On Fake Evangelical Doctorates

[Marcus]

from a review.

The "writings" Gaskill claims to base this book on have been known to be modern forgery for decades, even within LDS scholarship circles that don't often engage with the field beyond Restoration scripture. Richard Anderson, for example, exposed it as a forgery in the 1980s BYU Studies volume on _Apocryphal Writings and the Latter-day Saints_.

Why is this book still for sale, when we know it is false?

Why are readers still testifying to its truth when we know it is a fake?

[DrStakhanovite]

"Look Babe, 'The Unknown Life of Jesus' was revolutionary, I only wish I could read to you some of my dissertation, but it is no longer extant because the storage unit my University was renting out to store student records was accidentally flooded in the 90s. You're pretty smart, so you'd totally understand what I was trying to say.”

[Dr Moore]

Just wondering. If you interview at BYU and (a) know a ton about LDS scripture and apologetics, (b) convey a truly eye-watering testimony, and (c) commit to teaching BYU students "in the Lord's way," does anything else matter?

Affirming (a)-(c), assuming someone even bothers checking credentials at BYU, it might even be a virtue to claim a PhD from a school that has disappeared your dissertation, KGB-style. Think about it - a believing LDS scholar's theological dissertation will unquestionably contain LDS theology. I mean, hell, even the uninitiated will see echoes of LDS theology imposed on Islam in DCP's dissertation.

So, conspiring powers that be vanished my dissertation from my old school. Par for the course in the cause, eh? All the more reason to hire me. I write things that piss off theologians. That's as good as a secret handshake.

[MsJack]

Affirming (a)-(c), assuming someone even bothers checking credentials at BYU, it might even be a virtue to claim a PhD from a school that has disappeared your dissertation, KGB-style. Think about it - a believing LDS scholar's theological dissertation will unquestionably contain LDS theology. I mean, hell, even the uninitiated will see echoes of LDS theology imposed on Islam in DCP's dissertation.

So, conspiring powers that be vanished my dissertation from my old school. Par for the course in the cause, eh? All the more reason to hire me. I write things that piss off theologians. That's as good as a secret handshake.

Well, in fairness to Mr. Gaskill, he was hired at BYU in the early aughts. It's likely his dissertation was still extant at that time, though I'd be very surprised if anyone asked to see it during the interview process or ever checked on it.

Out of curiosity, I searched Google Scholar to see if anyone had ever quoted it or referenced it. The only person to have referenced its existence was Ben Spackman in a 2004 review of one of Gaskill's books, and his footnote says the information about the dissertation was supplied by Gaskill himself:

https://scholarsarchive.BYU.edu/msr/vol16/iss2/17/

I know Ben and could ask him, but I'm guessing from that note that he himself never saw a copy of the dissertation.

It's a bit odd for Mormons to attend evangelical seminaries (even unaccredited ones); I was very nearly rejected from doing my MA at TEDS simply because I was married to a Mormon. I'd like to know what the conversations between Mr. Gaskill and his evangelical doctoral advisor looked like, assuming there were any.

[Dr Moore]

If there was no formally defended dissertation, then perhaps Gaskell rebranded lengthy class paper, or an unfinished collection of “notes.”

[Marcus]

If there was no formally defended dissertation, then perhaps Gaskell rebranded lengthy class paper, or an unfinished collection of “notes.”

did the school actually grant the degree? maybe he is ABD?