Here's the link to that Jones video *URL SNIPPED*
He looks harmless, and he's very soft-spoken, so why do I want to kick his ass?
Because spewing enemy propaganda in a time of war does that to people?
That's exactly the video I was talking about. To give you some further perspective and perhaps to give a better impression on how big a hole Jones is digging for himself I should explain a few things about what is happening there.
Given how heavily Jones is thumping the Book of Mormon (all the names and events he is discussing are taken from the BoM) my guess is that he is addressing an almost exclusively mormon audience. Furthermore (if you'll forgive me borrowing a phrase from Geggy), my gut says that gathering is taking place inside a mormon chapel or stake center. It's just the basic architectural style of the room that I'm basing this on so I can't be certain. Alot of it also depends on where he got the permission to use church property (wether it's a house of worship or on the campus of the church owned university).
The mormon church, despite the stranglehold the republican party (or it's closest philosphical equivelants here in Canada) has over the mormon vote, is very careful to distance itself from actual politicians, candidates or parties. The church is also very careful about how it's name and image are used in public in general. I myself ran for elective office up here in Alberta Canada several years back and when I did, my Bishop at the time cautioned me on what I could say inside the church so as not to violate church policy and drag the church publicly into an election campaign.
Jones isn't the first darling of the conspiracists to publicly tread dangerously close to abusing his standing in the church to artificially inflate his credibility. Colonel Bo Gritz was expelled from the LDS church for various public statements including claiming that the leaders of the LDS church had endorsed his bid for the presidency of the United States.
Now, back to Jones... if I m correct, that he is using his position in the church and church property to advocate a political position (and there's just no way in hell that this ain't political) then he is violating the churches policy. Professorships at BYU don't work the way they do in other universities. Like all paid employees of the church, Jones is required to live according to the teachings of the church. Lying about threats and bribes from government agents and using his position at a church owned institution to attack elected officials without supporting evidence is a great for him to get himself fired.
Again, this is mostly speculation on my part. But knowing that neither science nor the actual engineers at his university are behind him makes the rest of his claims shaky at best.
