FAIR’s European Rescue 2024

[Doctor Scratch]

I can't help but wonder if the briefcase emits a warm orange glow when it's opened--rather like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction.

[sock puppet]

I wonder if any of the speakers will be tasked with displaying Elder Perry's most holy esoteric briefcase of answers.

Imagine if the mopologists succeed where L. Tom Perry, a supposed 'profit seer and revelator', failed. What will be the implications?

[Doctor Steuss]

I wonder if any of the speakers will be tasked with displaying Elder Perry's most holy esoteric briefcase of answers.

Imagine if the mopologists succeed where L. Tom Perry, a supposed 'profit seer and revelator', failed. What will be the implications?

It just means that the saints in Sweden weren't in close enough proximity to the holy relic within the briefcase. Let this be a lesson, that holy relics (or at least their containers) must be touched in order for faith to be healed.

It is not enough to simply display a relic's case -- proximity is an important aspect of divine energy.

[sock puppet]

Imagine if the mopologists succeed where L. Tom Perry, a supposed 'profit seer and revelator', failed. What will be the implications?

It just means that the saints in Sweden weren't in close enough proximity to the holy relic within the briefcase. Let this be a lesson, that holy relics (or at least their containers) must be touched in order for faith to be healed.

It is not enough to simply display a relic's case -- proximity is an important aspect of divine energy.

Well said. Sort of like the Ark of the Covenant.

[Philo Sofee]

Oh no. Some of those titles are just disasters waiting to happen.

This one especially:

Scott Gordon... "I Learned it on the Internet: Maintaining Faith in Today's Online World."


This is no different, these days, than saying "I read it in a book," or "I attended an online lecture by a certified professional about it," or "I took a long distance class on it in university."

Does he really think blaming the medium for the state of the information that is available is the way to go?

I think he really does believe it. It's called inoculation, and it is failing vehemently worldwide.

[Philo Sofee]

Is this sponsored or supported or endorsed by the Church? If not, why not?

What FAIR doesn’t seem to have considered is that most European members aren’t aware of a number of the issues that they intend on talking about. This could backfire spectacularly.

But hey, the people at FAIR love a good trip if someone else is footing the bill.

It could be seen justifying them not going on Senior missions. These "mini-missions" are every bit as effective and allows the Holy Spirit to continue being with the faithful....

[I Have Questions]

It’s such a backwards framing of the problem. It mischaracterizes all criticism of the church as misinformation (which is wrong) and it assumes the members lack critical thinking skills (which is also wrong.)

I don’t expect that this approach will work well, since it doesn’t represent the reality of the situation, it only represents their delusional fantasy.

The talks would be better titled “how to stop critically thinking and maintain your faith despite the evidence.”

Whether the approach works largely depends on the goal, and I suspect the goal here is an expense paid European vacation.

It’s precisely this.

There’s also an inherent arrogance in it. FAIR is basically saying that the Church, the Brethren, the Europe Area Presidency, aren’t doing a good enough job and that they can do better. Because scholars.

FAIR is just a collection of wannabe General Authorities who haven’t reached the church office they feel they should have been called to. And they like other people paying for their vacations.

[Tom]

Today’s event is being live-streamed here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KdoVAOZ7c ... e=youtu.be

The program is available here: https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/con ... program_en

I must confess that I cringed when the camera showed the chapel pews in which attendees were sitting. How many people were in the audience? I cannot say with certainty, but “sparsely attended” seems to be a good description. I’ve seen better attendance in 6 a.m. LDS seminary classes and in chapels in Utah when general conference is easily accessible on television and almost all saints choose to watch at home.

I must admit that Dr. Peterson chose to repeat his 2016 FAIR conference address, including showing the same PowerPoint slides featuring stills from The Simpsons and the 1950 Hollywood movie, Harvey, a comedy-drama about a man who is best friends with a tall and invisible rabbit. I wonder how many attendees are familiar with the film.

Ugo Perego just finished delivering a lecture on DNA and the Book of Mormon (in English rather than Italian). I cannot say whether he has given the same lecture elsewhere. I’ll need to rewatch what he said about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.

Scott Gordon, president of FAIR, seemed to be the sole source of the questions that followed the lectures from Doctors Peterson and Perego (i.e., audience members did not submit any questions or Gordon did not read any such questions). Incidentally, one shot of the audience during the Q&A following Dr. Perego’s lecture showed the Proprietor. He seemed to be asleep or at least caught up in deep meditation. I spotted several other audience members who also appeared to be asleep.

Finally, I should note that the speakers are wearing matching long-sleeve shirts sporting the FAIR logo. Unfortunately, the speakers carry the look of pest-control sales reps.

This rescue operation does not seem to be going well. Perhaps Brother Gordon should pull out the briefcase.

[Tom]

Jennifer Roach Lees finished her address on “Responding to Sexual Abuse Cases in the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints” several minutes ago. She possesses the background to talk about these issues. It’s regrettable that she was not more transparent and candid in her discussion. I may have some further things to say about her address at a later point.

[Moksha]

Today’s event is being live-streamed here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KdoVAOZ7c ... e=youtu.be

The portion from Norma Calabrese Salerno seemed like a theology lesson. Not typical apologetics.

I did find this FAIR intro from Scott Gordon: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WXd0OMMzBdE