Equality wrote:Jesse Pinkman wrote:
In addition to running his podcast, he also founded what is now referred to as the NOM (New Order Mormon) movement,
Dehlin did not found the New Order Mormon movement. He may want to give people the impression that he did, but he most certainly did not.
SAUCEThe term "New Order Mormon" was coined by the originator and author of much of the material on this web site and the founder of the NOM discussion board. Known online as LDSMan, his vision and hope for Latter-day Saints who found themselves disbelieving much of the doctrine of the church was that they could learn to live a "third way." The church's official "entirely true or entirely false" premise tends to generate ex-Mormons who view the church as an evil enterprise, and LDSMan strongly believed in another way of participation: "Take what you like and leave the rest."
The original LDSMan eventually turned over the LDSMan screen name to another, but the founder of the site remained a helpful, wise, and important participant in the NOM discussion board until his death in summer of 2004. His wife has written a short essay about him and his work on the NOM web site and discussion forum.
What does "New Order Mormon" mean?
New Order Mormon was suggested by the term New Order Amish. Within the large umbrella of the Amish faith there are a variety of groups with different approaches. An Old Order Amish community is very strict about traditional practices with regard to behavior, clothing, and modern technology. New Order Amish, on the other hand, have different standards and are more open to the use of modern inventions. Both groups hold to strong standards of personal behavior and family loyalty.
The original LDSMan concluded that borrowing the Amish terminology would be a helpful way to distinguish between traditional, orthodox Latter-day Saints and those of us who remain in the church even though we don't believe it is the only way to live in harmony with God's will. The term Old Order Mormon never caught on, and it is common to refer to these Mormons online as "TBMs" or True Believing Mormons. The term New Order Mormon, however, has found widespread use, typically using the acronym NOM pronounced as a single word.
Each time Dehlin makes a claim about something great he's done or tries to publicly distance himself from something he says he did not do, it's worth taking a few seconds to reality check.
Dehlin's resume items are often other people's work. This tendency to take credit for work he did not do (and I am not speaking only of claims he has made to my work, but also claims he has made to many other people's work) and his ability to convince the public that he really is the man who made so much happen is, frankly, pretty fascinating (if not disturbing and disconcerting).
This capacity to very publicly and repetitively make statements about the self that are not exactly accurate is, I'd think, fairly rare. It takes a lot of a certain kind of guts to make so many bold statements that other people know to be false.
I think that if someone were really to spend the time to investigate, it would be found, in general, that Dehlin both tightly controls projects he won't claim to own and that the people doing the real work on the projects Dehlin often takes credit for wouldn't give him any credit at all. Most leaders (including myself, but not only me) aren't often willing to challenge him publicly because public challenges are fairly inappropriate and challenging someone who is so powerful is not only risky should he retaliate, but is like hitting one's head against a brick wall. He doesn't and won't listen and directly denies actions he has directly taken.
For example, after his late withdrawal from the 2014 Sunstone Symposium - because I was presenting with Mormons Building Bridges and he didn't want me there - and the setting up of two competing events, he claimed his support for Sunstone. It took a lot of convincing to get him to change his second event so that it wasn't happening at the same time as the symposium, but what is Sunstone supposed to do? Advertise how difficult it is to work with John Dehlin and tell everybody what is going on behind the scenes?
Another example: I have asked him not to take credit for Circling the Wagons on more than one occasion and he knows that I am not someone to mess around with, but somehow he keeps mentioning the project on his resume. It creeps back in again. I have asked him to give back or at least allow me to advertise in the Mormon Stories Communities I founded, and he just says he can't because Mormon Stories doesn't own them. It's personal revenge that he won't admit to having taken and that he pretends isn't happening. All the while, the groups I founded sit listed on his website and I am not even allowed to join them should I need to post a question in a city about something I'm working on. It's ridiculous, but it doesn't matter because he is the person who has the power to control the conversation. He knows his power and uses it, very effectively.
Dehlin has learned, I think, that falsely padding and removing from his resume is pretty easy to get away with. Even if he is called on the tendency in threads like this one (that will ultimately come to be of little importance), most people will continue believe that most of what he presents to the public is an accurate representation of what is really going on. It just isn't.... but he is believed because there are very few people who are able to so convincingly make false statements and even fewer people who will make them publicly and repetitively even when they know they might be called out on their falsehoods. The idea that he isn't speaking truthfully just seems too preposterous to be true to most people who can't put themselves in the shoes of someone who might actually try these tactics. People also seem to believe it's impossible for him to be doing these things because it would be impossible for them (as it would be for most of us) to do them. And besides, he seems like such a nice guy.
And why should he be worried? No matter what happens, there are new people who will have never read threads like this one or never had a bad experience with him who will believe him. It's a strategy that works. There will always be new Mormons in crisis. This is a long term plan.
There is a lot of power in having the gall to make false statements about the self and having the statements become the reality the public believes. After a while, I think, some public figures get so used to their influence that they begin to feel like it's their role to create the reality people follow. The sensation must be pretty incredible and, likely, addictive.
That's probably how the Q12 feel, no? What would it be like to have the things you say be god's word on the matter and to have so many hundreds of thousands of people believe you?
