RockSlider wrote:We all knew, from the previously mentioned conversation that your board was going to end up pro-mormon.
Well, I think the truth of the matter is probably a little uglier than that, unfortunately. I would not blame Liz entirely, because I think there were a number of factors that contributed to this unfortunate outcome. Indeed, Liz's own good nature and best intentions are among them. To call the elements of the board who brought this all to a head pro-Mormon is like calling Islamic fundamentalists "pro-Islam." And, no, that is probably not exactly it either. What you have on that board now is the pro-classic FARMS crew.
In the final analysis it is not pro-Mormon at all; it is about enabling the worst tendencies of Mormon apologetics, for which Mormonism only provides the pretext.
One of the go-to tools of this group is to create division. Daniel Peterson is a master of this, and he has been doing it for decades. Where others seek to unite, Daniel seeks to divide. Sure, it may sound implausible given his involvement with efforts to create mutual understanding among religionists, but this has to be weighed against the relentless efforts to create sharp divisions regarding attitudes toward himself above all.
For a while I was a defender of Daniel Peterson, and I was a defender of Daniel Peterson because I came to realize the good part of some of the scholarship happening in connection with apologetics. And there is good stuff. Daniel has contributed to this. The bad stuff, however, is just plain bad. It is the sophomoric pranks, insults, Metcalfe is Butthead, threatening, contacting employers, lying about pointless things, anti-Semite accusations... the GARBAGE of classic-FARMS that fully deserved to be swept from the campus of BYU.
That is the stuff that I could not reconcile myself to. It has taken on a life of its own. It has sucked people into its vortex. It is not a person... not Daniel Peterson himself... but he plays a role in keeping it alive, fanning the flames, and feeding the beast. It is an illness. A storm that passes through the lives of others but carries no rain to bless the fields. It divides friends; it creates enemies; it makes good people doubt themselves; it makes bad people worse. Its weapons are accusation, false piety, deception, and ends-justifies-the-means behavior.
I will still defend good apologetics. Mormonism is, weighed in the balance, a good thing. It deserves the best possible defenses. And I hope the best defenses and the good lives of its virtuous people make it better, moving it ever closer to Zion
Classic-FARMS became something that was making it worse. It was a corrosive influence on the Church. Zion was ever further away as long as classic-FARMS pointed its mocking finger at the person struggling with his/her faith. As long as it responded to the work of interested non-LDS scholars as "anti-Mormon" if it was not panegyrical to the standard set by classic-FARMS.
That phenomenon has nested at GeekyNOMs. Liz welcomed it there with open arms. Liz has to bear some of the responsibility, but I and others are not blameless. And, I consider this a dark day. I wish Liz the very best in the future, but I think she has made a series of dreadful choices, frankly. May I be proven wrong, but that is what I think about it.
No ill will, Liz. I bear you no ill will. I wish you happiness and a long life. May I be proven wrong. But the thing living in your message board is evil. Its not a person. It does not have a person's name. Don't mistake my meaning there. It is a phenomenon. And it is bad news.
"Petition wasn’t meant to start a witch hunt as I’ve said 6000 times." ~ Hanna Seariac, LDS apologist
