Bunny Trails

[temporal1]

Just to ensure we understand each other. Are you assuming that the things in the image I presented are moral in my view? It is quite the contrary! I don't believe those are things we should consider to be good morally.

Your opinions of the NT are certainly off and contrary to thousands of years of church teaching and understanding.

And your opinion of Moses puts you outside of the Christian faith.

So, there really is nothing for us to discuss here. I am frankly shocked that you would think this is an appropriate thread to introduce such things.

Some people like to poke the bear to see if they can get a reaction. The old MD board had a couple of characters who would visit once in a while who had even wilder ideas. I remember a certain penguin of old....

This morning, i’m glad to see these posts moved here (Pgs 24-27) from “Healthy Communications” .. they might have even started here! ..
By the time they got here, i wouldn’t have known whether Bunny Trails, or the Briar Patch.
http://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php ... &start=130
2 Useful threads. Not my call. But, as i read, i wondered.

[puttincomputers]

Just to ensure we understand each other. Are you assuming that the things in the image I presented are moral in my view? It is quite the contrary! I don't believe those are things we should consider to be good morally.

Your opinions of the NT are certainly off and contrary to thousands of years of church teaching and understanding.

And your opinion of Moses puts you outside of the Christian faith.

So, there really is nothing for us to discuss here. I am frankly shocked that you would think this is an appropriate thread to introduce such things.

Some people like to poke the bear to see if they can get a reaction. The old MD board had a couple of characters who would visit once in a while who had even wilder ideas. I remember a certain penguin of old....

I wasn't looking for any reaction other than causing folks to closely examine their beliefs. I do not enjoy getting people mad at me. It boils down to my love of truth and accurate information. I want everyone to seek truth and examine accurate information.

I also remember that penguin. I happen to have even wilder ideas than he does, except that he was a patriarchal nut and some would consider me to be an egalitarian nut. Some of my ideas I would not dare even express here. And interestingly, I only changed my mind on so many things after God forced me out of bed to critically examine a single subject that I did not actually want change my opinion on.

[Bootstrap]

To me, the heart of this is that we need to have compassion for people and pray for them even if they are harming others, but we also need to do things like protect others from harm and work together to be in touch with the truth when there is such a fog of lies.

As I also understand the gospel of Jesus, while there is recognition of the tragedy of sin, there is also a call for repentance. One of the things that puzzles me is that while people are unhappy with the President's behavior and some argue for compassion, there's also no call for repentance. To me it seems that as long as Trump meets certain political expectations, then conservative Anabaptists and evangelical Christians will remain silent or accommodate his abusive personal behavior. This confuses me and it's one reason its hard to keep politics out of discussions regarding Trump. To me it seems that the grace extended Trump is also political.

It is now considered political for conservative Anabaptists NOT to call for the repentance of a president. Fascinating!

A call for repentance of a president on my part would include a call to turn away from politics altogether and a call to join those who have entered into the Kingdom of Jesus through the narrow gate that leads to life. If that's what is meant by the above post, then I'm going to go on record here on MN and say that I am calling for the repentance of DJT. I'm doubtful though that this is the kind of "repentance" the above post alludes to.

But you weren't silent in that thread, and I really do not have any idea how you personally decide what is political and what is not in a post like this one. I really do not know what exactly you were objecting to there. I usually start any topic by trying to figure out what the fact situation is, that's what I thought I was doing.

I had actually thought I was being non-political and focusing on outlining the basic fact situation. So I suspect you and I have different working definitions of 'political'. I may look political to you when I am trying not to be, you may look political to me when you are trying not to be.

I thought this would be uncontroversial:

We do need accurate information about hurricanes so people know how to prepare. Even trying to promote accurate information about where the hurricane is likely to hit quickly becomes a political issue. I feel sorry for people in Alabama trying to figure out what to do.

To me, your response to this created an unfair picture of what I had said, quoting out of context in a way that made it imply something that the original quote did not. And to me, it definitely did not feel like you were 'remaining silent', it felt like you were trying to take me down in a personal and misleading way.

I feel sorry for people in Alabama trying to figure out what to do.

Having lived in Alabama for 10 years I can assure you that Alabamans are smarter than you assume. No need to feel condescendingly sorry for them. After all Alabama does have TV, radio and internet and some really smart people up at NASA in Huntsville.

What I said was not condescending, I would certainly have said the same thing about people in North Carolina, where we were actually trying to figure out what to do with an upcoming hurricane when I wrote that. When people are facing a hurricane, there is a lot of uncertainty. At the time I wrote that, I myself was trying to figure out what the probabilities were and whether I needed to do something.

I said nothing at all about the intelligence of people from Alabama. You projected onto me in a way that I was not projecting onto them. For what it's worth, I spent the weekend in McKee, Kentucky, driving there from my home in North Carolina. I have been in Alabama and do not harbor the stereotypes you were projecting onto me.

