The Top Ten Happenings in Mopologetics, 2023

[Res Ipsa]

The Top Ten Happenings in Mopologetics, 2033

1) The Interpreter ends publication; declares victory after Hill Cumorah found. Archaeologists swarm Hill Cumorah location in Iceland. Bond converts to Mormonism.

My God! The multiverse is real!

[Kishkumen]

This. Why was it necessary to share his friend’s story in a very public forum? (I couldn’t believe the detail that the proprietor responded to his friend’s news that his employment had been terminated by immediately sharing the news with the person who spearheaded the effort to get the administration to take action.)

With friends like these, right?

That’s the part that made me gasp. He already knew that one of his own circle of friends was seeking to get another colleague and friend fired? And he called him to say, “Guess what! It worked!” And then who cares that this guy was sad about getting a man fired from his job. The scary thing is that this person was making it his business to get someone fired in the first place. Yuck.

[Kishkumen]

Either Oxford or Cambridge. He's an avowed Anglophile, remember.

I think his internal justification goes something like this: John Polkinghorne is at Cambridge where he reduces physics to faith. As I said, Harvard def. has it's share of nutballs, no surprise Cambridge can tolerate Polkinghorne's nonsense. If Cambridge can have Polkinghorne, then BYU can completely transform into a giant bullhorn for faith and conservative values and essentially be Cambridge NA, in his mind. I don't think Dan actually cares about the actual research that goes on anywhere.

Of course, his entire exercise is self-defeating. The whole point of MST and related self-congratulation is that Cambridge is NOT a bullhorn for religion, therefore someone who goes there and advocates for faith has credibility -- has seen and excelled in the best mental exercises out there and retains faith. MST would be pointless even for him if it were filled with BYU Phds. All the credibility he burns to advocate faith is rooted in secularism.

The Anglophile part I can understand, but let’s be somewhat realistic. Those would be some wild fantasies of his. Hillsdale of the Wasatch could be a possibility. Oxbridge? No way.

[Dr. Shades]

That’s the part that made me gasp. He already knew that one of his own circle of friends was seeking to get another colleague and friend fired? And he called him to say, “Guess what! It worked!” And then who cares that this guy was sad about getting a man fired from his job. The scary thing is that this person was making it his business to get someone fired in the first place. Yuck.

What do you bet that the spearheader was Louis Midgley?

[I Have Questions]

Who were these faculty colleagues? Who was the spearheader of the effort? Why didn’t President Holland do something?

Great questions, Tom. Holland evidently (later) found it necessary to shut down FARMS’s hit piece on John Dehlin. It seems telling that he was quiet on this issue: the anonymous apostate was less of a danger to faith than FARMS.

Recently DCP declared the following…

But I have literally no idea what he’s talking about. I can think of no such case. Even after searching through all of the dim recesses of my mind, I can’t think of any instance in which I’ve ever sought to have anybody fired. Moreover, I can’t even imagine myself doing such a thing. What on earth does he have in mind?

A BYU professor who lost their temple recommend would also lose their job.

[Doctor Scratch]

That’s the part that made me gasp. He already knew that one of his own circle of friends was seeking to get another colleague and friend fired? And he called him to say, “Guess what! It worked!” And then who cares that this guy was sad about getting a man fired from his job. The scary thing is that this person was making it his business to get someone fired in the first place. Yuck.

What do you bet that the spearheader was Louis Midgley?

My money is on Hamblin. DCP noted that the person was in another department--which was (If I recall correctly) true of both Midgley and Hamblin. But I just cannot see Midgley declaring, "This is so sad," afterwards. I doubt that Midgley has been sad about another person's misfortune in his entire life--*especially* another person who happens to be a "Prog-Mo" apostate.

[Gadianton]

In Nazi Germany, there were people in great standing with the party who didn't participate in atrocities themselves.

A less dramatic example. At a previous job, there was a fellow employee who was perceived to be at odds with company goals, and not pulling his weight. In that respect, this scenario is slightly different, but not material to the parallel. Even then, there was at least one manager who thought this guy was doing great and I thought he was competent, at least. Anyway, the manager who wanted him gone -- and he never directly said he wanted him gone -- had a problem. This employee checked several boxes that could make his getting fired seem political. This manager hired a supervisor who was a total chump, and I was initially really surprised by this because the manager in question here had quite high standards, and the guy he hired as a supervisor to me had no redeeming qualities. No skills, nobody liked him as a manager, wasn't known for producing anything, and always was showing up with a stack of food and a big soda to enjoy in his cube. He had less value than the guy in the hot seat by anyone's standards.

The behind-the-scenes stuff I know primarily from my boss, who was the guy who liked the problem employee a great deal, and also my own limited observations. Anyway, this new supervisor was the problem employees boss. And the manager repeatedly pointed out to his supervisor that this guy wasn't cutting it, what could be done? Eventually the supervisor suggested firing the guy and the manager seemed to think it was an option. So the supervisor pursued the course of getting rid of the problem, and after a few months there was a small RIF, and the problem employee was gone.

The manager personally walked the employee out of the building and expressed remorse for what had happened, and wished him well elsewhere. Shortly there after, the supervisor, a white guy who checked no politically-correct boxes, was fired.

Brilliant eh? The manager didn't want to risk making a bad political move himself, so he brought in a second chump who was expendable, let the firing be the chump's idea and allow it to proceed, let the risk be primarily the chump's and then get rid of the chump.

I'm not saying there is a 1-1 mapping here. But we can see that some people spread the gossip and drive the outrage behind the scene allowing others less self-preserving to take the risk and do something about it.

If Doctor Scratch is right and this was Hamblin, it's worth noting that Hamblin's way out of BYU was not a happy one.

[Doctor Scratch]

One other thing: I bet that after that line about how “This is so sad,” DCP and his pal broke down laughing and verbally high-fiving each other in typical “back-slappin’ bros” fashion.

[Tom]

I understood that Hamblin joined the BYU faculty in 1989 or 1990. That seems a bit late for this situation unless he was spearheading the campaign from a different university.

[Dr. Shades]

What do you bet that the spearheader was Louis Midgley?

My money is on Hamblin. DCP noted that the person was in another department--which was (If I recall correctly) true of both Midgley and Hamblin. But I just cannot see Midgley declaring, "This is so sad," afterwards. I doubt that Midgley has been sad about another person's misfortune in his entire life--*especially* another person who happens to be a "Prog-Mo" apostate.

Good point. That should've been obvious.