Is the Maxwell Inst. "Mothballing" the Mopologists' Work?

[_Gadianton]

for what it's worth, I cannot find the quote that you cited, Dean Robbers. A couple of the posts are hidden due to their having been “marked as spam.” Perhaps DCP censored that comment?

i think it might be that one? well, he responded to it:

YbT: "the constant paranoia"

Please drop the insulting amateur psychology, YbT.

And please don't assume that you know the whole story.

YbT: "I assume that you are also aware that Holland's remarks were not meant to be used in the way that you and Dr. Peterson have constantly, literally day in and day out, been using them."

I haven't referred to to Elder Holland's remarks "literally day in and day out," let alone USED them every day. I haven't referred to them every week, and most likely haven't referred to them every MONTH.

I don't appreciate your attempt to portray me as somehow pathological, and I don't appreciate your wild exaggerations.

[_Gadianton]

We now know that all fifteen Apostles are anxious to see the Maxwell Institute become what the one after whom it is named passionately wanted it to be.

He believes that the fifteen are salivating over a reversal while at the same time he thinks the New MI is dangerously close to taking all the FARMS materials offline. Has he considered why the Fifteen would allow the materials of the institution they plan to restore any moment now to be black-holed by the institution they plan (any moment now) to dismantle?

[_moksha]

Please copy those email messages to me that prove that this shift was initiated by the BYU administration. It would be useful for me to have that evidence to convince others of the reasons for this shift.

Could this be a plot to rope Yakov ben Tov into helping destroy the Maxwell Institute? Will Kiwi57 be able to goad Yakov ben Tov into a rash action by asking, "What's the matter Yaky, are you a right kosher chicken, mate?"

Stay tuned to https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2019/06/sad-news-but-sadly-not-at-all-surprising.html#disqus_thread

[_Dr. Shades]

I have a confession to make:

And when you refer to one of our Christian friends and their letter apologizing to Dr. Peterson (which I have read) you should remember that they never claimed anything evil about what happened but rather remorse that things ended up transpiring the way that they did.

Now that we know Yakov ben Tov has read the "evil deeds" letter, we can be confident of its existence, of course. But does it make me a bad person that I originally thought Dr. Midgley was making the whole "evil deeds" letter up, à-la the Second Watson Letter, prior to that confirmation?

[_Philo Sofee]

I have a confession to make:

And when you refer to one of our Christian friends and their letter apologizing to Dr. Peterson (which I have read) you should remember that they never claimed anything evil about what happened but rather remorse that things ended up transpiring the way that they did.

Now that we know Yakov ben Tov has read the "evil deeds" letter, we can be confident of its existence, of course. But does it make me a bad person that I originally thought Dr. Midgley was making the whole "evil deeds" letter up, à-la the Second Watson Letter, prior to that confirmation?

I was thinking the same thing Shades! LOL! It shows the credibility of Midge is quite frankly, tanked out. I just can't believe him or think he is credib le much these days.....

[_Lemmie]

Midgley clearly made up the contents of the letter:

Louis Midgley > Yakov ben Tov • 18 minutes ago • edited

The letter that was packed with apologies for being involved in evil deed unbecoming a Latter-day Saints....

--
Yakov ben Tov > Louis Midgley • 13 minutes ago

It has one line where he mentions feeling bad for wanting to see a change in direction (which if you ask him now he’s extremely happy with the direction the university took things). The rest is feeling bad about losing friends, not about “evil deeds,” which he never says in the letter. You’re putting words in his mouth.

"packed with apologies" for "evil deeds" is apparently a total Midgley fantasy.

[_Tom]

I notice that Dr. Midgley is now referring to YbT as ** (two initials).

[_Doctor Scratch]

A revelatory comment from Midgley:

I have no intention of writing such a history, nor does Professor Peterson. He has, as I have, maintained a file of all the details. These will eventually be preserved in an archive and hence be available for public inspection. Dan may eventually tell the story in detail. This entire series of events (and the lasting quarrel it has generated) have been by far the most difficult experience of my entire adult life. For more than five decades I was in constant contact with Jerry Bradford, who was a student of mine when I first began teaching at BYU. With Dan, I urged Noel Reynolds to hire Jerry as a kind of office manager, which he did. Then eventually Jerry was appointed Director of the Maxwell Institute by Cecil Samuelson, who was his neighbor and "home teacher."

For at least a decade very early in the morning we would gab on the phone at least two or three time a month. When he would not accept a phone call, and mentioned not wanting to talk to me to Dan, I knew something was taking place. But for perhaps two years he would complain to me about Dan. Why was he doing this and that? I had assumed the role of managing editor of the FARMS Review. I took over for Shirley Ricks in doing this, after she was shifted to other duties as a technical editor. This annoyed Bradford.

When we added Greg Smith, a truly gifted MD who lives in Raymond, Alberta, Canada, to our editorial team, Jerry was delighted. He made all kinds of promises to Greg. He would fly Greg to Provo at least twice a year and so forth. When Greg published an essay defending Elder Packer from unseemly slander, Jerry told me that "you should never have published that essay." And Jerry never once answered email from Greg. He started saying "he is not one of us." We all knew that something ugly was up. And when Jerry would not take a call from me, I was certain that our friendship was over. A week after Jerry fired Dan by email, and I had returned from Russia, I phoned Jerry and we had a pleasant conversation.

I explained to Jerry that firing Dan had reduced my wife to tears. He told me that his wife had also been reduced to tears by the thrashing he had received from Samuelson for using email to fire Dan. He had been admonished never to put anything in an email or in writing in a file.

Jerry asked me what either was then working on or planned to write. I explained in some detail about my deep interest in the Maori Latter-day Saint historical narrative. He then said to me that he would make it possible for this to be published. I said that "this cannot happen." He wanted to know why it could not happen. I explained that I was loyal to Dan Peterson, and hence could no longer be involved with the Maxwell Institute. That ended our conversation. Then later he described me as a "bitter old man." I have subsequently encountered Jerry two or three times, and it was always very awkward.

At my age I am not aware of anyone with whom I have had some disagreement with whom I have not reconciled, or tried genuinely to do this, except Jerry Bradford. And this is very troubling to me. I don't think I can attempt this, since I have been told that he is in bad health. Given this entire unfortunate, really stupid series of events, this is for me deeply troubling.

I wonder what Bradford’s complaints about DCP entailed? If I had to guess, I would think that it was connected to his activity online.

[_Dr. Shades]

At my age I am not aware of anyone with whom I have had some disagreement with whom I have not reconciled, or tried genuinely to do this, except Jerry Bradford.

And Gemli.

And Sandra Tanner.

[_Gadianton]

I never doubted there was a "letter", nor did I ever doubt some kind of fax or memo, or a colleague who was part of Reagan's campaign.