“the old BYU arm twist”

On episode 7 of FX’s “Under the Banner of Heaven” the "General Authority" character states that "scholars" maintain that Southern Paiute People participated in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Detective Taba, whose character is Shivwits Pauite, disagrees saying he had been taught a different version of that story. After Taba leaves, Allen Lafferty confronts the "General Authority" about these lies and mentions “the old BYU arm twist." The reference points how this church uses BYU to “prove” and spread their religious, historical, and political beliefs in secular and academic way.

Here are some of the BYU-arm-twist-institutions I've run into in my work:
​
BYU Institute for Studies in Values and Human Behavior (1976-?, est. under Dallin H. Oaks)
Dedicated most heavily to search for evidence supporting church views on homosexuality.
The primary assignment was writing a church-funded book on homosexuality to be published by a non-church source (in order to boost the book's scientific credibility).

World Family Policy Center (1999-2008, est. by BYU professor Richard Wilkins) which works directly with the hate group, World Congress of Families
The WFPC's primary concern was to strengthen families in order to strengthen society as a whole. The WFPC also sought to be a moral influence on the United Nations as the United Nations became highly involved in international lawmaking.
The WFPC is a branch of the J. Reuben Clark Law School.
The founder of the WFPC, BYU professor Richard Wilkins, went on to found the Doha International Institute for Family Studies and Development. In Qatar (the country Doha is in) it is illegal to be gay, punishable by death (no death sentence has yet been recorded tho) and it is illegal to campaign for LGBTQ rights. Qatar is also a close oil/money & military ally of US & enslaves tens of thousands of people

Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) 
“FARMS supported and sponsored what it considered to be "faithful scholarship", which includes academic study and research in support of Christianity and Mormonism, and in particular, the official position of the LDS Church. This research primarily concerned the Book of Mormon, the Book of Abraham, the Old Testament, the New Testament, early Christian history, ancient temples, and other related subjects. While allowing some degree of academic freedom to its scholars, FARMS was committed to the conclusion that LDS scriptures are authentic, historical texts written by prophets of God. FARMS has been criticized by scholars and critics who classify it as an apologetics organization that operated under the auspices of the LDS Church.”

The New World Archaeological Foundation (NWAF) 
is an archaeological organization run by Brigham Young University. When founded it was the largest archeological project funded by a religious institution. It was founded by Thomas Stuart Ferguson (and Milton R. Hunter) who sought to show how the history of Mesoamerican cultures proved the historicity of the Book of Mormon. Ferguson however found evidence to the contrary and from 1961 he kept a low profile as a secretary to the foundation which then became associated with the Brigham Young University and renamed as the BYU-NWAF.

--------------------

So yeah BYU has a rich history of using scholarship & science improperly (setting out to prove what you already believe rather than setting out to test yr beliefs) and then using that information in sneaky ways (having the work published by non-mormon publishers to make it seem more credible) to spread their anti-queer& anti Indigenous settler beliefs in secular & academic ways much like the way their historians repeatedly say that the Nuwu (Southern Paiutes) were accomplices in the Mountain Meadows Massacre while that is not taught in Nuwu nation & tribes