Soloist wrote:Would you ever continue pushing on someone's buttons offline if you knew it bothered them?
Offline, I would probably say, hey, this topic isn't working, can we discuss something else.
Online, here's a quandary for me in that thread. I think that thread started with a shocking story (probably not entirely true as reported) and encouraged people to push each other's shock and disapproval buttons. Peter was the first to pick up on that, and his question was labelled hostile. My questions were also labelled hostile. But I really don't think we should rush to judgement on people we don't know in circumstances we don't know much about, no matter how much holy language we sprinkle on our conversation. The college is having hearings, the story seems to be a little different than what was first reported, the man involved is in hiding because he is receiving death threats. Max seemed to want to shut down all discussion of that part.
As Peter put it:
"Just look as those bad people! Please join me in my disapproval of them."
So when Max labels us hostile for pointing that out, should we leave the room so that people can keep going down that path, or should we discuss how we Christians respond when we hear shocking accusations about other people? When Max labels us hostile for asking questions about the situation that was reported, and labels us as hostile if we suggest that pushing each other's shock and approval buttons about a situation we aren't involved in actually adds to vitriol, I'm not sure withdrawing is the right response. It builds a culture where you can respond to a question by saying you don't like the other person so they should just shut up. It builds a culture where we cannot discover the facts over time.
If he actually is a professor and actually is developing ethics training, that's a much more positive response. And I hope he will share the contents of that training - how do you balance free speech, academic freedom, and the need to make everyone feel safe and welcome at a secular university? That's a very hard and interesting question, and a question that universities spend a lot of time on. But if he is a professor, "I'm a professor" shouldn't mean "I don't have to answer any questions because I'm an expert", the whole point of being an expert is being able to answer questions with information. I'm at a conference right now where I'm probably the only person without a PhD, several people have more than one, and some of these people are considered real experts in their fields. They love questions. Even challenging, hard questions.
I don't think the right response to a question is "you are a hostile person so go away" unless it is a hostile question. And I think we give an awful lot of power to bad behavior if we support that. I don't know how to think through how to be a light in this dark world without asking a lot of hard questions. I don't know how to see through mainstream media reports without asking a lot of questions.
Is it biblical? Is it Christlike? Is it loving? Is it true? How can I find out?