The journey from there to here

Note: I can't respond on the individual in question's thread (he has me blacklisted), so I will do so here.

Don't get me wrong. I try to live a good life, and be a good Christian, and, in fact, would love to see most of my friends come to know and understand Jesus Christ. What Christian wouldn't?

But I also respect and appreciate the fact that God made us individuals free to exercise our own choices FOR A REASON. Acknowledging God means acknowledging that He knows better than I, and is wiser than I, and therefore it would be foolish of me to question His ways.

When you get on your "one trick pony" and attack atheists recklessly, you offend me. Many of these people are people that I consider friends as much as one can consider someone a friend through online only contact. They have verbally sparred with me, we've had our moments, cooled off, and usually things have gotten back to normal. I don't agree with their outlook on religion, they don't agree with mine, but we see ourselves as larger than our perspective philosophies.

You have not tried to establish yourself as a blogger. Not tried to build rapport, not treated other bloggers with respect. When an atheist responds to you, you leave their responses and you belittle them by attacking the person rather than rationally dissecting the argument. When a Christian responds with anything less than a complete endorsement of your hateful bile, you delete or blacklist. And in this, you feel you are "spreading the word of God".

There is no difference between you and the extremist Imams of the Muslim world who do not actually perform terrorist attacks, but incite and inspire their passionate youth to do so in their stead. You say you care about the eternal soul of these atheists, but in truth, I believe you hate them and wish them an eternity in Hell. There is NO WAY you can spin your articles in a way that makes them appear intelligent and persuasive; you are attacking them, then going to bed at night rationalizing that you've "revealed to them the truth", and feeling that their dismissal of your vitriolic attacks garners them a place in the Hell hall of fame.

There are those among us who feel that you are a made up character, a satire. I don't believe you are, as I once fellowshipped with people like you, and KNOW there are people like you out there. If you ARE a made up character, it would be wise for you to come out of your shell long enough to see it.

I would encourage you to read scriptures more thoroughly, especially when Christ discusses how we should be to our neighbor.


Comments
on Mar 10, 2005
Much respect, and many thanks, Gid. I'm not overly bothered by the constant anti-atheist articles -- if it came from someone that I knew and respected here, it might be different -- such as when I have offended you in the past on the subject. That was a breach I really wanted to mend, but this is just trolling for attention, and as such, shall be ignored by me.

But thanks for this, you and Mano both have said basically the same. "One trick ponies" should realize that while all of us want their right to free speech to be protected, it doesn't mean we'll read them.

Cheers -- and hey Gid? God bless you. I mean it.
on Mar 10, 2005
Well said Gideon, as always.
on Mar 10, 2005
Hear, hear.
on Mar 10, 2005
Fourthed. As always, I can count on you to say things much better than I could.
on Mar 10, 2005
I wish there was something other people of faith could do to counterbalance the idiot. No matter how much stuff we write, the people looking to have a beef with religion will eat him up and ignore anything else.

I will go out on a limb and think he should be banned. He slurs other people's beliefs, is antagonistic, spams the messageboard with personal articles. I think anyone that is as hateful as him deserves to be banned as much as anyone else that already has.

I know others will disagree, but hey, if we have standards, this little nothing shouldn't be able to hide behind religion to skirt them.