Alas, Poor Adam Greenwood, I knew him
I have a story to tell everyone.
Times and Seasons, believe it or not, was the first bloggernacle blog I ever saw. Ever. I was linked to it by a friend in the church, and even though the post I was linked to (an Adam Greenwood one) was one that I didn’t agree with, it made me feel for the first time that the conservative, orthodox position in the church could be more intellectually solid than how I had often experienced it in church.
…ok, so I lied. Actually, my friend did link me to a T&S post, but it was a Nate Oman one. But let’s just PRETEND that it was a Greenwood post because this post is dedicated to our friend.Anyway, this first post I had seen (which we will be sourcing to Adam…sorry Nate!) was THE one. Yup. I never would’ve begun blogging if if it weren’t for Adam Greenwood, even if we rarely see eye to eye.
And I’m not going to lie; Adam poisoned T&S for me (see, I did actually see a proper Greenwood post after the Oman one I enjoyed so much)…it made me look for something else. So, in fact, Adam Greenwood was what made me look for By Common Consent and Mormon Matters, and now, I’m practically a regular at MMatters!
Anyway, what I’m trying to say now is…now that Adam is leaving T&S, what now?!
It was shocking to hear someone even go as far as to suggest that T&S is becoming New Order Mormon — that’s completely out of left field for me. Yet, Adam is leaving.
What I find interesting is…how do you get to a point in your blogging history where things get to be that way? And from the topic comments, it seems like there were at least a couple of non-fans.
Reading his new blog’s reasonings on why he left make it all sound more scandalous…but also, it is illuminating. For one, it seems like he’s even more orthodox and conservative than I ever imagined, denouncing the very idea that NOMs and Cafeteria Mormons could be in his midst, especially when one of the culprits is one of his co-bloggers, Kaimi Wenger…a fraternizer with the enemy. And even in comments sympathetic to Adam’s cause, I see scathing disdain or even rebuke for more liberal members. Wow. Crazy.
But if the bloggernacle — even T&S — is becoming a haven for NOMs to masquerade as TBMs…is this a problem? For Greenwood and other true believers, certainly. But for me? Maybe not. I mean, obviously, I would never fit as a conservative orthodox blogger, but I mean, I guess it must be terrible to feel like suddenly, your blog efforts are being overrun and are dwindling into unbelief.
The best stuff is what the professional snarkers have to say about this. Especially this one, since it’s like a year old but still so apt.!
…this is just so SURREAL! And exciting! I wish I had more history on the bloggernacle and its key players now now. I’ll tell you guys something: I have…(lemme count)…24 tabs open in Firefox. And it’s because I wanted to make sure I got this stuff read up about, but I have so much other stuff to do too! Just crazy! I just keep going through all the comments, and it just feels so real and social. I mean, in a way, you don’t see this from the official fronts of all of these places, but what fascinates me more is how there are behind-the-scenes…there are alliances and vendettas, advocates and enemies. And in rare instances like these, it all comes spilling out. You begin to see where the various parties are camped on the battleground.
The Irresistible (Dis)Grace 
This is the biggest meltdown I’ve ever seen on the Bloggernacle. Over on BBB I commented that Greenwood’s post was interesting (as an extreme public airing of dirty laundry), but now I feel bad about saying that, now that I see how far this thing has gone. I was just thinking that, y’know, you hear stray rumors of power struggles within the Quorum of the Twelve (the leaders of the LDS church), and I was thinking “Wouldn’t it be interesting if they posted their disputes to the Internet in gruesome he-said-he-said detail, like this?”
It’s sad to see how Kaimi has been targeted by the faithful bloggers, though. I don’t know him personally, but he seems like a nice guy, and this incident will undoubtedly color future perception of him on the Bloggernacle.
I think that’s the oddest/most surreal part of it all — the high probability that this incident will color future perception of Kaimi on the bloggernacle.
I mean, really, people are up in arms because he’s posted on a new order mormonism site?! As if that makes him the cleric of Satan or something.
I don’t think it was where Kaimi was posting, but the content of what he said that disturbed Adam. I sometimes cruise anti-Mormon sites to try and straighten things out, and I doubt Adam would have a problem with that.
For Adam I think it is usually not so much what he says as how he says it that rubs people wrong sometimes.
It does seem odd that Adam would go so public with this. It is sorta interesting to watch, but sad also.
I guess I’d still have to see what kinds of things Kaimi is posting, but I mean, it seems like even then, there’s a lot of hullabaloo about something like new order mormonism…I mean, if someone who is a believer but in a different way gets shamed, then it really doesn’t give hope for, for example, ex-members, etc., not that we need that, but just saying.
“Ganymede” is certainly a strange title for an Adam Greenwood blog. Especially with the tag line “We endeavor to give satisfaction.”
the snarkers already jumped on that one, kuri. I’m partially of the mind that all of this is just a gimmick to get more visitors. Linking to the T&S post and Greenwood’s blog gave me massive amounts of visitors, which means Greenwood must be getting more…and just like…a day after his resignation…he wrote *another* article at T&S
“We endeavor to give satisfaction?” What’s up with the pluralis majestatis?
I am not sure if Adam appreciates what he is saying. Giving satisfaction means that you warrant your word with your body, i.e. you are willing to accept the challenge to a duel.