The Mopologists' War with the Heartlanders is Heating Up

[_Simon Southerton]

I dbl checked my Kindle copy and did a search for Brant Gardner. Sorenson wrote in his preface, which I have a suspicion was a "post face"...

I have consciously avoided duplicating valuable points made by Brant Gardner in his multivolume Second Witness series on the Book of Mormon in the Mesoamerican setting.1 His work deserves separate consultation. Notes ^1. Brant A. Gardner, Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2007).

Sorenson, John L.. Mormon's Codex: An Ancient American Book (Kindle Locations 272-277). Deseret Book Company with Neal A. Maxwell Institut. Kindle Edition.

Nice find. He's an apologist to the core. Instead of presenting points for and against and drawing a conclusion on the balance of the evidence, he chose to completely ignore evidence that conflicts with his conclusions. Even though Gardner makes "valuable points"! What an insult.

I'll bet this was added after someone pointed out his egregious oversight. There are less than a handful of LGT apologists and he doesn't bother citing them.

This is the core problem with Sorenson's parallelomania methodology. Not only does Sorenson operate on a fixed conclusion that the Book of Mormon is true, he operates on the fixed conclusion that his geographical interpretation is true. He is also a hyperdiffusionist and a racist. He refuses to believe Native Americans were capable of developing advanced civilisations independently of the Old World. This is what Sorenson said in a recent BYU documentary about the Nephite establishment of Kaminaljuyu in the Guatemala Highlands.

‘the sudden development is what I would expect of an immigrant party with a high level of skill; technologically; but maybe more intellectually and culturally, being inserted into a place and building in a new environment a new manifestation of civilization.’(2007 BYU documentary Journey of Faith: The New World)

He's been a rusted on hyperdiffusionist since Thor Hyerdahl sailed across the Pacific.

[_moksha]

He's been a rusted on hyperdiffusionist since Thor Hyerdahl sailed across the Pacific.

That is because Mr. Hyerdahl's ancestors sailed from Yemen (after visiting the renowned NHM) before landing on the shores of Norway.

[_Gadianton]

It was right there:

Not only will the journal be renamed but, over the relatively near short-term, we will be reworking our websites in order to reflect that new name. This will be done, of course, with the least possible disruption to our thousands of subscribers and readers.

"and readers". hmm...

Now that you've brought it up I'm very curious how many have paid that 50$.

[_Lemmie]

It was right there:

Not only will the journal be renamed but, over the relatively near short-term, we will be reworking our websites in order to reflect that new name. This will be done, of course, with the least possible disruption to our thousands of subscribers and readers.

"and readers". hmm...

Now that you've brought it up I'm very curious how many have paid that 50$.

In the 990s the Interpreter Foundation has to file, the revenue is broken down into categories, one of which is "subscriptions and royalties."

The most recent 990 is for 2017, in which that category brought in $6798, down from $9059 in 2016, and $8985 in 2015.

At $50 a subscription, that's about 135, or between one and two TENTHS of a thousand of subscribers in 2017.

[_Gadianton]

In the 990s the Interpreter Foundation has to file, the revenue is broken down into categories, one of which is "subscriptions and royalties."

The most recent 990 is for 2017, in which that category brought in $6798, down from $9059 in 2016, and $8985 in 2015.

At $50 a subscription, that's about 135, or between one and two TENTHS of a thousand of subscribers in 2017.

Doctor Scratch,

What is your professional opinion of this?

[_Doctor Scratch]

In the 990s the Interpreter Foundation has to file, the revenue is broken down into categories, one of which is "subscriptions and royalties."

The most recent 990 is for 2017, in which that category brought in $6798, down from $9059 in 2016, and $8985 in 2015.

At $50 a subscription, that's about 135, or between one and two TENTHS of a thousand of subscribers in 2017.

Doctor Scratch,

What is your professional opinion of this?

Hi there, Dr. Robbers.

In my professional opinion, this topic deserves a thread of its own. Please stay tuned....

[_Everybody Wang Chung]

Young Rappleye and young Smoot are at it again, waging war with the Heartlanders.

https://www.plonialmonimormon.com/2019/ ... art-1.html

[_Doctor Scratch]

Young Rappleye and young Smoot are at it again, waging war with the Heartlanders.

https://www.plonialmonimormon.com/2019/ ... art-1.html

Thanks very much for bringing this up, Bishop Wang Chung. This development, to my mind, is stunning. They are launching this huge, multi-part attack on the Heartlanders--this in the midst of a major shake-up at the Maxwell Institute: something that the Mopologists are surely interested in exploiting to the maximum extent possible; *and* the reaming that the Dale's horrible article has been receiving. But look at this:

What follows is a series reviewing the AEBOM. This review was originally conceived as an article for the journal Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. Over time, however, my co-authors (Matthew Roper, Neal Rappleye, and Jasmin Gimenez Rappleye) and I decided it would work better as a series instead of a single review. I was (and am) happy to host the series on my blog.

Whoa! What's going on here? Why *wasn't* this saved for "Mormon Interpreter"? Smoot and Rappleye (and now his poor wife???) have for some time been the main "young guns" of Mopologetics, and now look at them: firmly cementing their reputations as true Mopologists by staging a multipart hit-piece on the Heartlanders. Except get this: They are not even being granted the "peer reviewed" process from Interpreter! So this colossal "slam" on Meldrum, FIRM, and the Heartlanders *will not* be getting the sort of "peer review" that allegedly takes place at Interpreter. Even more important than that, though, is the fact that it *won't* be appearing in Interpreter!

What does this mean, I wonder? I wonder what calculations went into making this move. Why not give these young "up and comers" a stage at Interpreter? Or, rather, why did Smoot, Roper, and the two Rappleyes "decide" that Smoot's blog was the better venue? (Does it have a larger readership, I wonder?) I guess, at minimum, this means that the "powers that be" at Interpreter felt that attacking Meldrum in-depth is not the best editorial move.

[_Res Ipsa]

Perhaps the Interpreter wasn't interested in publishing a series? I recall two-part papers, but have there been longer?

[_Gadianton]

Whoa! What's going on here? Why *wasn't* this saved for "Mormon Interpreter"? Smoot and Rappleye (and now his poor wife???) have for some time been the main "young guns" of Mopologetics, and now look at them: firmly cementing their reputations as true Mopologists by staging a multipart hit-piece on the Heartlanders. Except get this: They are not even being granted the "peer reviewed" process from Interpreter! So this colossal "slam" on Meldrum, FIRM, and the Heartlanders *will not* be getting the sort of "peer review" that allegedly takes place at Interpreter. Even more important than that, though, is the fact that it *won't* be appearing in Interpreter!

What does this mean, I wonder? I wonder what calculations went into making this move. Why not give these young "up and comers" a stage at Interpreter? Or, rather, why did Smoot, Roper, and the two Rappleyes "decide" that Smoot's blog was the better venue? (Does it have a larger readership, I wonder?) I guess, at minimum, this means that the "powers that be" at Interpreter felt that attacking Meldrum in-depth is not the best editorial move.

I think this might be a kind of "back alley beating" type of apologetics. "We're going to handle this out back -- you didn't see anything". That kind of thing. This way, Interpreter has full deniability as these guys get "hard core" in full gang-up mode and in the raw, no edits.