the 2013 statement that I reposted here earlier today<\/a>, seeking to know how and why, given the spiritual confirmation that I seem to claim for my Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, I eventually resigned from it.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a matter of fact, I\u2019ve answered that question already in my reposted statement:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last month, amidst the continuing aftereffects and fallout of the events that took place within the Maxwell Institute in the middle of June 2012, seeing literally no alternative and no way to function, I finally resigned as editor-in-chief of the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, since the question has been asked at least twice today and several times previously, I\u2019ll be somewhat more explicit:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I quit because I could no longer fulfill my role. \u00a0I had no choice. \u00a0Over the course of many months following\u00a0the\u00a0June 2012 purge, I tried to meet with Maxwell Institute staff to further the work of the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative (METI). \u00a0But meeting after meeting after meeting fell through. \u00a0And my office in the Maxwell Institute building was taken away. \u00a0Finally, there were explicit refusals<\/em> to meet with me.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Recognizing that I couldn\u2019t be even remotely effective under such conditions, I met with John Rosenberg, who was then the dean of my home academic unit, BYU\u2019s\u00a0College of Humanities. \u00a0I told him that I saw no way forward for my work on the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
He agreed with me. \u00a0And he negotiated my formal withdrawal from METI, insisting, on my behalf, on two conditions: \u00a01) \u00a0I would receive two complimentary copies of each new METI publication, in perpetuity. \u00a02) \u00a0My name would always appear in METI publications, identifying me as the founding editor. \u00a0This may seem petty egomania, but I found the idea of being altogether erased from the history of the project (becoming an \u201cunperson,\u201d as\u00a0in Orwell\u2019s 1984<\/em>\u00a0or in the manner of an old Soviet encyclopedia) deeply offensive as a matter of principle. \u00a0It was something\u00a0that I simply would not, and could not, permit.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I conceived the idea entirely independent of anybody else, raised the money for it, hired its\u00a0staff, led the project for years, represented it at meetings and in speeches and in events on five continents. \u00a0But I know how these things go. \u00a0Some time back, I saw an article recounting the history of METI that altogether failed to mention my involvement with it. \u00a0And, roughly\u00a0three years ago, I ran into my friend Father Sidney Griffith<\/a>\u00a0of the Catholic University of America, who contributed one of the translations that METI published<\/a>. \u00a0He told me that he had recently been interviewed for a Maxwell Institute fundraising video. \u00a0He had, he laughingly told me, \u201cpraised me to the skies.\u201d \u00a0I didn\u2019t have the heart to tell him that such praise virtually guaranteed that all or most of his interview would end up on the cutting room floor.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
If I could have continued my involvement with\u00a0the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, I would have.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Thus far,\u00a0two people have written to me in the light of the 2013 statement that I reposted here earlier today, seeking to know how and why, given the spiritual confirmation that I seem to claim for my Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, I eventually resigned from it. \u00a0 As a matter of fact, I\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>