Re: The 2019 Sampson Avard Golden Scepter Award
Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2019 3:48 pm
A toast to Dr. Midgley for the digitally remastered, 16th anniversary, director's cut of Prying into Palmer. To be sure, the deadly character assassin fired with true aim, but in these never before seen scenes, we see the tactical nukes on standby.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... qus_thread
I have exactly no control over what may offend someone's sensibilities. -- Louis Midgley
Dr. Peterson and Kiwi57, in the gag reel:
[Kiwi57] It is a matter of opinion whether "Prying into Palmer" is a "hit piece" or not.
[Peterson] Professor Midgley's essay could have been much more negative than it was.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... qus_thread
I have exactly no control over what may offend someone's sensibilities. -- Louis Midgley
Midgley wrote:
- Grant Palmer begged not to be fired for his deceit.
- One of his family members told me that a few times a week he would go to the jail and wait for a couple of hours to see if any of those "miserable jail birds" turned up to gab with him.
- The fact is that Grant Palmer was a coward.
- My essay was thus actually rather restrained, given what I knew about Palmer.
- When those in charge of the Seminary and Institute program of the Church of Jesus Christ asked me to respond specifically to Palmer's duplicity and apostasy, I soon gave them a draft of my essay, which they had approved by their attorneys.
- What I included in that essay was merely a minor part of what I knew about his duplicity, incompetence and apostasy.
- I did not mention his failure as a teacher at the Church College of New Zealand. ... he was an utter failure trying to teach at the Church College of New Zealand (a high school)...
- Or his miserable performance teaching seminary after his failure teaching such subjects as British Empire History.
- Palmer told Rhett James that he could not teach the Book of Mormon, or Church history or doctrine, because he did not believe that stuff. So Rhett saved his bacon by allowing him to teach about such things as honesty, courage, mercy and so forth. Palmer's attempt to address such thing did not do much better than his other endeavor.
- Nor did I mention the problems he had with complaints from Bishops, Stake Presidents and parents in an area in Los Angeles about his performance as a Seminary Coordinator for early morning volunteer seminary instructors.
- Nor did I say a thing about the huge problem he had in the Chico area directly north of Sacramento, where he was again in trouble for attacking the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith among older members of the Church. ... The CES fellow who pounced on Palmer in Chico, had been shifted to BYU, where he began to teach in Religious Education. But he was killed in the crash of a private plane at what is called the Point of the Mountain which separates Utah and Salt Lake counties. I needed information directly from him, which was not possible.
- When Palmer was transferred to Salt Lake, he again was in serious trouble with his fellow seminary teachers at Brighton HIgh School, as well as students and their parents.
- And Steve Iba called Grant Palmer into his office and handed him the copy of this book manuscript, with his name scribbled above Paul Pry Jr. Palmer admitted that he was the author and the broke down in tears and again begged not to be fired. He mentioned the humiliation he would have to endure with his family, fellow Ward members, and so forth. And the loss of his pension.
- He [Eyring] told then that they had made the wrong decisions about Palmer's continual employment for the right reasons. They had hoped to salvage Palmer by showing and mercy. The business of putting people like Grant Palmer on probation has been discontinued. Such a one can, if they care to, repent on their own dime.
- My essay is tame to what it could and probably should have been.
- It seems that Palmer borrowed something from a letter I had sent him, and inserted himself in the story as having found a Paul Pry leaflet in Leicester Square.
- I have wondered if he could not but tell fibs, or in his declining years had become a tad bit loony.
- Grant Palmer had one brother who left the Church. Two members of his family told me that the rest of his large extended family detested him. They described how family gatherings were very disagreeable.
- One family member also told me that Grant Palmer's own mother refused to speak to him because of his antics.
- When he faced that DC, the Stake President read letters from family members that described how he had damaged his own family. A son-in-law told me that immediately after his DC, he demanded to know the names of those who wrote those letters read by the Stake President. The very family members who wrote those letter refused to identify themselves.
- Grant Palmer was disappointed that his Stake President would not allow him to defend his book, since his book was not why he was there in a DC, but the constant anger he expressed to toward those in his family who refused to be lectured about the merits of his book. And they did not want him to visit their kids because he could not resist the urge to blast away at Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon to even young kids.
- Why did I mention any of these five item? Because they are true, and they fit snugly with the information I had, but did not pack into my essay entitled "Prying into Palmer," in which I set out some of the problems with his Insider's View.
- In writing intellectual history, do you think that the truth should be set out, even if it turns out that someone was both dishonest and incompetent? Yes or NO, please.
- He and especially his publicist actually provided me with much supporting evidence showing both that he was dishonest and incompetent.
- He spent his time working on what became An Insider's View, and playing with his pigeons. While living on tithing funds.
- ...the five of us who responded to Palmer's book dealt with different problems with that book, and we all share the same overall disgust for the book and for his dishonesty, and share the the same opinion about his incompetence
Dr. Peterson and Kiwi57, in the gag reel:
[Kiwi57] It is a matter of opinion whether "Prying into Palmer" is a "hit piece" or not.
[Peterson] Professor Midgley's essay could have been much more negative than it was.