Grant Palmer Unhinged

So, I was in the library browsing the LDS book section in the "non-fiction" part of the library.

I found a book that was called An Insider's View of Mormon Origins or some other such nonsense. It is only "non-fiction" in the sense that people actually said the things quoted in the book although the underlying people quoted were not committed to a non-ficticious rendition of the truth. It is a very one-sided view of LDS Church history as told by people who were against the LDS Church from the very beginning. If all you quote from are enemies of the church, it is not surprising that you may get a skewed and inaccurate view. Just because Grant Palmer has quoted from old sources does not make them accurate or honest. People were fighting against the church before it was ever formally organized.

This book was authored by one Grant Palmer who boasts of having been a three time institute director over his long career with Church Educational Systems. It turns out that he was a "director" of institute in the same way that a self-employed person is the "president" and "CEO" of a company. Technically true, but also misleading if not explained in full context. Grant Palmer was teaching institute in some rural areas of California where he was the only teacher available for the students and therefore the "director" of institute.

Grant Palmer began writing his anti-mormon rantings in the mid-eighties when Mark Hoffman came up with some very skillful forgeries that would seem to undermine the founding events of the church. He was teaching Seminary at Brighton High School and was put on one year's probation for spreading anti-mormon propaganda among the teachers there. While on probation, he wrote a short anti-mormon book based on the Mark Hoffman forgeries and was then allowed to keep his job as a "volunteer" teaching at a prison. After his retirement, he published the book that is the subject of this post.

To lay in wait for almost 20 years living on the payroll of the LDS Church while polishing his second draft of his anti-mormon screed, then to publish it after taking retirement benefits speaks to the morals of the author. His book does too.

Grant Palmer claims to be seeking understanding and that many church scholars agree with him. Many LDS scholars have stated in no uncertain terms that Grant Palmer is wrong about that assertion. Grant Palmer claims to have a desire to build faith, not to destroy it. With his one-sided and slanted writing, sprinkled with a few token paragraphs here and there to support the church, he really does seek to destroy faith.

I only skimmed the book and it is a complete waste of time. Some would call it "bent" in showing evil as good, and good as evil.

Other than my own observations, the source material for this post comes from BYU scholarship and the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, or FARMS. You can find a listing of FARMS publications regarding Grant Palmer here.

Please avoid this book like the plague. It seems harmless or even helpful to the student of LDS history, but it is not.

Real Estate Apprentice

I had the joy/misery of attending a "group interview" about becoming an "apprentice" to a real estate investor with the potential of making $10k - $20k per month. What a crock. I have seen these signs on little wooden post signs, with stickers on the back windows of vehicles and in little cards in books at Barnes and Noble in the Real Estate section. After hearing the information at the "group interview" It is a waste of time as far as I am concerned.

I don't know if the people who sign up with the company really are successful from investing in real estate or if they are just a large scale well polished sales company. Their schtick is to have people buy a start up kit for $75 ("we only charge the $75 to make it a binding contract!) and then pay for their home study course for $200. (per month, forever and ever if you want to have the benefit of selling their stuff).

If you want to make the REAL money in their system, you must pay the $75 one time fee, $200 per month and then purchase their $16,000 education course. (this course is called the "Regents" tuition package for "120 credits" over 20 days). Then you need to help sell four more of these $16,000 packages before you are able to get a commission on the sale of any additional packages. Wow. You need to pitch in your own $16,000, then help them rake in an additional $64,000 before you can start to get commissions from selling those tuition packages, if you want to be making the big money quick.

I could say more, I could go on, but I will save that for another time(or if you have additional questions, you can e-mail me). I had several questions they couldn't really answer, but they made valiant attempts to do so. I was offered a one on one meeting for an hour to have my questions answered, but I already knew enough that I don't really want a part of it.

I should quickly add that they have a web site and access to a portion called "click a mouse, buy a house" which you can have limited access to, but would have increased access to if you went through the $16,000 of courses, where you might see things like multi-family properties. If you don't invest in yourself (through their programs) they do not feel comfortable showing these complex multi-family properties because they do not want you to fail. What a condescending load of crap. I have my suspicicions (no proof) that the owners of the company probably are placing properties that they own and want to sell on the website. What a racket, you pay them tons of money to buy properties from them or their holding companies, etc....

One lady told me that one class in the Regents courses was worth the tuition by itself. It was about "short sales". This is a real estate term for when a property is in foreclosure and the bank sells the property for less than the value of the promissory note, etc... presumably so that you take the property over with that built in equity. This is not a big mystery and there are several books that treat the topic already. You could spend $200 in books and study them instead and probably have a more complete education on the matter.

The name of the company is Nouveau Riche. They have a website. I believe that their company is a waste of money based on the information you get. They claim to have a mentoring service, etc... but you can find mentors in almost any subject if you look hard enough, for free.

Until next time....