 grand; twenty grand was, instead, taken out of his normal salary to cover his apologetic work for FARMS. So the truth is that, at times, many, many "dimes" have gone towards his apologetics, though to be fair, his response at the time was that he didn't "consider" the work he did to be "apologetic" in nature. Whether or not this is yet another equivocation is debatable, I suppose, though I'm inclined to think that the administrative work that supports Mopologetics is still technically Mopologetics.

By now there's really no question that he got paid to do apologetics; it seems to me that the terms of the discussion have now advanced to the provocative question of how much he was compensated. This is an especially sore topoic for DCP because he has often used money as a means of bashing away at Church critics and anti-Mormons: e.g., Ed Decker is "only in it for the money," or Rodney Meldrum is a "snake oil salesman." This has been such an important rhetorical tool for the Mopologists in the past, so it's understandable that DCP would blow a valve over the prospect of critics being able to say that the apologists are profiting from their work.

So, how much was he paid? His claim at the moment is that his remuneration was scarecely more than the federal minimum wage. (Did he actually mean "living wage," I wonder?) He also says that it was a standard "fee," which makes me think that it actually wasn't calculated out as an hourly wage, but was, instead, set at some pre-specified sum--say, $2,000. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25, so if he was paid $2,000, that would mean that he worked for something like 275 hours to produce a typical issue of the Review. (That's nearly 7 5-day work weeks, for you non-number crunchers out there.) The thing is: we've now seen financial figures for the new Mormon Interpreter, and it raises a whole new set of questions. It sets the editing wages at $50 per hour, which of course is lightyears beyond what Dr. Peterson says he was paid for the Review. The MI statement also says that the editor was paid $1,000, which at that rate means that it took only 20 hours to edit that particular issue of the Mormon Interpreter. So as you can see, the figures just don't add up.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Well, you also have to consider the costs of his jet-setting around the world to conduct apologetics (in addition to his usual business of MES business). Traveling to all sorts of locations that would make the average person greed, er, green with envy could be considered a sort of "perk" to conducting apologetics all the while being paid a salary as a BYU professor.

Personally? I'm happy for the gentleman. Anyone who can get others to pay for exotic trips to Europe and the Middle East to wile away his time yappin' up a storm is a shrewd individual, indeed. Who knew that being a professor of MES afforded one so much free time to trip the light fantastic, and spend countless hours pursuing one's own personal interests!

Good on him. Just don't pretend that you're not "making a living by the temple" when you know you are.

Second, no part of my salary -- absolutely none, not a dime -- comes from my apologetic undertakings.

V/R
Dr. Cam

[_suniluni2]

From Daniel C. Peterson (even used his @BYU.edu email account), November 5, 2005 @ 1:55pm to Infymus:

However, in the meanwhile I would like to correct a misstatement at your site: "Daniel C. Peterson," you say, "is paid directly by the Mormon Church to contradict, counteract, suppress, withhold and dismiss any claims made by persons outside the LDS Church."

This is not true.

First, I'm not paid "directly by the Mormon Church" at all. I'm paid by Brigham Young University, as are all other professors and staff at the University (including those who are not Latter-day Saints). Thus, at best, I'm indirectly paid by the Mormon Church. This is less dramatic than your formulation, but it's more accurate.

As far as I know, no one is paid directly by the Mormon Church, not even "church employees." I believe they are paid by the Corp of the Presiding Bishop, or some other corporate entity.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Hence the weasel wording comment...

V/R
Dr. Cam

[_Chap]

Translation from New Speak:

BYU pays DCP a salary for being a professor of Islamic Studies.

MI paid DCP a small honorarium for doing apologetics.

Thus, none of DCP salary, not one dime, supported apologetics.

We can move on now to what the meaning of "small" is, trying to avoid on the way what the meaning of "is" is and whether blow jobs are "sex."

That is what I always thought myself when I read those 'not one dime of my salary' posts from DCP. Many academics receive income that is additional to their salary and is paid to them by sources other than those from which their salaries come. DCP was evidently one of those.

But not so fast! Maybe that depends what 'was' was, or even is. I am such a crude simplistic guy that I never thought of that.