Millstones Along the Way: The Interpreter Foundation's Birthday

[Tom]

My soulmate (who was a film major) and I recently attended the annual Nicolas Cage Film Festival in Dutch John, Utah. Personal favorite Cage film: The Wicker Man. Favorite lines in the film: “What’s in the bag? A shark or something?” and "How'd it get burned? How'd it get burned?! How'd it get burned?! How'd it get burned?!"

After the festival, we retired to the legendary Green River Grill, where I feasted on the very best patty melt I’ve ever eaten. It’s a 1/3-pound burger smothered with grilled onions, topped with melted American cheese and Thousand Island dressing, softly laid inside a grilled marble rye bun. (A simple description of the patty melt's elements doesn’t do it justice.) My soulmate really enjoyed her brat, which was smothered with onions, peppers, and cheddar jack cheese. For dessert, we shared a delicious mint brownie and homemade vanilla ice cream.

I mention this to explain my absence at the Interpreter Foundation's birthday party earlier this month. I am reliably informed that party guests feasted on smoked brisket and pork and then listened to a long sermon extolling the many virtues of Brigham Young. (Incidentally, Dr. Peterson noted at the recent FAIR conference that he's greatly disturbed that members of the church have come to him and confessed that they don't believe Young was the Lord's choice but that there was a kind of apostolic coup.)

In honor of the Foundation's eleventh birthday, I present some key numbers for the past year or so (my thanks to the Relief Society sister in Parowan for running the calculations):

59: number of pieces published in Interpreter in the past year.
23: number of pieces written by individuals affiliated with the Interpreter Foundation (board members, radio program hosts). These 23 pieces represent 39% of the pieces published in Interpreter in the past year.
43: number of authors published in Interpreter in the past year.
10: number of authors published in Interpreter in the past year who are affiliated with the Foundation (23% of the authors published in Interpreter in the past year).
6: number of authors published in Interpreter in the past year who are women (14% of the authors published in Interpreter in the past year).

[Tom]

Colleagues, let me be the very first to wish a happy 12th birthday to the Interpreter Foundation. It seems like only a decade ago that Dr. David Bokovoy and a few friends huddled over warmed-over breadsticks and lukewarm minestrone soup inside Olive Garden’s Provo location and drew up plans for a platform for a new Mopologetics: The World Table Interpreter.

Now there is no doubt that the early days were rough. The pages of the Interpreter Foundation’s flagship journal were riddled with typos and questionable attribution and reprinted pieces. Things have improved since then. Admittedly, Interpreter posted the text of an old Easter sacrament meeting talk this year, and a few articles suffered from questionable attribution, but quality control is better by and large. Plus, the Foundation adopted a fresh logo this year.

I am very much looking forward to the Interpreter Foundation’s annual birthday bash this month. This year, officers, staff, volunteers, and grunts will gather at The Training Table in south Orem to eat and celebrate.

I understand that the Proprietor will devote portions of his much-anticipated postprandial State of the Foundation address (reportedly titled “It Doesn’t Make Any Difference”) to show clips of possible ways the final cut of Six Days could handle Brother Brigham’s transfiguration. (I don’t possess any inside information here, but I tend to support an Indiana Jonesesque face-melting effect rather than Brigham wearing a rubber—but extremely lifelike—Joseph Smith mask and using a voice changer device to mimic Joseph’s voice.) Party attendees will then be asked to vote on their favorite treatment of the transfiguration.

(I’ve also heard unreliable rumors that the Proprietor will give updates on his unfinished manuscripts, including his revision and expansion of Abraham Divided and his seven-volume magnum opus, A Reasonable Leap into Light. And he may share the exciting news that the Foundation now has a communications advisor and a new legal advisor.)

For readers who are unfamiliar with The Training Table, guests will be able to pick up a landline phone at their tables to order a vast array of scrumptious fare, including Cheese Fries, Bacon Chicken Salad, Nutty Apple Salad, Texas Chili, the Mushroom Burger, the Verdé Smothered Burger, the Hawaiian Burger, the Pastrami Burger (the best burger I’ve tasted), the Stroganoff Burger, the Patty Melt, the Chili Dawg, homemade shakes (I love the Bacon Vanilla Shake), and the Table’s really cold and unusually tasty Kool-Aid.

