http://uvu.academia.edu/DavidKnowlton/Papers/893879/Once_upon_July


Writings by a BYU Professor who was fired from BYU in the early 90’s; mostly for a Sunstone article he wrote; and mostly further still for comparing the Church Office Building to a penis.

It’s long, but if you read through it, it was a completely morally bankrupt procedure. And another surprise was them sending spies to listen to him teach in GD.

And perhaps most reprehensible of all, spreading a rumor that he was fired for sleeping with his students.

And as if taking a cue from a Tom Cruise movie, the actually fired him for what they decided that he would do in the future.

Any Professor even thinking of working for BYU would do well to read this.

In 1997-8, the American Association of University Professors imposed a censure on Brigham young University for violations against the academic freedom of their faculty. That censure has never been removed, for good reason.

http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2003/JF/FTR/cenlist.htm

I am personally acquainted wth another former BYU faculty member - an absolutely brilliant man of the highest academic integrity - who was not only hounded out of the university, but followed across the country as he and his family were hounded out of the church as well. The Mormons have a well-documented history of trying to ruin the post-BYU careers of men who hew to a far higher level of academic integrity than that claimed by the Mormon church and BYU.

For these reasons, I would never recommend that ANYONE look into employment at ANY Mormon-owned so-called institution of higher education. It is a sick joke! You risk everything, but most of all your integrity. You are expected, quite literally, to sell your soul to the devil.

I have a small anecdote that personally happened to my ex husband. He is a biochemist who worked there for 13 years. He came out in 1992 to me but we tried to keep it quiet until he could leave on his terms and not get fired. Back in those days it was NOT ok to admit to being gay like it seems to be today at BYU.

At any rate, someone who is still unknown to us, went to the administration and made all kinds of wild accusations against him. The only one that was even close to true was that we were separating. He never was told who his accuser was. He was presumed guilty of the charges and had to prove his innocence through various means. When all the charges were dropped, he was told the administration would keep the information in his file in case they found out he was lying. He was so very disappointed and left that place with hard feelings.

I wouldn't recommend anyone to become employed there.

David P. Wright is one we've been talking about at the Tall Man house for the last couple of months. His story just grieves us.

He did a real watershed analysis of the use of the KJV in the BOM. He showed an undeniable fingerprint among the italicized words that indicated the person plagiarizing the text isolated those words for replacement in the new work (BOM).

Here's his study: http://user.xmission.com/~research/central/isabm1.html

By all indications he was a happy, faithful member who had no desire to separate from the church. His study is somewhat dry, and mostly a statistical analysis. But it shows the author of the Book of Mormon betrayed the plagiarism of the KJV by replacing the italicized words with greater frequency than any other words. And sometimes the altered version rendered the text meaning things the original could not have intended.

He was excommunicated for apostasy in 1994. He and his wife both wrote letters to their bishop that can be seen here: http://www.lds-mormon.com/dpw.shtml It's very sad reading.

He was fired from BYU for publishing his study. He has one of the most succinct statements regarding the conflict between scholarship and devotion in the LDS culture:

"First of all, scholarship is not some sort of sin, a 'failing of the flesh,' which an individual recognizes to be an error and which that individual considers to be a blemish to his or her personal integrity. Scholarship, rather, is a constructive activity and is one of the purest expressions of a person's character. Scholarship involves a failing of the flesh, paradoxically, only when one is not forthright with his or her conclusions, when one holds back evidence, when one dissembles about his or her views in the face of social--or ecclesiastical--pressure. To express one's views, especially when they fly in the face of tradition, in other words, is hardly a sin but rather a virtue. Because Church disciplinary proceedings treat scholarship as if it were sinful, and even employ along the way the polemical myth that sin is what is responsible for a scholar's unorthodox views, the proceedings are an attack on the individual's integrity."

It is interesting how the church/BYU makes dishonesty a virtue, and honesty a vice.

by the time a person is faculty at BYU they are way inside the loop of screwing over their fellow man for a living, granted the MORmONS are standing in line for this kind of a swindle, but a person cant be too surprised when this kind of MORmON crap trap explodes and they end up with LDS BS all over them.