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Old 12-14-2007, 09:31 PM   #1
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Default The infamous Seventh East Press interview with Sterling McMurrin

I was pleased to see Waters lionize my old hero Sterling McMurrin yesterday. My last year living in Utah the Seventh East Press, a student publication at BYU, published the linked interview of Dr. McMurrin by Blake Ostler, then a BYU student. As a young college student on my way out I loved the infamous McMurrin interview. In retrospect, I think it had a big impact on LDS culture, and maybe somewhat on my outlook. Not long after the interview the Seventh East Press suffered a (metaphysical) vigilante attack that burned it to the ground and scattered its type. BYU shut it down. I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did 24 years ago.

http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/doc...CISOSHOW=14326

Here's a quotation from the interview I remember well (I found it on an anti-Mitt Romney site when searching for this interview):

“I came to the conclusion at a very early age, earlier than I can remember, that you don’t get books from angels and translate them by miracles; it is just that simple. So I simply don’t believe the Book of Mormon to be authentic. I think that all of the hassling over the authenticity of the Book of Mormon is just a waste of time. Many things have been intentionally ignored and sometimes concealed or have been taken to have religious meanings or implications which, in my opinion, have no religious connections whatsoever. I believe that the Church has intentionally distorted its own history by dealing fast and loose with historical data and imposing theological and religious interpretations on the data that are entirely unwarranted.”
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Old 12-14-2007, 10:12 PM   #2
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I haven't read the article, but I'm beginning to think SM is highly overrated and possibly a POS.
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Old 12-14-2007, 10:29 PM   #3
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I haven't read the article, but I'm beginning to think SM is highly overrated and possibly a POS.
I hope you read it because I wanted you to know him as I did. Please read it and then tell me if anything he says is factually incorrect (any factual thing).
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Old 12-14-2007, 10:51 PM   #4
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I haven't read the article, but I'm beginning to think SM is highly overrated and possibly a POS.
I read a bit. It was interesting that he pointed out that when he joined CES out of college, the Church was genuinely interested in legitimate scholarship. However, that changed. My brother in law's younger brother was a Fulbright Scholar at Penn who did his master thesis on the LDS Church getting more conservative. I haven't read his final thesis, but in conversation he indicated that he believed external influences were the biggest variable impacting this shift. He believed that as the acceptable values of society began to shift farther and farther from those of the LDS church the LDS church became more and more basic. He even spent a lot of time researching GC talks from the 1st half of the 20th century and spoke of how they routinely touched on deeper LDS theology, but starting in the 50's things began to get more and more basic.

It is an interesting dichotomy facing the Church. It is going to need its scholars, but it often alienates them. With the growth or the internet and Mitt thrusting us moreso into the public view scrutiny is going to come. This is not just the anti shit we find in "Christian" bookstores. However, the Church seems wary of its own scholars. Just on this venue it seems that no believing LDS Scholar feels as if he or she has any street credential until they have endured some extent of ecclesiastical interference. I certainly sense a divide between the LDS Church and its community of scholars. Does BYU even keep its best scholars? I guess the answer is in certain disciplines it does but in those subjects where legitimate scholarship will lead to those issues the leaders rather not have public, I doubt it.

Interesting times ahead over the next couple of years.

Whereas now the boobs are out, perhaps as the Church recognizes it needs its scholars some of you boobs will be in.
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Old 12-14-2007, 11:14 PM   #5
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Waters, he's right up your alley:

"Apostle Packer apparently doesn't want the Church historians to produce honest history. There are some things in his statement that I can agree with. For instance, you should teach children--small children--differently from the way you teach adolescents, and you should teach adolescents differently from the way you teach adults. The problem, in part, is that Apostle Packer wants to treat the adults as children. But this is nothing new in the Church. Much of our adult literature and teaching is on a child's level."

--Sterling McMurrin

See also, SU's post about the masses of zombies.
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Old 12-14-2007, 11:25 PM   #6
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I read most of it. I htink that if push came to shove and SU was forced to bare his soul about the Church (as opposed to the muck-stirring he enjoys so much here and on CB) he would give answers not too far from what SM gave in this interview.
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Old 12-14-2007, 11:26 PM   #7
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Quote:
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See also, SU's post about the masses of zombies.
SU do what SU gotta do.
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Old 12-14-2007, 11:51 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by SeattleUte View Post
Waters, he's right up your alley:

"Apostle Packer apparently doesn't want the Church historians to produce honest history. There are some things in his statement that I can agree with. For instance, you should teach children--small children--differently from the way you teach adolescents, and you should teach adolescents differently from the way you teach adults. The problem, in part, is that Apostle Packer wants to treat the adults as children. But this is nothing new in the Church. Much of our adult literature and teaching is on a child's level."

--Sterling McMurrin

See also, SU's post about the masses of zombies.
Sounds like rationalization at best
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Old 12-14-2007, 11:54 PM   #9
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I read most of it. I htink that if push came to shove and SU was forced to bare his soul about the Church (as opposed to the muck-stirring he enjoys so much here and on CB) he would give answers not too far from what SM gave in this interview.
Seattle will forever be looking for an adequate salve ... so will Brother McMurrin.
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Old 12-14-2007, 11:54 PM   #10
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Look, I'm not asking for a deep mysterious doctrine to be taught. I'm not asking for the heavens to be opened. I'm not asking for a new Pentecost.

I'm only asking for an explanation of why an entire race was denied eternal blessings.
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