DiscussMormonism.com

The new and improved poll.

I just love science!

I voted for Number 1.

Daniel Peterson wrote:I just love science!

I voted for Number 1.

I hope you didn't!

Bond can you set number 1 back to 0 if Dr. Peterson voted for that?

I'm afraid that I did.

The thought that anything is going to be settled (as Scratch Senior suggests over on his most recent accusation-thread) by a poll taken among people who don't have any real knowledge of the subject seems a worthy target of mockery.

I was also tempted, though, by options 2 and 4. I'm intrigued by the possibility that my having heard someone say something about what he had heard Quinn's stake president say might have had a causal effect upon Quinn's stake president.

It's rather like suggesting that the slight sunburn I received up in Yellowstone over the weekend caused the sunlight, which, in its turn, caused a nuclear fusion reaction in the sun itself. Or that the wound that Abraham Lincoln received at Ford's Theater caused John Wilkes Booth's pistol to discharge, which caused John Wilkes Booth to hold radical secessionist political opinions.

This is a revolutionary new kind of historical analysis, and I need to meditate on it for a while.

I can't figure out how to vote.

If I voted, I'd like an option like this: "He gossiped, but oh, well, the man is genetically unable to restrain himself from telling everything he knows and thinks he knows."

I can't figure out how to post an avatar either, if anyone would care to give me a clue.

Leaving myself wide open ... Lucretia

Okay, I figured out how to vote, either the "submit vote" didn't show up the first time I looked, or ... whatever ...

I just don't know what to say. It all seems so very, very ridiculous.

I may have to join the absurdity by creating multiple sock puppets to skew the results.

Lucretia MacEvil wrote:
I can't figure out how to post an avatar either, if anyone would care to give me a clue.

Leaving myself wide open ... Lucretia

Go to profile and scroll to the bottom of the page. You can upload a picture from your computer or put the url of a picture into the "Upload Avatar from a URL" area. The picture has to be rather small to work on this website. If you don't have a picture in mind you can go to goggle and click on images and do a search for images that may interest you.

Although I've already given my opinion on this, what the heck, a new thread offers yet another opportunity, so here goes:

1) He was in on the smear campaign, and participated in it, including the gossipmongering.

I couldn't vote for this, since Quinn's Stake President knew about it before DCP did. Or, if not, the Stake President became aware of it quite independently of DCP--thus absolving him (DCP).

2) He gossiped, and the nature of the gossip itself was unethical/malicious, esp. considering the SP's involvement.

I couldn't vote for this either, since he merely heard about it, which, as Tarski says, can hardly be prevented by the hear-ee.

3) He gossiped, which was fine, but it crossed the line when he announced it on the FAIRboard.

I couldn't vote for this either, since (strictly speaking) he didn't actually announce it on the FAIRboard. The "gossip" in question was already common knowledge on the FAIR board; DCP merely reported that said gossip was also common knowledge to the LDS intelligentsia before Quinn was excommunicated. And although it was common knowledge to that group before Quinn was excommunicated, I believe the fact that post hoc, ergo prompter hoc (sp?) is a logical fallacy ought to be kept in mind.

4) Everything was okay, save for the fact that Quinn was ex'ed due to this sort of gossip, which kind of condemns DCP.

I couldn't vote for this one either, for the same reasons that Tarski mentioned. Just because DCP was caught in the crossfire doesn't mean he pulled the trigger.

5) He only gossiped in the strictest, dictionary sense, and hey, don't we all?"

I voted for this one because the report to FAIR only barely lifts it above Option #6. Personally, I don't see anything particularly wrong with gossip in the strictest dictionary definition, just so long as it isn't purposefully leaked to the powers-that-be in order to bring about punitive measures, which in this case didn't happen. DCP tells us that the Stake President knew about all this (again) quite independently of any action by DCP.

6) He didn't gossip....he's really a nice guy, really

See above.

In closing, regardless of how much guilt one wishes to place on DCP, in my line of work there's a concept called "Selective Enforcement" which is a valid legal defense: Even if one does break the law, if the enforcement of said law is targeted against a particular individual while others are let off the hook, then the defendant can mount a defense based on that alone.

So, even assuming iron-clad guilt, rather than hold only DCP's feet to the fire, others should feel the heat equally, and perhaps it isn't apropos to single out one individual among so many.

My $0.02.

EDIT: I just now saw all the responses. Looks like I'm the only one who took this seriously. If so, please ignore the above.

Lucretia MacEvil wrote:I can't figure out how to vote.

If I voted, I'd like an option like this: "He gossiped, but oh, well, the man is genetically unable to restrain himself from telling everything he knows and thinks he knows."

I would have liked the option of "WHO CARES? HOW LONG AGO WAS THIS? WAS I WATCHING THUNDERCATS AFTER SCHOOL WHEN THIS HAPPENED?"

Lucretia MacEvil wrote:I can't figure out how to vote.

If I voted, I'd like an option like this: "He gossiped, but oh, well, the man is genetically unable to restrain himself from telling everything he knows and thinks he knows."

I can't figure out how to post an avatar either, if anyone would care to give me a clue.

Leaving myself wide open ... Lucretia

I think you should vote either 2 and 3, then, Lucretia. It really depends on whether you see the SP's complicity in it all as making everything worse. I.e., it would be one bad thing to merely gossip on the FAIR/MADboard (as DCP has done about his neighbor), but it is another thing entirely to be doling out gossip that involves private ecclesiastical matters.