Louis Midgley Threatens to "Pay a Visit" to Gina Colvin

[_Philo Sofee]

Dan Peterson ALWAYS says he has the background story and information on any development that threatens something or someone he is interested in. What he has is a biased slant concerning all issues which he thinks is the only accurate version. One could not be blamed if one were to realize that one could not accept anything Peterson says anymore than one accepts what Trump says without doing serious fact checking.

[_Dr Exiled]

Something doesn't add up about the Area President and Stake President wanting to arrange a meeting with Midge and Gina Colvin's husband. The only way I can see that happening is if the Area President and Stake President were alerted to the problems Midge was creating with Ms. Colvin and wanted a meeting to see if it could be resolved.

But that appears unlikely. My guess is that Midge arranged the meeting through third parties or is inventing the Area Authority/Stake President story as cover for his stalking behavior. The man who would turn in his own brother if that brother wrote something contrary to the church in dialogue or sunstone would certainly be on the job gathering Intel on Ms. Colvin and more than likely initiated the "chance" meeting with Ms. Colvin's husband.

Also, Coach P could very well be making up his secret knowledge a la E. Perry telling the Swedes he had papers in his briefcase that supposedly resolved all the issues with church history. The Swedes couldn't actually see the papers but were asked to trust the apostle.

[_I have a question]

For reference:
The Stake President is Jared Ormsby
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/ ... prisonment
The Area President is Ian Ardern
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_(LDS_Church)#List

I wonder what their version of events is...

[_moksha]

One could not be blamed if one were to realize that one could not accept anything Peterson says anymore than one accepts what Trump says without doing serious fact checking.

I think Dr. Peterson has decided to support the claims of an old friend. It is not like he is gambling Church funds on the veracity of Lou's claims. All anyone has to do is read the comments on the early December Kiwi Mormon blog article to know what went on.

No one lies as brazenly as Trump. Pretty sure the aerial view of the Trump Library will spell the word Lie.

The Area President is Ian Ardern
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_(LDS_Church)#List

The uncle of Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

[_Doctor Scratch]

They're desperate. Midgley has been exposed as a creepy stalker, and they have no response except to ban people. It's a bit strange: Midgley used to boast about his confrontations with critics--his bout with the Tanners was creepy and off-putting, too, and yet you don't see him squirming over that.

[_Lemmie]

he explained that Gina Colvin ‘isn’t even really Maori’ because of his opinions on how she was raised. Another was his explanation that the ‘good Maori’ became LDS, implying those who don’t, of course, are somehow not good.

hmmmmmm. to me the full implication of these two statements together, is "those who don't, are not really Maori.

In my back and forth with him he tried to make a similar argument about my Native American identity. With that comment and what he was saying about Gina Colvin is he is trying to erase our identity, by his made up version of who belongs to the group. That is a racist action, even if he doesn't realize it.

He can’t let the race issues go. Even though Peterson declared the topic of Midgley’s stalking and his attendant racist comments off limits for a couple of days, Midgley is still trying to work his weird little racist digs into the conversation:

Louis Midgley 3 hours ago

This is good news. However, I doubt that it will silence one who likes to grump about how those who give serious attention to Mesoamerica as the probable actual location for the Lehite history. One of these even likes to complain that this does some unspecified damage to the remnants of Mayan people.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... 4932250732

[_Kishkumen]

I am sorry to hear that the trip has ended in such turmoil. Clearly someone is confused about what went down. It is puzzling to me. I don't know why it is that Dr. Midgley takes such a personal interest in Dr. Colvin. Maybe it is true that he feels very possessive of his personal claim on the Maori culture and people as he likes to imagine them: purported children of the (fictional) Lehi. I can sympathize somewhat, or at least use my imagination to help me understand what that must be like. Maybe there was a time when I would have insisted that the Native American peoples were children of Lehi because I truly believed that the Book of Mormon was quite literally accurate in its account of the American past.

Unfortunately for the literal-believing Book of Mormon reader, the Book of Mormon is an Anglo-American fantasy about American antiquity. Joseph Smith, consciously or not, sought to replace indigenous peoples' own understandings of their history and culture with a European myth about Hebrew origins. It is patently obvious. In order to get around that blatantly racist purpose, contemporary Mormons will be forced to find a new way to think about their scriptures. Historicity is a dead end here. The texts are so obviously anachronistic that to valorize them in any literal way is to commit intellectual suicide, not to mention commit yourself to perpetuating a racist framework in allegedly holy writ.

Lou's position seems to be essentially this: my Euro-fantasy is more legitimate than yours because I don't see it as such. My Euro-fantasy about indigenous origins comes directly from God! God, is, in other words, a white man in the sky, teaching his European truth to the "benighted" (read dark-skinned) peoples of the world, who can be elevated if they embrace the white man God's teachings about their true Euro-imposed identity.

I understand that Lou would never put it in such terms, and I don't think it would be fair to credit him with being consciously aware of the implications of what he is doing. He lives in such a bubble of white privilege with all of its concomitant assumptions that it is quite literally impossible for him to see what he is doing. Because brown peoples have appropriated some Western ideas on their own terms in order to combat European colonialism, Lou and his friends condemn this move in a sort of tu quoque move that amounts to the pot accusing the kettle of being derivative and having an inferior shade of black (ahem). It is a no-win game for Gina. The only option she is given by Lou is to embrace his position. She has no other agency because Lou's white man God has already identified her personal choice to be fundamentally compromised.

[_Lemmie]

It is a no-win game for Gina. The only option she is given by Lou is to embrace his position. She has no other agency because Lou's white man God has already identified her personal choice to be fundamentally compromised.

I would only add that it’s a no-win game if she plays, which it seems you are implying if I am interpreting you correctly.

Marjorie Newton, based on some responses I’ve read from her editors and from Midgley, already seems to have concluded that there are other options besides playing Midgley’s game, namely ignoring him entirely, and continuing to interact with the legitimate academic and research world, which of course excludes his rants, personal attacks, and bizarre Interpreter reviews. Colvin seems on that path as well. More power to them.

[_Lemmie]

Kishkumen:

Unfortunately for the literal-believing Book of Mormon reader, the Book of Mormon is an Anglo-American fantasy about American antiquity. Joseph Smith, consciously or not, sought to replace indigenous peoples' own understandings of their history and culture with a European myth about Hebrew origins. It is patently obvious. In order to get around that blatantly racist purpose, contemporary Mormons will be forced to find a new way to think about their scriptures. Historicity is a dead end here. The texts are so obviously anachronistic that to valorize them in any literal way is to commit intellectual suicide, not to mention commit yourself to perpetuating a racist framework in allegedly holy writ.

Can we pin this to the Hall of Fame section?

[_Dr LOD]

I think Dr. Peterson has decided to support the claims of an old friend. It is not like he is gambling Church funds on the veracity of Lou's claims. All anyone has to do is read the comments on the early December Kiwi Mormon blog article to know what went on.

I think you are right on that point. Sometimes I think a side purpose of SeN is to provide Professor Midgley a moderated place to interact with some of his favorite subjects, and get a little Mopologetic wrestling in that Midgley so much enjoys. As long as he stayed at SeN he was OK because he was being looked out for by his friend. Although I do think Peterson should have been more proactive on holding Professor Midgley to level of civility more reflective of his position as a university professor. In that he failed his friend.