"Interpreter" Recruits a BYU Undergrad to Attack Jonathan Neville

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Doctor Scratch
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"Interpreter" Recruits a BYU Undergrad to Attack Jonathan Neville

Post by Doctor Scratch »

It's hard to believe that only two weeks have passed since "Mormon Interpreter" published a dismayingly anti-LGBTQ+ article to start of Pride Month, leaving Dr. Moore to wonder aloud if it was a "new low" for the blogging website. Today they seems to be once again reaching for new depths in the form of a piece entitled, "An Unfortunate Approach to Joseph Smith’s Translation of Ancient Scripture," by Spencer Kraus. The entire article appears to be something of a "hit piece" directed at Jonathan Neville, with even the abstract declaring that Neville "describes Joseph as a liar, reinvigorating old anti-Latter-day Saint claims that Joseph simply recited a memorized text, even to the point that Neville defends hostile sources while targeting Church-published histories and publications."

It would seem that the impetus behind all of this is a rather strange belief on Neville's part that Joseph Smith did not actually use a seer stone to "translate" the Book of Mormon. Well, okay. There are reasonable ways to disagree with that assertion. As usual with the Mopologists, though, the article works very hard to frame Neville as an anti-Mormon who is deliberately trying to undermine Church authority. So, par for the course.

But take a look at the Author Bio for Spencer Kraus:
About Spencer Kraus

Spencer Kraus is a student at Brigham Young University majoring in Computer Science and minoring in modern Hebrew and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. He works with Book of Mormon Central as a research associate and also as a research assistant for Lincoln Blumell studying early Christianity and the New Testament.
On the one hand: kudos to Kraus for being enterprising and for getting his name in print. Then again, there is a part of me that wants to flag him down and grab him by the lapels and tell him to run for the hills as fast as he can. Getting caught up with "Interpreter" and the people running it can only lead to disaster.

Really, though, the biggest shame here is on the senior Mopologists, who seem to be "using" this BYU undergrad to do their dirty work. What, was Greg Smith too busy to go trolling through Neville's Facebook page? I get that DCP is too busy traipsing around Europe, "luxuriating" in the "meaning" of the Nazi death camps, but what about Midgley? Or Allen Wyatt? Or even Jeff Lindsay? Quite shameful if you ask me. If they want to write "hit pieces" in an effort to get one of their sworn enemies excommunicated, they ought to do it themselves.
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
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Re: "Interpreter" Recruits a BYU Undergrad to Attack Jonathan Neville

Post by drumdude »

Doctor Scratch wrote:
Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:23 am
DCP is too busy traipsing around Europe, "luxuriating" in the "meaning" of the Nazi death camps
He's come to some staggeringly unique intellectual ideas on this vacation, such as "Mormons are capable of doing bad things" and "Wagner was a bad person but his music was still ok."

I've been riveted to his travel logs, there's so much depth of thought there that Daniel's next novel is essentially writing itself.
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Everybody Wang Chung
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Re: "Interpreter" Recruits a BYU Undergrad to Attack Jonathan Neville

Post by Everybody Wang Chung »

Thank you Dr. Scratch. Excellent post.

For someone who frequently states that he doesn’t pay any attention to Neville, he sure seems to pay a lot of attention to him.

Image
Daniel C. Peterson pictured here telling his audience,”I didn’t choose the thug life, the thug life chose me.”

Image
Daniel C. Peterson pictured here showing the audience the size of his most recent colorectal polyp.

Image
Daniel C. Peterson pictured here telling his audience, “Of course I have all the answers, I just don’t have the time to give them to you.”
"I'm on paid sabbatical from BYU in exchange for my promise to use this time to finish two books."

Daniel C. Peterson, 2014
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Re: "Interpreter" Recruits a BYU Undergrad to Attack Jonathan Neville

Post by Bond »

An undergrad wrote this paper? Or a mysterious jump disc in a manila envelope was slid under an undergrads' door at 3 am with this paper on it. If the former fairly impressive to see an undergrad mining the Wilford Woodruff papers and the Millennial Star from the 1800s.
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Doctor Scratch
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Re: "Interpreter" Recruits a BYU Undergrad to Attack Jonathan Neville

Post by Doctor Scratch »

Bond wrote:
Sat Jun 18, 2022 3:27 am
An undergrad wrote this paper? Or a mysterious jump disc in a manila envelope was slid under an undergrads' door at 3 am with this paper on it. If the former fairly impressive to see an undergrad mining the Wilford Woodruff papers and the Millennial Star from the 1800s.
Good points, Mr. Bond. You may remember the infamous case of Blair Hodges, who was given the task of doing a negative review for the old FARMS Review, and when it wasn’t sufficiently belligerent, Louis Midgley stepped in to “correct” the situation. Did something similar happen here? Tough to say.
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
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Re: "Interpreter" Recruits a BYU Undergrad to Attack Jonathan Neville

