Thoughts on Jonathan Neville and that lawsuit against the Church

Peter Pan has done a good job calling out Jonathan Neville for his ludicrous (and dishonest) attempt to smear Daniel Peterson. I just want to add one additional note:

Neville writes that “what the M2C citation cartel and revisionist historians are doing has real-world consequences.” As evidence for this, he mentions a federal lawsuit that is seeking to sue The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for fraud. He then makes this claim:

Had our intellectuals stuck with the teachings of the prophets, starting with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, a lawsuit such as this would never have been filed. Nor would CES Letter, the Tanners, and other detractors have much influence.

It’s hilarious how delusional this comment is. Neville somehow knows (how, he doesn’t say) that Laura Gaddy would not have filed her lawsuit if only the “M2C citation cartel” had “stuck with the teachings of the prophets” (Nevillespeak for “uncritically agreeing with the Heartland hoax”).

Does Neville actually believe that Ms. Gaddy would not have filed her lawsuit if Neville had simply been able to set her straight about the cave of plates in Cumorah, or his two-sets-of-plates theory, or the fraudulent Michigan Relics, or the pseudoscientific claims of Jewish DNA in the Hopewell Indians, or the (as yet undiscovered) remains of the lost city of Zarahemla in modern Iowa?

Come on, now, Brother Neville. Lift a finger and actually combat this scurrilous lawsuit. Don’t just sit on the sidelines and smear the good names and reputations of Latter-day Saint scholars who disagree with you.

—Captain Hook