I’m sorry to see contention among members of the Church — especially when that contention centers on what is, after all, an issue of at most secondary importance. I’ve been on the receiving end of “Heartlander” attacks, both public and private, some of them remarkably nasty and abusive, for quite some time.
What's he "sorry" about, you might ask? In fact, it's a recent blog posting from Stephen Smoot, who has seized upon a posting to the FIRM Foundation's Facebook page. Smoot takes issue with the fact that the "Mesoamerican model" has been described as "apostate."
So, to summarize: "Sic et Non" is "sorry" that S. Smoot is upset over the FIRM Foundation's labeling of their (the Mopologists') pet theory (the LGT) as "apostate." What is the response, then? See for yourself:
DCP / SeN wrote:So, in that sense, I’m not displeased to see that certain members of the Church (I don’t know who they are; I don’t even have a hunch or a suspicion) have begun to respond to similar attacks. Here are some examples of such responses:
You really must check them out for yourself, but in short: the links are to a rather low-rent looking blog called "NevilleNevilleLand," and whose avowed purpose is as follows:
Peter, of NevilleNevilleLand wrote:This is the first in (what I expect to be) a series of critical examinations of the arguments of Jonathan Neville.
Brother Neville is the prolific author of at least twelve books and over sixty blogs (!), most of which expound his theories on the the Book of Mormon.
Though Peter hastens to add, at the end of the entry, that:
I wish to clarify that I hold no animosity toward Jonathan Neville; I merely wish to demonstrate that his one-note zeal for his theories has caused him to embrace ideas and conclusions that are not warranted by evidence and clear thinking.
—Peter
This is getting awfully murky, isn't it? We've got the presumably serious Dr. Peterson announcing that it "saddens" him when Latter-day Saints are adversarial towards one another, but, hey: he understands it because they (the Heartlanders) have been "nasty" towards him, so now he's glad to see people--including "Peter" (or, rather, someone pretending to be Peter Pan), the proprietor of "NevilleNevilleLand"--"have begun to respond to similar attacks." Huh? I see no signs on "NevilleNevilleLand" that Neville or any of the other heartlanders was "nasty" towards Peter. Peter himself insists that his blog of criticisms against Neville were spurred on by Neville's "one-note zeal." (Peterson provides five separate links to "NevilleNevilleLand." I cannot for the life of me figure out why they are zeroing in so aggressively on Neville...Any guesses?)
Anyways, it's worth remembering what set this whole thing off--i.e., Smoot was enraged that the FIRM Foundation would call the Mesoamerican model "apostate." Check out the way that "Sic et Non" wraps up this discussion:
I certainly don’t accuse all “Heartlanders” of being abusive and personally insulting — although I disagree with their views on the geography of the Book of Mormon, I would never for a moment dispute the fact that many if not most of them are sincere believers and kind people — but I do genuinely worry about advocacy of the “Heartland” geographical model potentially turning into a kind of schismatic cult.
Ok, then--lesson learned. Next time, FIRM just needs to refer to the Mopologists as a "schismatic cult." Problem solved!
