Lavina Fielding Anderson lost her petition to re-join the church, despite having remained active and faithful in the decades since her excommunication and despite the support of her bishop and stake president. She was one of the so-called
September Six.
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/09 ... municated/In 1993, when she was being excommunicated, I was busy studying at BYU. I recall hearing grumblings about the church punishing wayward intellectuals. There was no Internet, and I subscribed to no newspapers. As a full time student, the details eluded me.
Over this past weekend, I read Anderson's Dialogue article -- the one accusing church leaders of patterned ecclesiastical abuse, which reportedly secured her excommunication.
https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-cont ... uKpOBwcndcAbout halfway through, this shows up:
Anderson wrote:30 September 1981. Louis C. Midgley of BYU's political science department attacks the New Mormon History and historians for a lack of faith. Joined periodically by David Earle Bohn and Gary Novak, he continues his vigorous critique of "objective" history to the present. (Footnote #23)
(Footnote #23). See, as examples, "The Mormon (His)story," (letter to the editor), Sunstone, Feb. 1992 [mailed in Aug. 1992], 9; and "The Acids of Modernity and the Crisis in Mormon Historiography," in Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History, ed. George D. Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992), 189-226, first published as "The Challenge of Historical Consciousness: Mormon History and the Encounter with Secular Modernity," in By Study and by Faith: Essays in Honor of Hugh W. Nibley on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, eds. John M. Lundquist and Stephen D. Ricks (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book/FARMS, 1990), 2:502-51. The Smith volume includes "Unfounded Claims and Impossible Expectations: A Critique of New Mormon History" (227-63), a revised and expanded revision of "No Higher Ground," Sunstone 8 (May-June 1983): 26-32, "The Burden of Proof," Sunstone 10 (June 1985): 2-3, and "Our Own Agenda," Sunstone 14 (June 1990): 45-49.
Noticing again the date stamp, it hit me. Midgley has been assassinating the characters of perceived enemies for
more than 30 years.
Prying into Palmer was published in 2003. By that time, Louis was nearly 20 years at the practice! He was already the John Wick of takedowns, masquerading as scholarly book reviews.
Seeing this, I am even more shocked at Dr. Midgley's outrage that I, a nobody in the apologetic conversation, would assess
Prying into Palmer as a character assassination. It clearly was. And I am absolutely convinced he meant it to be that way.
What I don't understand is
why. By which I mean, why wouldn't dear Louis, having perfected the art form through the 1980's, 1990's, 2000's and well into the 2010's, finally, at long last, proudly embrace my observation as well-earned praise?
I wasn't able to locate articles referenced in the footnote above, but in searching found this from Sunstone, 2004:
Sunstone May 2004 wrote:Midgley was forcibly escorted from Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s bookstore after he confronted them there, and he recently attended a book signing to publicly challenge Grant Palmer, a retired institute director who has questioned traditional LDS faith claims.
https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/issues/132.pdf
On the one hand, Dr. Midgley hides behind the pretense of writing intellectual history. Then shows up at a bookstore signing to heckle and bully?
Not only does the text itself betray Prying into Palmer as a character assassination, but Louis's actions prove the motive definitively.