FAIR: New “Me, My Shelf, and I” pod series

[Dr Moore]

Apparently in the same cynical spirit of “TITS” videos, but with soft lip smacking voices, FAIR has a new series that appears ready to tackle thorny issues by minimizing them, at least based on the title.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l ... 0649684109

The first 5 episodes are out, each a variation on the theme of seer stones. I’m currently listening to the first episode, dealing with seer stones and folk magic.

On one hand, I’m glad to see FAIR take on hard the issues in Mormonism with grown ups talking like grown ups, rather than resorting to immature, stupid gimmicks. It will be interesting to see if the series manages to ask hard questions and follow the facts to their most logical conclusions, or if it will be an exercise in showing a thousand ways to doubt your doubts.

[Gadianton]

It's a catchy title for the series, I'll give them that.

[I Have Questions]

Does this mean FAIR thinks the official Church essays haven’t done a good enough job?

[Philo Sofee]

Does this mean FAIR thinks the official Church essays haven’t done a good enough job?

Of course. The church essays fool no one except those who already need to believe and therefore do so. It's patently obvious the essays are a flop. FAIR won't be able to help the sagging credibility is my prediction.

[Kishkumen]

Apparently in the same cynical spirit of “TITS” videos, but with soft lip smacking voices, FAIR has a new series that appears ready to tackle thorny issues by minimizing them, at least based on the title.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l ... 0649684109

The first 5 episodes are out, each a variation on the theme of seer stones. I’m currently listening to the first episode, dealing with seer stones and folk magic.

On one hand, I’m glad to see FAIR take on hard the issues in Mormonism with grown ups talking like grown ups, rather than resorting to immature, stupid gimmicks. It will be interesting to see if the series manages to ask hard questions and follow the facts to their most logical conclusions, or if it will be an exercise in showing a thousand ways to doubt your doubts.

ALL of the episodes thus far deal with seer stones! Wow! Huh. And this podcast is just mixed in with FAIR's regular podcast. That makes it a lot less interesting to me. I guess the idea is to get the people who are listening to the seer stone stuff to just passively continue through the "Come Follow Me with FAIR" stuff. Probably smart, but certainly not appealing to me, a person who is most certainly not their target listener.

[Kishkumen]

The more I think about it, the more I see this as a real branding challenge. Listening right now, and the sound is slick and groovy, but that does not match with the rest of the presentation. This needs to be its own channel, not something under the banner of the staid FAIR: Faithful Answers, Informed Response, which looks very much like the same starched white shirt, tie, Peter Priesthood storefront that dominates the rest of the LDS Church. If that ain't working, it won't help this series either.

"Hey, edgy kids! Come listen to this!"

Response: Groan.

[Kishkumen]

Episode 3:

Their discussion of the "Fall of Rome" is completely outdated. They call Odoacer's seizure of power in the West in 476 AD as "the Fall of Rome," when the Eastern Empire continued for another thousand years. They perpetuate the overly simplistic myth of the "Dark Ages."

More funniness: The advent of Constantine's legitimization of Christianity is "not necessarily a new era of orthodoxy."

Uh, it is the definition of the birth of orthodoxy. At least in the traditional historical view of Christianity. When did the first ecumenical council occur, people?

This is actually painful to listen to.

Athena is a Roman goddess. Oh my!

Boy, they are placing the influence of Mediterranean polytheism on Christianity way too late. The influence is right there in the New Testament itself. Here they are pushing it out to Late Antiquity.

Ugh.

They really have a weird slant on history.

[drumdude]

Isn't FAIR just made up of amateurs? I wouldn't expect them to be an authority on, well, anything.