DCP wrote:I’m pleased to say that we’ve now raised $950,000 of that amount, and that we have a firm pledge that would complete that funding. But that pledge will only materialize when we first reach one million dollars.
However, that leaves us, at this point, $50,000 short of where we want to be.
So — and you surely knew this was coming! — if you feel the urge to contribute to closing that gap, your donation (in any amount, small or large) would be appreciated. Seriously. (Please indicate that you want your donation to go to the Witnesses film, if that is your intention.) Alternatively, if you can recommend anybody who might be able to help, please contact me.
I admit that I've been very skeptical about this project--about the fundraising, about the ways the money was spent, and what this all is really about. That said, even I have to admit that this is impressive: $1 million? And wow, how quickly did this all come together? You have to credit Dr. Peterson for his finesse, and his ability to drum up cash.
I also have to admit that, given all the warfare going down between the Heartlanders and the Interpreter-based Mopologists (e.g., Midgley, Smoot, Greg "Peter Pan" (ehhh?) Smith, etc.), I've been wondering about the Brethren's take on the whole situation, and I was reminded of an old thread. Longtime readers will likely remember the so-called "FARMS Ziggurat." Once upon a time, of course, FARMS was an independent entity--rather like what "Mormon Interpreter" is right now. But in the late 1990s, FARMS began to gather more and more momentum, eventually arriving at a decisive moment:
Groundbreaking for a new 25,000-square-foot building for The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies is tentatively scheduled for next April, according to Brent Hall, FARMS director of development and operations. Construction of the building will take approximately 18 months to complete, he said.
....
The design of the new building suggests elements of the world of the Bible - a dome, arches and pyramid - and the world of the Book of Mormon - stone work reminiscent of Meso-American pyramids and other structures.
This announcement, as I originally wrote, appeared in a 1995 issue of Church News. And in November of that year, an additional announcement was made:
(emphasis mine)In the last newsletter we announced the campaign to raise the funds to build the Book of Mormon Research Center.... Your help is needed. Many of you have already responded with generous contributions for which we are grateful, but more is needed. Local building costs are escalating rapidly. Presently the architects estimate the project will cost some seven million dollars.... We invite those of you who have abundant means to be very generous.... Please don't delay
Seven million dollars isn't exactly chump change, and there are those (myself included) who have speculated that it was this fundraising effort that ultimately caught the attention of the Powers-that-Be. Here's Note Reynolds, elaborating on what happened:
(again: emphasis mine)Our need to be better known led us to promote publicity that raised concerns in the church and the university and led to the new BYU president's interest in merging FARMS with the university. This late 1996 proposal from President Bateman moved the two-year conversation with the previous administration to a higher level. On September 10, 1997, President Hinckley proposed in the monthly meeting of the BYU board of trustees that FARMS be invited into the university with partial funding for it and for CPART being provided.
You can probably see where I'm going with this. The "merger" between the old, independent FARMS with BYU led to a number of changes. For one thing, I think it created tension between the Brethren and the Mopologists--the "messaging" from downtown SLC was confusing vis-a-vis the Mopologists' attack-minded tendencies, so I think you can see some unevenness--as it were--in their post-merger publications. What I mean is: you get the sense that the Brethren were periodically telling them to "tone it down," though I don't think they always listened to this counsel (and, again, I think they were getting mixed messages from the Brethren: some of the apostles were okay with the smears; others were not). On pg. 4 of the "Ziggurat" thread, Nightlion sensed something similar, and wrote:
Nighlion wrote:I see that it is possible that DCP, certainly having closer ties to how things work in the inner circle than I do, could have experience enough to think it a distinct possibility that FARMS could lose editorial control, at least, on being subsumed by BYU
And Peterson responded:
DCP wrote:I had no particular reason to fear erosion of editorial independence. It was enough to know that we had been wholly independent but would now be part of a larger organization. Being part of a larger organization would inevitably mean the surrender of at least some autonomy. I was not yet certain how that would look in fact, as opposed to how it looked in theory.
There's nothing sinister here.
Things look different in hindsight, though, don't they? We now how the story ended: in 2012, old-school FARMS effectively came to an end due to the firing of DCP as editor of the Review--this following a protracted war with John Dehlin. And as you recall, editorial control of the Review was crucial, inciting incident. Peterson attacked Gerald Bradford for blocking such things as Will Schryver's work, and then, as you'll recall, we learned that Greg Smith's "hit piece" on Dehlin was later pulled on the orders of Elder Holland.
That brings us to the present moment, where Dr. Peterson, once again in the role of impresario lording over an independent Mopologetic organization called "interpreter," has just announced that he has more or less singlehandedly managed to drum up just shy of one million dollars. Not only that, but there are plans--as I understand it--to have this film woven into the religious education curriculum at BYU, and possibly have it screened in seminary, on the local PBS stations, and so forth. Bear in mind that this is one of the central narratives in LDS history. Are the Brethren truly okay with an independent organization--one that is currently trying to alienate and force the excommunication of dozens if not hundreds of other Latter-day Saints over a squabble about the "location" of the BoM--telling this part of the narrative, and allowing for this to be an "Interpreter" production?
It will be interesting to see what happens, but I wonder if we are eventually going to see a "power move" whereby the rights to the film are effectively "seized" by the Church. I remain on the fence about whether or not the Brethren will go after "interpreter" itself; then again, what about having a faith-based "think tank" housed in the religious education department of BYU? Maybe BYU-I needs something like this in their portfolio? DCP could get a second office in Rexburg--it's that much closer to the Canadian Rockies!
Towards the end of his announcement about the fundraising for the "Witnesses" film, Dr. Peterson adds this disclaimer:
DCP wrote:And, again, to respond to potential concerns: None of this money, not a penny of it, will come to me or to any member of my family. I will earn no consulting fee, no percentage of the money raised, no portion of possible royalties. Nothing. (A small clique of anonymous online critics likes to accuse me, baselessly but with gleeful abandon, of profiteering from apologetics. See Revelation 22:15.)
I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. There are some people who don't care about money as much as they care about control. And in the context of Mormonism and Mopologetics, what is more fundamentally "control" and power-hungry than producing the defining film on the story of the Witnesses? The Ziggurat, as Dean Robbers correctly pointed out on a separate thread, was a middle-finger to the Brethren: a declaration that there was a new gang in town, and they *they* would be working to redefine the meaning of Mormon doctrine, theology, and practice. Back in the 1990s, the Brethren read this for exactly what it was, and took action.
As ever, I'm very much looking forward to seeing the final "Witnesses" film.