The Top Ten Happenings in Mopologetics, 2019

[_Gadianton]

I'll raise that glass with you Symmachus! Here's to Dr. Scratch, and I must thay, I am not as drunk as you think I am!

By the way, did I ever get that chair at Cassius Dr. Scratch was saying was open? I have no idea if I just join or if I have to legally be named in... I have no idea how to proceed. And I am more than willing to chair a place in the noble university!

If there's ever an open chair Philo just take it and announce that you did. Heck, take 3 chairs if you like! The apologists are getting as many planets as they want after they die so we should at least get department chairs to compensate.

[_Dr Moore]

Did funding come through for the Gordon B. Hinckley chair of Revisionist History?

[_Kishkumen]

Several years ago, our beloved B.H. Roberts Chair, Doctor Scratch, announced the death of Mopologetics. "How can it be that Mopologetics is dead?" one might ask, given a year like 2019. We've been exposed to antic after antic and ruse upon ruse from those who call themselves Mopologists, and it's very difficult to believe that something dead can be so vibrant. Nonetheless, Doctor Scratch's pronouncement remains true. What we see today, friends, is not the vibrancy of life, but the twitching of the undead. Mopologetics has crawled from the grave, hulking and golemesque for one last "fright night" as it were.

Mopologetics seems to me to be a mode of apologetic activity. FARMS may have died. Maxwell Institute may have transformed. But can a mode of apologetic activity die? I like to think that it lacks the former milieu and resources that made it especially virulent. Does anyone fear the Mopologists of BYU days anymore?

But the state of Mopologetics present is so much more amorphous and interesting. There are so many voices, so many ideas, so many platforms. The FARMS crew is in a place where they are free to do more interesting things (film!). I am very happy for them, actually. FARMS and Old Maxwell were oppressive for all involved.

The nuclear weapon that hit us all was the Internet. It ended the possibility of truly stable communities of apologists, critics, orthodox Mormons, Fundamentalists, you name it. We are all inextricably networked together. We may play at stable identities, but the extent to which we truly believe in them is a reflection of our will or our ignorance. Ideally we can be fully engaged in the “play” without rigidly fixing in a single position.

I have a good deal of respect for those who have departed from the mode of Mopologetics past, people such as Young Smoot. I am also mightily impressed with our friend Stem, who is a real evolving adventurer, albeit in a different mode.

I would say that the new Mopologetics can also come from “progressive” angles. The idea is to seek to harness the power of the corporate Church to marginalize and ultimately root out people who do not fit a certain mold. This method does not belong to certain people or a certain ideology. It is a tool or weapon that those who seek to impose their will reach for eagerly and have no compunction about using.

[_Kishkumen]

Did funding come through for the Gordon B. Hinckley chair of Revisionist History?

Have you stopped checking your campus email? We are waiting for you to accept!

[_Dr Exiled]

Mopologetics seems to me to be a mode of apologetic activity. FARMS may have died. Maxwell Institute may have transformed. But can a mode of apologetic activity die? I like to think that it lacks the former milieu and resources that made it especially virulent. Does anyone fear the Mopologists of BYU days anymore?

But the state of Mopologetics present is so much more amorphous and interesting. There are so many voices, so many ideas, so many platforms. The FARMS crew is in a place where they are free to do more interesting things (film!). I am very happy for them, actually. FARMS and Old Maxwell were oppressive for all involved.

The nuclear weapon that hit us all was the Internet. It ended the possibility of truly stable communities of apologists, critics, orthodox Mormons, Fundamentalists, you name it. We are all inextricably networked together. We may play at stable identities, but the extent to which we truly believe in them is a reflection of our will or our ignorance. Ideally we can be fully engaged in the “play” without rigidly fixing in a single position.

I have a good deal of respect for those who have departed from the mode of Mopologetics past, people such as Young Smoot. I am also mightily impressed with our friend Stem, who is a real evolving adventurer, albeit in a different mode.

I would say that the new Mopologetics can also come from “progressive” angles. The idea is to seek to harness the power of the corporate Church to marginalize and ultimately root out people who do not fit a certain mold. This method does not belong to certain people or a certain ideology. It is a tool or weapon that those who seek to impose their will reach for eagerly and have no compunction about using.

I love this comment. Apologists come and go, but the goal of control remains constant.

As an aside, I'm glad you took up the new avatar. There is something comforting about constantly seeing Deerlohim and Deerhova when reading your comments. Happy Thanksgiving!

[_Dr Moore]

Did funding come through for the Gordon B. Hinckley chair of Revisionist History?

Have you stopped checking your campus email? We are waiting for you to accept!

Oh my, dear Rector, I understood this chair was earmarked for Professor Sofee!

[_Kishkumen]

Oh my, dear Rector, I understood this chair was earmarked for Professor Sofee!

Seriously?

Then who is going to take the John Jacques Chair of Sacred Geometry and Chess?

[_Gadianton]

Then who is going to take the John Jacques Chair of Sacred Geometry and Chess?

What part about "take 3 chairs" are people not understanding?

[Guest]

I believe Dr Moore was hoping to accept the Endowed Chair of Historical Innovation,pending endowment, which seems not to be a problem, as per Gadiantion’s Three-Chair Unlimited Endowment Theory, or the, uh, “3C-ULET”. For short.

(Can we start the toasting again, please? Surely on this family oriented holiday, (and yes, you difficult TBMers, I still consider you family ) it is 5 o’clock somewhere on this planet.)

(ETA: my chair is still awaiting a name update from the Thomas Bayes Chair in Mopologetic Numerology to the Thomas “Tom” Bayes Chair in Mopologetic Numerology, as per Physics Guy’s suggestion.. either that, or we can only hope Bayes had a middle name. As anyone knows who’s found themselves mired in the Mopologetic sphere, physically or otherwise, named names require the middle initial to indicate the appropriate gravitas.

Or I’ll just change it myself and say it’s always been that way. If you didn’t know it, then you weren’t reading your faculty email with sufficient effort. )

[_Dr Moore]

Oh my, dear Rector, I understood this chair was earmarked for Professor Sofee!

Seriously?

Then who is going to take the John Jacques Chair of Sacred Geometry and Chess?

Seconded!!