Former BYU Professor Steven Jones Resurfaces After BYU Gently Kicked Him To The Curb Over Controversial 9/11 Paper In 2006

Little has been publicly heard of former BYU-Provo Professor Steven Jones, who was gently kicked to the curb by BYU in September 2006 after he released his controversial
19-page academic paper in November 2005 entitled "Why Indeed did the WTC Buildings Collapse", which attempted to show how the laws of physics do not support the WTC's freefall and, consequently, the official government story. He suggested 13 reasons why the official story should be challenged. While expressing doubt about the government's version of 9/11, he called for an independent investigation concerning the strange collapse of WTC Buildings #1 and #2, which were struck by airliners, as well as #7, which was NOT struck by an airliner, something the 9/11 Commission failed to do and something the Bush Administration adamantly opposed. Dr. Jones, who served as a bishop in the BYU 99th Ward and as high councilor in the BYU 10th Stake during that time, remains a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; his daughter just returned home from serving a mission in Baton Rouge, LA.

However, Dr. Jones has resurfaced in this subforum on the LDS Freedom Forum, and apparently he posts there regularly. He makes no dramatic new revelations, but merely shares his perspective six years after the fact. He makes it clear that he and BYU did NOT part on unfavorable terms. In response to another poster, Dr. Jones wrote:

It is a concern to me as well, AGStacker. And I don't understand it. It was painful for me and my family. We will understand some day.

You know, I served as on the Stake High Council in the BYU 10th Stake then as a Bishop in the BYU 99th Ward, while I was serving also as a Full Professor of Physics. I gave it my all.

I thought I should at least deserve a hearing, a chance to hear the charges against me and answer them -- which I requested, as noted in the newspaper.

Dr. Jones also noted that he published several peer-reviewed papers on 9/11:

-- Steven E. Jones, “What accounts for the molten metal observed on 9/11/2001?”, Journal of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, 83:252, Apr 2006.
-- S.E. Jones, et al. "Fourteen Points...", Open Civil Engineering Journal, April 2008.
-- K. Ryan, J. Gourley and S.E. Jones, "Environmental Anomalies at the World Trade Center: Evidence for Energetic Materials", Environmentalist, August 2008.
-- Niels Harrit, Jeffrey Farrer, Steven Jones, et al. "Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe", THE OPEN CHEMICAL PHYSICS JOURNAL, April 2009.

Dr. Jones hints that the suppression of competing theories about 9/11 has caused him to question what other coverups governments may be capable of:

Yes, certainly. Clandestine weapons of war and torture are terrible. Such weapons can and have been used for false-flag attacks which are historically precedented.

In the pages of this forum and elsewhere, I have spoken against wars of aggression and against torture, and against abridgements of human freedom including the right to seek redress for grievances, the right of free speech, the right of habeus corpus, and the right of freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures -- and the right of due process when charged of wrong-doing. My experience and observation -- we are losing those rights vouch-safed in the Constitution of the United States of America by the founders.

BYU Student Taylor Petty Defends LTE Against Homosexuality To Daily Universe, Criticizes Politically-Correct Editor Joel Campbell For Pulling It

On November 18th, 2011, BYU Daily Universe Managing Editor Joel Campbell took down a letter to the editor by a student, Taylor Petty, which was critical of homosexuality, after it was published. Campbell allowed himself to be bullied by a few activists who were offended and expressed their discontent by printing up a protest flyer and inserting it into a number of copies of the newspaper. A screenshot of Petty's letter is included in my original post.

But Taylor Petty has fired back. On November 21st, the Deseret News reported that Petty, who wrote his letter in response to other letters the paper had published on the subject of whether society should or should not accept gay adoption, defended his position and has no regrets about writing the letter. Petty said "No. I definitely agree with what I said. I think a lot of people misunderstood what I was saying. When I said the word homosexuality, I was not referring to people who felt temptations inside but hid them. I was referring to homosexual acts or acting homosexuals as the sin."

Petty also condemned Campbell for taking down his letter while leaving the original letters prompting it up, considering it inconsistent. In regards to the T.V. show Modern Family (a show portraying a gay couple who adopted a child), which started this whole debate, Petty said that although he has never watched the show, he disagrees with all shows depicting people living openly gay lifestyles as acceptable in society. He's also strongly against Glee for the same reason, because it portrays a gay kid that's openly gay.

