What a pearl-clutching embarrassment.

One reason for not wanting to be known as a religion is that, in the United States, if secular humanism is seen as a religion, then it could face big trouble in the courts because of the First Amendment.

No kidding. I read the whole damned article, but I should have stuck with Scratch's succinct and spot-on summary. Not an auspicious beginning for the "Interpreter."

trendline:
lacking intellectual content
raunchy

A legitimate complaint against various FARMS reviews was that it nitpicked at insignificant details rather than addressed the big issues. I was afraid that Scratch was doing the same thing here. But he wasn’t—this article is bad . In terms of simply making cohesive arguments, it wouldn’t deserve a passing grade in an undergraduate course.

The conclusion is that one need not fear death, for it is ultimate liberation from this miserable world. While struggling to avoid pain, one need not be set upon by false notions of divine beings who have even more pain planned for disobedient mortals after their miserable deaths.

Now that Daniel isn't being paid to act as editor, and he doesn't have a paid staff, the quality of the classic-FARMS output is suffering.

You would almost think these are posts on a discussion board, if it weren't for the length.

You know, Reverend, I wouldn't have thought to bring the money issue into the picture, but I suppose you're right. "If you're good at something, never do it for free." Or, rather, "If you have to do something for free, do a half-assed job."

The lack of money just means that their copyediting is now of the same quality as the "scholarship."

Well, David Bokovoy's article was good, I thought. It may turn out to be the best piece the Interpreter ever publishes!

...
And none of us would want to be callow, so we better acknowledge that any grouping of people, either by common traits or by their association with each other, is equivalent to a church.

The NRA, the National Geographic Society, your local community theater, that book club you're in, the Federalist Society, the Rotary Club, the AAA, and fantasy football leagues are all churches, too.

I have to say that even I have been thrilled, and sometimes moved, by the enthusiasm and energy of those who have made this new journal possible, and who have accomplished it with such speed. Remarkable people have signed on to help. Interpreter is well-produced, technically savvy, peer-reviewed, and, already, graced with fascinating, substantial articles. It’s paginated and typeset like a print publication, and is readily available for print-on-demand.

As much as possible, we’re making all of this available for free. But there are inescapable expenses, and we have very little money. So we intend to commence a fundraising campaign as soon as we’re in a position to do so. We’ve flourished thus far in Interpreter’s brief but vigorous life on the basis of volunteer labor, but we know that we can’t expect people to work long hours for free forever.

Nevertheless, this effort continues to grow and develop. Our goal is to post at least one article, review, or note each week—and perhaps more. We’re in the process of setting up a tax-exempt legal entity, The Interpreter Foundation, to sponsor the journal, and we’ve already produced podcasts and audio discussions, undertaken to co-sponsor a conference on the temple www.mormoninterpreter.com , and created a blog.

This is an exciting project.

what a lovely summary.

Allegedly 'Mormon Interpreter' is running it's own equivalent of a 'Raising The Bar' programme. It's called 'Finding The Bar'.

Hi guys -- thanks for the interesting analysis! I think this may be the first time a Mormon apologist has written an article in a peer-reviewed journal about how "raunchy and lacking intellectual content" my blog is -- and without someone pointing me to this thread, I might never have noticed!

I just wrote a post for MSP about it here. It includes a link to the full text of my article from FI.

Hi guys -- thanks for the interesting analysis! I think this may be the first time a Mormon apologist has written an article in a peer-reviewed journal about how "raunchy and lacking intellectual content" my blog is -- and without someone pointing me to this thread, I might never have noticed!

I just wrote a post for MSP about it here. It includes a link to the full text of my article from FI.

Thanks for the link and I enjoyed reading your response. I just have one question.
Which "peer-reviewed" journal picked up and published the Midgley article from "Mormon Interpreter"?