Andy Wells The newly released authorized biography of Eugene Peterson tells the story. Peterson was suffering from advanced dementia at the time. Unfamiliar with social media and the withering pushback from the evangelical Powers, Peterson was completely unprepared for the backlash. His evangelical publicists took advantage of his compromised cognitive status and wrote a statement loaded with all the shibboleths and released it. Eric Peterson, Eugene’s son, testifies that it didn’t reflect his father’s actual views at the time. It was an evangelical publishing whitewash. “The means are the ends in the making.”