The Student Review, which is BYU's newly revived off-campus, student-run newspaper, also decided to enter the debate on November 18th when editor Hunter Schwartz also criticized Taylor Petty's letter, zeroing in on the second to last paragraph where Petty implicitly compares a homosexual or transgender to a prostitute or a serial killer, which was clearly hyperbolic and misleading. Schwartz's premise was that regardless of one's opinions on gay adoption and parenting, words like that can be counterproductive, offending those that disagree and delegitimizing one's argument.

Really? So criticism of homosexuality is now illegitimate in our society? If that's the way BYU students think, then the suitability of BYU to provide a college education fit for LDS students must now be called into question. The day that Brigham Young feared would come has indeed arrived -- one can now hardly distinguish a Saint from a blackleg.

It would have been much more courageous and principled to leave Taylor Petty's letter up and allow the community to weigh in vigorously on it in their own LTEs. The prophet Joseph Smith didn't fear offending people when he proclaimed the restoration. Yet Joel Campbell is not cut from the same cloth as Joseph Smith -- he fears offending people more than he loves free speech.

Here was a good comment posted to The Student Review which effectively highlights the dilemma:

Bryan says Nov 18, 2011:
I personally think that we have sort of an impasse. The religious types call the behavior what they see it to be by the definition that they have been taught to use: sinful. The more liberal types call such a forceful reaction to their rights to free expression by one key word which labels and nullifies any ability for constructive argument: bigot. I think the broader issue here doesn’t have much room for debate, acting upon homosexual impulses is a sin. The real issue is this: How do follow Christ’s command to love the sinner but hate the sin? We cannot condone such behavior but we miss the mark when we condemn the person. The problem: as soon as a dialogue starts it gets shut down either by extreme intolerance from the right or cries of bigot from the left. I think we need more open minded dialogue addressing this issue on both sides of the table.

BYU Daily Universe Goes Politically Correct; Editor Joel Campbell Censors LTE Critical Of Homosexuality

Update November 21st: Taylor Petty fires back, defends letter to the editor, criticizes Joel Campbell for pulling it after publication. Updated post HERE.

Political correctness continues to worm its way into LDS ranks. On November 18th, 2011, Universe Managing Editor Joel Campbell took down a letter to the editor critical of homosexuality after it was published. Prompting Campbell's sudden volte-face were complaints from a few readers, some of who printed up a protest flyer and inserted it into a number of copies of the newspaper. Campbell explained that the letter did not represent the standards of BYU and did not show sufficient "understanding and respect", citing a recent statement from the LDS Church Handbook of Instruction, which reads “While opposing homosexual behavior, the Church reaches out with understanding and respect to individuals who are attracted to those of the same gender.”

However, one enterprising individual scanned a copy of the original letter and posted it online:

Click the image or visit HERE for larger version

In reading the letter, the only reason I can see why it was censored was in the second to last paragraph, where a homosexual or transgender is compared to a prostitute or a serial killer. That's clearly hyperbolic and misleading. But if this was so offensive, then why did Campbell publish the letter in the first place? To publish it and then take it down because of a few complaints strikes me as cowardly. Joel Campbell placed political correctness ahead of free speech.

It's bad enough when this happens at a secular university. But when it happens at Brigham Young University, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it's over the top. Taylor Petty's letter actually reflects current LDS doctrine on homosexuality; namely, that while homosexual orientation alone isn't a problem, homosexual practice continues to be forbidden.

Brigham Young foresaw the effects of political correctness upon the modern-day LDS community:

He dreaded the time when the Saints would become popular with the world; for he had seen in sorrow, in a dream, or in dreams, this people clothed in the fashions of Babylon and drinking in the spirit of Babylon until one could hardly tell a Saint from a black-leg. And he felt like shouting, “To your tents, Oh Israel!” because it was the only thing that could keep the people pure.

The line between saint and black-leg has certainly become blurred in the case of Joel Campbell. In fact, an increasing number of Latter-day Saints seem to be bending over backward to accommodate gay people, disrupting the balance between justice and mercy. While we want to reassure celibate gay Mormons that they have our full support as they juxtapose the feelings with which they struggle against the requirements of full Church membership, we must remember that in Alma 42:25, we're told that mercy cannot rob justice, otherwise God would cease to be God. Justice without mercy may be tyranny, but mercy without justice is anarchy.

In addition to his editorial duties at the Universe, Joel Campbell is a former reporter for the Deseret News and a current associate professor of communications at BYU. His reporting does not necessarily reflect the views of BYU. He also writes on First Amendment and open-government issues for the Salt Lake Tribune.