Interpreter's War with the Heartlanders Rages On
Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2025 6:46 pm
It's Friday, which means that it's a ripe opportunity to remind everyone that the Interpreter President lied (or was mistaken?) for years about Interpreter publishing a "new journal article" for however many hundreds of weeks in a row. Now that we're nearly 3 months deep into 2025, it has been richly satisfying to tune into "SeN" to see that particular nugget of chutzpah absent from the usual announcements. As for today? It's a silly puff piece from Brant Gardner in which he reviews a book that was published by (drumroll) The Interpreter Foundation! Now *that* is what you call Mopologetic peer review! LOL!
But I digress. It's actually *last* week's pieces that deserve mention. It would seem like there was something of a "bait and switch" underway, whereby the Interpreter team reviewed a Heartlander work, and then actually invited the author(s) to publish a response to the initial reviews. Indeed, that response appeared last Friday. However, the Editors were not content to simply let things stand--no way! In fact, the Editors offered up this peculiar disclaimer:
It is worth noting that Jack Welch's organization, Scripture Central, *has* taken steps to make amends with the Heartlanders, and to genuinely treat them as fellow Saints. Interpreter, though, is carrying on with the usual warfare, it would seem. You have to wonder if this will lead to consequences in 2025. We will have to wait and see.
But I digress. It's actually *last* week's pieces that deserve mention. It would seem like there was something of a "bait and switch" underway, whereby the Interpreter team reviewed a Heartlander work, and then actually invited the author(s) to publish a response to the initial reviews. Indeed, that response appeared last Friday. However, the Editors were not content to simply let things stand--no way! In fact, the Editors offered up this peculiar disclaimer:
No way will the Heartlanders be allowed the last work in *this* venue! And so we get the two snarling responses from Brant Gardner and Jeff Lindsay. Gardner's "response" is rather hilariously titled, "Responding to a Non-Responsive Response," and it is barely a page long. You have to wonder: Why did he bother at all? One answer may be that he was preoccupied with his puff-piece review of the Interpreter book that was published today. Regardless, Gardner concludes his "Non-Responsive Response" by insinuating that Lucas and Neville are liars:[Editor’s note: We are pleased to present this response to two recent book reviews in the pages of Interpreter. Consistent with practice in many academic journals, we are also publishing a rejoinder from the authors of those reviews immediately following this response.]
Lindsay is far more diplomatic, though he doesn't hold back from describing Neville and Lucas as lousy scholars, and also suggesting that their work may have "potentially harmful consequences," which is in keeping with the way that the Mopologists have tried to undermine the Heartlanders. And in the conclusion, Lindsay seems to undermine his entire article (and Gardner's, and the entire history of Interpreter's responses to the Heartlanders), with this strange line:Gardner wrote:I hope that the continued employment of this fallacy by Lucas and Neville results from their misunderstanding and not an intentional misrepresentation. Either way, the understanding of their readers is not enlarged.
If he and Gardner cannot "focus on the marvelous work and a wonder," and cannot resist taking jabs at Lucas, Neville, Meldrum, and the rest of the Heartlanders, then why would he expect the same from *them*?We can squabble over the cloudy details of the translation, but let’s focus on the marvelous work and a wonder that has yet many miracles to work if we will take it seriously.
It is worth noting that Jack Welch's organization, Scripture Central, *has* taken steps to make amends with the Heartlanders, and to genuinely treat them as fellow Saints. Interpreter, though, is carrying on with the usual warfare, it would seem. You have to wonder if this will lead to consequences in 2025. We will have to wait and see.