Post by Doctor CamNC4Me »

Bond wrote:
Sat Jun 18, 2022 3:27 am
An undergrad wrote this paper? Or a mysterious jump disc in a manila envelope was slid under an undergrads' door at 3 am with this paper on it. If the former fairly impressive to see an undergrad mining the Wilford Woodruff papers and the Millennial Star from the 1800s.
The syntax has someone else’s fingerprints all over it. If you read Kraus’ other review published by the Interpreter it’s remarkably different in not only tone, but just how it reads. Something is rotten in Provo, “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't.”

- Doc
Hugh Nibley claimed he bumped into Adolf Hitler, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Gertrude Stein, and the Grand Duke Vladimir Romanoff. Dishonesty is baked into Mormonism.
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Re: "Interpreter" Recruits a BYU Undergrad to Attack Jonathan Neville

Post by Dr Moore »

Phariseeism indeed. How much time and energy has been expended on that stupid Peter Pan blog making fun of Neville behind the cover of a psuedonym? And now, for the frontal assault, they recruit a computer science student? Super weak. Super, super weak.

The best part of this essay, in my opinion, is the following sentence, which may be the most perfectly hypocritical MAD-lib setup coined by Mopologetics of all time!!
_____[Name of a Mopologetic author]_____ relies heavily on
misrepresenting his sources and making claims from silence, and enough
factual discrepancies and contradictions are found within his
_____[Book, essay, blog or article]_____ that any serious reader
will quickly recognize its lack of serious scholarship or peer review.
Last edited by Dr Moore on Sat Jun 18, 2022 5:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: "Interpreter" Recruits a BYU Undergrad to Attack Jonathan Neville

Post by Moksha »

Doctor Scratch wrote:
Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:23 am
Really, though, the biggest shame here is on the senior Mopologists, who seem to be "using" this BYU undergrad to do their dirty work. What, was Greg Smith too busy to go trolling through Neville's Facebook page? I get that DCP is too busy traipsing around Europe, "luxuriating" in the "meaning" of the Nazi death camps, but what about Midgley? Or Allen Wyatt? Or even Jeff Lindsay? Quite shameful if you ask me. If they want to write "hit pieces" in an effort to get one of their sworn enemies excommunicated, they ought to do it themselves.
But New York Cumorahites are the sworn enemies of the Mesoamerican Cumorahites. It is in their blood to seek to destroy one another. They know that as surely as the missing papyrus. Not using undergrads in this scheme would be like not putting out a Friday Interpreter. Sure, it seems underhanded, but think of the Celestial ramifications in not attacking someone. Elder Holland expects to see demonstrable muskets fired in some direction and they already did the LQBTQ community last week. The Maxwell Institute will not be regained without the bodies of enemies strewn about the entrance.
Cry Heaven and let loose the Penguins of Peace
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Re: "Interpreter" Recruits a BYU Undergrad to Attack Jonathan Neville

Post by Moksha »

drumdude wrote:
Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:45 am
He's come to some staggeringly unique intellectual ideas on this vacation, such as "Mormons are capable of doing bad things" and "Wagner was a bad person but his music was still ok."
Making Ride of the Valkyries the LDS Apologetics theme song was a stroke of genius.
Cry Heaven and let loose the Penguins of Peace
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Re: "Interpreter" Recruits a BYU Undergrad to Attack Jonathan Neville

Post by Philo Sofee »

Dr Moore wrote:
Sat Jun 18, 2022 2:21 pm
Phariseeism indeed. How much time and energy has been expended on that stupid Peter Pan blog making fun of Neville behind the cover of a psuedonym? And now, for the frontal assault, they recruit a computer science student? Super weak. Super, super weak.

The best part of this essay, in my opinion, is the following sentence, which may be the most perfectly hypocritical MAD-lib setup coined by Mopologetics of all time!!
_____[Name of a Mopologetic author]_____ relies heavily on
misrepresenting his sources and making claims from silence, and enough
factual discrepancies and contradictions are found within his
_____[Book, essay, blog or article]_____ that any serious reader
will quickly recognize its lack of serious scholarship or peer review.
I just want to reiterate how much I enjoy reading your points of view (and that means EVERYONE HERE), and appreciate your analysis. Thank you so much for taking the time, even if it is to guffaw, that also, has meaning.
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