If you have not heard, Professor Daniel C. Peterson, who maintained a position as Editor of the Mormon Studies Review of the Maxwell Institute for the past 20+ years, has recently confirmed that he has been removed from said position. This dismissal comes with much controversy and conspiracy theories that have plagued discussion forums and the "Bloggernacle" (a term referencing Latter-day Saint community of bloggers).
William Hamblin also shares his thoughts on this ousting at his blog Mormon Scripture Exploration by providing readers his unique perspective on this peculiar situation. In addition to this blog posting, Hamblin also published another post to diffuse the continuous discussion about Peterson's dismissal from the Maxwell Institute. According to this most recent blog article, we read the following:
The Maxwell Institute (MI) controversy is not–or at least shouldn’t be–a personal feud. It is, rather, a clash about the fundamental vision for the future of the MI. Those who try to turn it into a feud of “good people” verse “bad people”–as the apostates and anti-Mormons are gleefully doing–are doing a disservice to the important issues at stake here.
Hamblin is correct as he further shares that the current administrator of the Maxwell Institute has not addressed consistent leaks to a particular discussion forum where enemies of the Church have bantered on about supposed conflicts within the Institute and Daniel Peterson's. In particular, the forum published discussion threads where an individual running the board produced topics with "according to my informant at the Maxwell Institute..." and then continued on with conspiracy theories. These have feed into the consistent build up of skepticism against Latter-day Saint Apologetics, and allowed for our detractors and enemies to engage in their own willful ad hominem and yellow journalism.
It will be quite interesting to see what new visions the Maxwell Institute has for scholarly research and studies on ancient scripture. In addition, it will be even more interesting if there is going to be a resurrection of the old FARMS and a resurgence of modern Mormon Apologetics.