Mayan Elephant wrote:Scratch,
Thanks for the list. i enjoyed that.
i am curious how you ranked or considered the recent events and announcement of a new apologetics effort from yet another BYU professor, mr. hancock.this enterprise, which might be called “moral apologetics” or perhaps “anti-ideological apologetics.”
https://ldsmag.com/meridian-expands-to- ... al-issues/
It'll be worth watching, I suppose, but I'm not holding out much hope for this. The Hon. Rev. Kishkumen once referred to Hancock as a "Doink," and it's becoming increasingly difficult to disagree with that characterization. It's hard not to laugh at how much he's hedging, and how much he's falling back on "politically correct" language--this in spite of all his talk about Standing Up For What's Right, and Being Courageous. He's making these vague allusions to "freedom" and "equality," but he seems unwilling to lay his chips on the table and say what he actually means. The reality is that he doesn't like gay people, doesn't want them to be equal to straight people, doesn't want them to be able to get married, and (probably) doesn't want them to be allowed to have sex. If he was legitimately "courageous," he'd just come right out and say this, but instead, you get this weirdly conspiratorial rhetoric from him, talking about how his career might be in jeopardy, etc. There's a pretty easy means of testing out his sincerity, though: ask him to name 10 gay couples that he personally knows, and ask him to lay out his arguments as specifically and explicitly as he possibly can. My prediction? It's never going to happen. The Mopologists will whine about this sort of thing off-the-record and on the L-Skinny list, but I'll be shocked if Meridian--or whatever the stupid name for this new venture is--comes out and actually addresses the issues head-on.
It's worth pointing out that, per the list, the defining Mopologetic moment of 2014 was "The Kingpin" of Mopologetics getting called a "coward"--in public, at the most important yearly gathering of Mopologists. That's devastating, and DCP himself hasn't really done anything to counter it, besides hand the baton off to Hamblin, who told the whole entire world about how his own BYU department ordered him to "cease and desist" with Mopologetics. "Mormon Scholars Testify" has been stagnant for ages; "The World Table," which we were told would "fundamentally change the way we interact online" was a complete, utterly humiliating failure; and now we are seeing overwhelming evidence of Mopologetic "cowardice"--everything from Hancock's limp-wristed hedging, to DCP getting squelched by Blair Hodges. It's worth pointing out that people like Hodges and David Bokovoy were--once upon a time--"proteges" of the Mopologists. What you're seeing is a case of the "Young Turks" turning on the Old Guard. Who's left to take over? Steve Smoot may be the only one, and he's very young--still an undergraduate, if I'm not mistaken. If he heads off to graduate school like Hodges did, who's to say what will happen? For a time it seemed like Bryce Haymond might have stepped up, but as far as I know, he was never even allowed to write anything, and now it seems like he might be out of the picture as well.
So, all things considered, I have to say that the future of Mopologetics doesn't look very bright. There is this repeated begging for money, with promises that "exciting" things are coming, but it really seems like a final withering on the vine.
Still, Happy Holidays!