In honor of the Interpreter Foundation's 12th birthday, I present some statistics for the past year or so (many thanks to the iconic Relief Society sister in Parowan for calculating the numbers):

62: number of pieces published in Interpreter in the past year.

24: number of pieces written by individuals affiliated with the Interpreter Foundation (39%).

7: number of pieces written by Matthew Bowen (11%).

46: number of authors published in Interpreter in the past year.

12: number of authors published in Interpreter in the past year who are affiliated with the Foundation (26%).

4: number of authors published in Interpreter in the past year who are women (9%).

Congratulations to the Foundation on another memorable year!

[Gadianton]

Thanks for the data, Tom. What do you make of the 33% decline in women authors vs. the 50% surge in male authors, when there were already very few females in comparison?

If you go by the main "blog", other than Susan E. Black, there are no female authors that I saw until June 2023 or so, and that was a 3 paragraph non-technical book review.

I'm not saying Interpreter needs to go DEI or anything, I'm just baffled by the lack of interest women seem to have in the journal. The woman who wrote the short review from over a year ago has a masters in a relevant field.

[drumdude]

Happy birthday Interpreter! Here's to 12 more happy years.

[Tom]

Thanks for the data, Tom. What do you make of the 33% decline in women authors vs. the 50% surge in male authors, when there were already very few females in comparison?

If you go by the main "blog", other than Susan E. Black, there are no female authors that I saw until June 2023 or so, and that was a 3 paragraph non-technical book review.

I'm not saying Interpreter needs to go DEI or anything, I'm just baffled by the lack of interest women seem to have in the journal. The woman who wrote the short review from over a year ago has a masters in a relevant field.

There can be little doubt that the Foundation has published relatively few female authors in its time. I don’t know if that’s because very few women submit manuscripts, or if the Foundation doesn’t solicit many pieces from women, or if the Foundation rejects a large proportion of submissions from women (I am not certain if the individuals who run the journal’s peer-review process have the requisite academic qualifications to assess manuscripts from qualified authors), or if a combination of these factors is at play. Certainly there are a number of women on BYU’s religion faculty, for example, who could contribute. I suppose it’s possible that these faculty members and/or BYU don’t view the journal as an academic venue, and the faculty members prefer to publish in journals that count toward continuing status. Perhaps they’ve never heard of Interpreter or perhaps Interpreter has a less-than-stellar reputation and they wish to avoid any association with the journal.

In any case, I recommend that the Foundation create a contest to attract more submissions. I’d suggest $5,000 for first place, $2,500 for second place, and $1,000 for third place. The funds could be drawn out of the profits earned by Witnesses.

[I Have Questions]

How many of the 62 published pieces were authored by a black person?

[Tom]

How many of the 62 published pieces were authored by a black person?

One (1.6%).

[drumdude]

How many of the 62 published pieces were authored by a black person?

One (1.6%).

Richard Nygren, I presume.

[Doctor Scratch]

Superb analysis and commentary, as always, Tom. I wonder: how many of the published (or “posted”?) pieces were authored by people that might be described as “Next Gen” or “Up-and-Comers”? Several here have noted in the past that, if the Mopologists cannot recruit people from the younger generations, then Mopologetics will wither and die. Based on these statistics, it seems that the “journal” is largely an “in-house,” effort, and something of a “good old boys” club at that.

Speaking of which, did you catch this stunning remark from the Afore?:

DRDP: "I wonder if the church may ever incorporate some of Skousen's findings into official Book of Mormon versions."

I suspect that Church leaders are reluctant to make editorial changes to official scriptural texts not least because members would then feel obliged to buy the revised editions and translation committees to retranslate them. And, as I've pointed out, none of Skousen's findings changes either the doctrine or the narrative in any substantial way.
Still, I think that they'll be incorporated someday. I hope so.

In other words, he hopes that the Brethren will adopt changes to the faith’s most sacred and foundational text that were *paid for* by Interpreter! A very famous and disquieting quote comes to mind: “You can buy anything in this world with money.”

[Moksha]

Happy birthday, Interpreter! Here's to 12 more happy years.

In a few more years it will be shaving!