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<\/a>At a certain place on the Internet that will remain deservedly nameless, it\u2019s often claimed that my involvement with Latter-day Saint apologetics\u2014and, specifically, with the Interpreter Foundation\u2014funds an opulent lifestyle for me of global travel, lounging poolside at upscale hotels and resorts, and endless high-end dining.\u00a0 All of which, the accusation goes, is billed directly to the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s tab \u2014 and, thus, paid for by the Foundation\u2019s gullible donors, who are being scammed.\u00a0 One curiously hostile individual is particularly responsible for the accusations, but he\u2019s attracted a small chorus of enthusiastic backers.<\/p>\n
To the best of my knowledge, I\u2019ve never met any of these anonymous accusers. \u00a0And it\u2019s manifestly clear that they have no direct knowledge of either my personal finances or those of the Interpreter Foundation.<\/p>\n
However, since these accusations are public and incessant, I think it advisable, at least this once, to publicly contradict them.\u00a0 Hence the following:<\/p>\n
Do you receive regular payments from the Interpreter Foundation?<\/strong><\/p>\n No.\u00a0 Nor do any members of my family.\u00a0 In any form.\u00a0 My wife and I are unpaid volunteers.<\/p>\n Do you receive payment for your involvement in the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s film projects?<\/strong><\/p>\n No. Nor do any members of my family.\u00a0 In any form, except (very occasionally) to cover expenses.\u00a0 Nor is there any provision in any contract or document related to the films for me or any member of my family to profit so much as a dime from the film projects.<\/p>\n Are you a donor to the Interpreter Foundation?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes.\u00a0 My wife and I donate every year to the Interpreter Foundation, and we\u2019ve done so since its launch.<\/p>\n Do your donations exceed what you receive from the Interpreter Foundation?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes.\u00a0 Many times over.\u00a0 In fact, we rarely if ever receive any money from the Interpreter Foundation.\u00a0 We receive no compensation whatever for the untold hours of work that we do for the Foundation, nor do any members of Interpreter\u2019s board receive any money for their service.\u00a0 Occasionally, the Foundation has reimbursed us when we\u2019ve bought food for a multi-hour Interpreter board meeting or purchased paper supplies for our volunteer bookkeeper\u2019s printer, or something of that sort.<\/p>\n Do you have an expense account from the Interpreter Foundation?<\/strong><\/p>\n No.\u00a0 Nor does any other officer of the Foundation.<\/p>\n But aren\u2019t your travel expenses (e.g., food and lodging and airfare) paid by the Interpreter Foundation?<\/strong><\/p>\n My wife and I like to travel, and we do quite a bit of it.\u00a0 Some of it is to visit children and grandchildren (which, I think, even my critics may concede to be ethically permissible).\u00a0 Much of it, I admit, is for fun.\u00a0 When we planned out our retirement, we specifically allocated substantial resources for future travel.\u00a0 (We don\u2019t own a cabin or a boat or renovate sports cars or collect vintage wines or belong to a country club.)\u00a0 The large majority of our travel is paid for entirely with our own money, from our own savings.\u00a0 (Again, I think this may still be permitted.)<\/p>\n I can\u2019t think of a case where Interpreter has paid my travel expenses, and it has never paid for my wife\u2019s.\u00a0When I drive to present a fireside, I\u2019m not even reimbursed for my gas.<\/p>\n If someone asks me to fly, say, to Chicago or Atlanta to speak to a group, I gently point out that Interpreter has no provision in its budget to pay for such things.\u00a0 In such cases, those inviting me will typically offer to cover my airfare and either to put me up in a hotel or in a Church member\u2019s home.\u00a0 If I\u2019m invited to do a fireside or a lecture in an area that we\u2019ll already be visiting, I try to do it.\u00a0 And I do it at no charge, almost never expecting or receiving anything for my expenses from the sponsors.<\/p>\n It is, however, the case that, when we\u2019ve gone out filming for the Becoming Brigham<\/em> series in upstate New York, Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, and Nebraska, my travel expenses and those of the five others in the filmmaking team have been paid (e.g., airfare, shared auto rental, lodging, one daily common meal, and a small per diem <\/em>for other incidental expenses.\u00a0 Again, I\u2019m paid nothing beyond<\/em> expenses.)\u00a0 This is done not by the Interpreter Foundation but by Redbrick Filmworks<\/a>, the small movie-making company with whom we work, reflecting Redbrick\u2019s standard practices during its film shoots.<\/p>\n With Redbrick<\/em>, we\u2019ve made Robert Cundick: A Sacred Service of Music<\/em> [2017], Witnesses<\/em> [2021], Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon<\/em> [2022], and Six Days in August<\/em> [2024], and with them we\u2019re now making Becoming Brigham<\/em>.\u00a0 (For these efforts, see here<\/a>, and here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Only in the case of Becoming Brigham<\/em>, however, have I been directly involved in the filming and, thus, only in the case of Becoming Brigham<\/em> have my expenses occasionally been covered.\u00a0 But, even here, only for longer film trips (typically lasting from four to six days).\u00a0 While I\u2019ve sometimes enjoyed a lunch with the others at Redbrick\u2019s expense between interviews up in Salt Lake City (or elsewhere within driving distance), I\u2019ve received no compensation for gas expended when traveling for these interviews nor any other payment for the work, which has often required most or all of a given day.\u00a0 Once or twice, my wife has come along.\u00a0 In those cases, she\u2019s paid her own expenses.<\/p>\n My critics fault me for the sybaritic lifestyle that these film efforts have allegedly afforded me.\u00a0 And it\u2019s true that I\u2019ve been able to indulge my epicurean tastes in Nauvoo, Keokuk, and Fort Madison, luxuriating in several of the region\u2019s finest diners and most lavish motels.\u00a0 You simply haven\u2019t lived<\/em> until you\u2019ve savored a microwaved tater tot on Mulholland Street in Nauvoo, relished an exotic slice of takeout cheese-and-pepperoni pizza while sitting on a motel bed in southeastern Iowa, or enjoyed a local cheeseburger washed down by a cold Coke Zero.<\/p>\n But what about your international jaunts to such places as Australia, England, Turkey, Jordan, New Zealand, and Egypt?<\/strong><\/p>\n I participated last year in a conference in Samarqand, Uzbekistan, to which I was invited by another foundation, not by Interpreter, and for which my travel expenses (food, lodging, and airfare) were covered by the inviting foundation.\u00a0 Beyond that, I received no payment.\u00a0 This is exactly the same way that Brigham Young University covered my expenses (and my colleagues\u2019 expenses) at academic conferences during the time that I worked for BYU. \u00a0So far as I know, it\u2019s standard practice at other colleges and universities \u00a0as well.<\/p>\n When I\u2019ve accompanied tours\u2014even those sponsored by the Interpreter Foundation\u2014my food, lodging, and travel are covered by the travel company out of the money paid to that company by participants in the tour.\u00a0 Not by the Interpreter Foundation.\u00a0 I receive no money beyond<\/em> food, lodging, and travel.\u00a0 (Many academics who accompany such tours receive compensation above<\/em> expenses.\u00a0 Perhaps foolishly, I almost never have.)\u00a0 My wife and I aren\u2019t independently wealthy, and these travel companies are for-profit businesses who apparently calculate (rightly or wrongly) that I add value to their offering.\u00a0 Perhaps, though, my critics\u2019 thought is that I should donate my services to those companies and, so, dip into my life savings in order to widen their profit margins.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>