Are they sorta doing this by saying, hey look, these so called faithful scholars just let an anti-moromon theory get published on their watch.
I think the hand of the Interpreter Foundation was forced when the entire Editorial Board of the Joseph Smith Papers went apostate.
A Saturday morning spent reaffirming its correctness was time well spent for the Interpreter Foundation. If those Joseph Smith Papers people have a problem with their anti-Mormonism being noted in the Journal... well, that their problem. The Interpreter does what scholarly journals must do, fire a volley at such a horde of anti-Mormon ingrates who attack sacred ideas put forth by Dr. Gee and other noble LDS apologists!!!
Sorry Dr. Gee, your Book of Abraham theories are BS. Dan Vogel's coming book on Book of Abraham apologetics will soon don the bookshelves of all the important brethren. Best to retreat and go back to denying that the youth are leaving the church.
Myth is misused by the powerful to subjugate the masses all too often.
Are they sorta doing this by saying, hey look, these so called faithful scholars just let an anti-moromon theory get published on their watch.
I think the hand of the Interpreter Foundation was forced when the entire Editorial Board of the Joseph Smith Papers went apostate.
A Saturday morning spent reaffirming its correctness was time well spent for the Interpreter Foundation. If those Joseph Smith Papers people have a problem with their anti-Mormonism being noted in the Journal... well, that their problem. The Interpreter does what scholarly journals must do, fire a volley at such a horde of anti-Mormon ingrates who attack sacred ideas put forth by Dr. Gee and other noble LDS apologists!!!
Yes, everyone else goes apostate except Interpreter supporters..... There's the binary thinking in Mormonism MG so desperately needs to grasp...
Are they sorta doing this by saying, hey look, these so called faithful scholars just let an anti-moromon theory get published on their watch.
Yes, you're quite right, Dean Robbers, and in that sense, these articles from Gee and Interpreter are an attack on the Joseph Smith Papers Project itself. It's very cowardly of them that they are trying to lay all of the blame on Hauglid.
Well, I mean, after all.... the church is never wrong, true its not infallible, but its leaders are never wrong, so Hauglid must be the problem. He wrote it, there he alone is responsible for it, even though the entire church sponsored project allowed it to be published not using a fallible John Gee. The Brethren are human after all and are wrong, even though they are never wrong. It is Hauglid's fault. Anyone with a testimony can see this...
I wonder if the committee for all this is ever going to sit up and realize how they are being trashed and say "Hey Hold it a minute...."
Gee relying on the word “fantasy” as opposed to academically clinical alternatives such as “less likely” shows us that he is playing at polemical defense, not at scholarship.
Gee relying on the word “fantasy” as opposed to academically clinical alternatives such as “less likely” shows us that he is playing at polemical defense, not at scholarship.
Well it is his "fantasy" to actually win and come out on top with an actual scholarly argument......someday.
The Church and its leaders have spent a lot of time and money on the message exhorting members to stick with reliable sources for their information on Church History in particular. First there were the essays, which developed into Gospel Topics. Then there was the production of Saints and Saints 2, which were built on the foundation of the work being done by the Church’s premier scholarly research programme - the Joseph Smith Papers. All of this running in tandem with the message that members were to seek out and stick to reliable sources.
I don’t how slighted Gee feels about his being passed over for involvement in these official Church scholarly programmes, in particular those relating to The Book Of Abraham, but it seems hell hath no fury like a shoddy Egyptologist scorned. He appears to be in a destructive spiral - first he’s forcibly removed from the Maxwell Institute, then he writes a ill-fated and terminally flawed criticism of the Brethren’s handling of faith crises amongst younger members, and then two barely veiled attempts at getting members to distrust the Joseph Smith Papers project.
Gee, the proprietor of Sic et Non and a couple of regular commenters have all been publicly slagging off the Joseph Smith Papers as “unreliable” or using the Sic et Non blog as a platform from which to preach that message. They have done so repeatedly. This is in direct opposition to the Brethren. Is there a definition of Apostasy that I’m unfamiliar with? These people are a bigger threat to the Church than Denver Snuffer, Kate Kelly and John Dehlin ever were. And now they are seeking to ambush the Witnesses narrative. Is Witnesses actually an effort to compete with the JSP?
Eroding the credibility of the Joseph Smith Papers is an erosion of credibility of the Church and of The Brethren. The Church would do well to keep and eye on this lot...
I find this all an encouraging step forward. I must be confused.
That Gee is able to publish something in some venue criticizing something endorsed by the Church without fear of repercussion is a good thing. If Gee's arguments are bad, and in my limited investigations they are really bad, I think that gets exposed in this limited form of openness. It seems to me in the past if there appeared a publication coming from Church members calling Church material anti-Mormon the Church would have shut that down in seconds, and everyone associated would be on watch, if not disciplined.
Gee seems pissed about legacy. His name was already looking bad when the church decided to publish this Abraham material as part of the JSP, apparently. I mean seriously, in his mind, how did he get left out? He seems to be responding in desperation with a "...but my arguments are good...I should be seen as the answer to all our questions pertaining to Egyptology". That this embarrassing episode persists at Interpreter speaks to the credibly and seriousness of that venture, if you ask me. But that this type of critique is being allowed? That's a positive.
“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos
Gee seems pissed about legacy. His name was already looking bad when the church decided to publish this Abraham material as part of the JSP, apparently. I mean seriously, in his mind, how did he get left out? He seems to be responding in desperation with a "...but my arguments are good...I should be seen as the answer to all our questions pertaining to Egyptology".
I think that is coming across loud and clear. Was Gee involved in the original essay "Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham"? (He's mentioned in the odd footnote as a reference). He seems to have been unceremoniously sidelined as far as the Church and Egyptology are concerned, I wonder what the final straw was...
Gee seems pissed about legacy. His name was already looking bad when the church decided to publish this Abraham material as part of the JSP, apparently. I mean seriously, in his mind, how did he get left out? He seems to be responding in desperation with a "...but my arguments are good...I should be seen as the answer to all our questions pertaining to Egyptology".
I think that is coming across loud and clear. Was Gee involved in the original essay "Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham"? (He's mentioned in the odd footnote as a reference). He seems to have been unceremoniously sidelined as far as the Church and Egyptology are concerned, I wonder what the final straw was...
His dumb as dirt bad publicity on the Book of Abraham defense against an actual Egyptologist, Robert Ritner...
