Now that the appeals process for Cecilia Konchar Farr and David Knowlton has been concluded, I feel I must express my objection to the defamation of these two BYU professors in the public media. I plead with newspapers and individuals to stop spreading false and damaging rumors.
A primary source of the false rumors was an opinion piece published in the Deseret News last July 3 by BYU Professor Steve Albrecht. He accurately described the then recently announced denial of continuing status to Farr and Knowlton as a judgment only about their academic work.Yet he concluded, "I cannot understand why someone who doesn't agree with BYU's and its sponsoring church organization's positions would want to teach here . . . I would personally have a difficult time accepting a paycheck from the LDS Church and then working to destroy what that Church stands for."
Albrecht thus implied that Farr and Knowlton had contradicted LDS Church positions and spoken or acted to damage BYU and the church.
Others have repeated such allegations as fact in letters to the editor and news articles in many Utah papers, including an AP story in the Sept. 14 Deseret News that describes Farr and Knowlton as "two outspoken scholars who had taken stands at odds with church doctrine." Such rumors, and worse, are also spread by word of mouth.
These are all false allegations. Farr and Knowlton are faithful and devout Latter-day Saints, as their bishops will attest. Farr is an anti-abortion mother of two young children and works constantly to build intelligent faith in her students by integrating her scholarship and teaching with the gospel - for instance, writing against pornography and taking her students to do temple work for some of the dead authors they study.
BYU has not accused Farr and Knowlton of acting or speaking contrary to gospel doctrine or to church policies, a fact its spokespeople will attest. BYU has simply denied them continuing status, alleging there are deficiencies in their academic responsibilities.
If they were guilty of the false allegations above, they could have been disciplined under BYU's guidelines on "Competency and Academic Freedom."
In defaming Farr and Knowlton - or our church leaders or anyone else - we are damaging them and morally and spiritually endangering our community and ourselves.
Eugene England
Provo