I don't know how to talk in a thread with a title that is about Trump and a scenario about what he did without talking about Trump, and I really could not figure out what a non-political discussion of that topic would look like. In the same thread, it certainly felt like other people were being rather political. You did not find fault with them. I suspect that may be the silence that Szdfan is talking about.

I really do not know what definition of political you are working with, and when you decide something is inappropriately political. Could you please define the term as you are using it and the guidelines you try to follow? Please make a list of rules, as clearly as you can.

[GaryK]

As I also understand the gospel of Jesus, while there is recognition of the tragedy of sin, there is also a call for repentance. One of the things that puzzles me is that while people are unhappy with the President's behavior and some argue for compassion, there's also no call for repentance. To me it seems that as long as Trump meets certain political expectations, then conservative Anabaptists and evangelical Christians will remain silent or accommodate his abusive personal behavior. This confuses me and it's one reason its hard to keep politics out of discussions regarding Trump. To me it seems that the grace extended Trump is also political.

It is now considered political for conservative Anabaptists NOT to call for the repentance of a president. Fascinating!

A call for repentance of a president on my part would include a call to turn away from politics altogether and a call to join those who have entered into the Kingdom of Jesus through the narrow gate that leads to life. If that's what is meant by the above post, then I'm going to go on record here on MN and say that I am calling for the repentance of DJT. I'm doubtful though that this is the kind of "repentance" the above post alludes to.

But you weren't silent in that thread, and I really do not have any idea how you personally decide what is political and what is not in a post like this one. I really do not know what exactly you were objecting to there. I usually start any topic by trying to figure out what the fact situation is, that's what I thought I was doing.

I had actually thought I was being non-political and focusing on outlining the basic fact situation. So I suspect you and I have different working definitions of 'political'. I may look political to you when I am trying not to be, you may look political to me when you are trying not to be.

I thought this would be uncontroversial:

We do need accurate information about hurricanes so people know how to prepare. Even trying to promote accurate information about where the hurricane is likely to hit quickly becomes a political issue. I feel sorry for people in Alabama trying to figure out what to do.

To me, your response to this created an unfair picture of what I had said, quoting out of context in a way that made it imply something that the original quote did not. And to me, it definitely did not feel like you were 'remaining silent', it felt like you were trying to take me down in a personal and misleading way.

I feel sorry for people in Alabama trying to figure out what to do.

Having lived in Alabama for 10 years I can assure you that Alabamans are smarter than you assume. No need to feel condescendingly sorry for them. After all Alabama does have TV, radio and internet and some really smart people up at NASA in Huntsville.

What I said was not condescending, I would certainly have said the same thing about people in North Carolina, where we were actually trying to figure out what to do with an upcoming hurricane when I wrote that. When people are facing a hurricane, there is a lot of uncertainty. At the time I wrote that, I myself was trying to figure out what the probabilities were and whether I needed to do something.

I said nothing at all about the intelligence of people from Alabama. You projected onto me in a way that I was not projecting onto them. For what it's worth, I spent the weekend in McKee, Kentucky, driving there from my home in North Carolina. I have been in Alabama and do not harbor the stereotypes you were projecting onto me.

I don't know how to talk in a thread with a title that is about Trump and a scenario about what he did without talking about Trump, and I really could not figure out what a non-political discussion of that topic would look like. In the same thread, it certainly felt like other people were being rather political. You did not find fault with them. I suspect that may be the silence that Szdfan is talking about.

I really do not know what definition of political you are working with, and when you decide something is inappropriately political. Could you please define the term as you are using it and the guidelines you try to follow? Please make a list of rules, as clearly as you can.

I really don't know how what I posted in this thread has anything to do with your posts in the other thread. I was responding directly to what Szdfan posted.

[Bootstrap]

I really don't know how what I posted in this thread has anything to do with your posts in the other thread. I was responding directly to what Szdfan posted.

I'll wait for Szdfan to respond. I had the impression my post was talking about the same issue he was talking about in that thread. I could be wrong. His response will tell us if I was wrong.

[temporal1]

boot:
.. I suspect on any issue we discuss here, there are people on both sides who are in the trenches. ..

you repeat your suspicions-opinions quite often.
ok for you, not for others?

you claim you are remarkably fact-based. “carefully” extracting emotions, opinions.
tho typically “silent,” i doubt many others concur.

“misery loves company,” little doubt you want to be correct in your suspicions.

[GaryK]

I really don't know how what I posted in this thread has anything to do with your posts in the other thread. I was responding directly to what Szdfan posted.

I'll wait for Szdfan to respond. I had the impression my post was talking about the same issue he was talking about in that thread. I could be wrong. His response will tell us if I was wrong.

Regardless, I want this thread to be about what I was responding to in his post. I thought the thread title suggested that. Yet you somehow made it about your and my posts in the other thread.

I'm wanting to know how it is that conservative Anabaptists extending grace to the president by remaining silent and not calling for his repentance is political. Once again, his post I was responding to is below.

As I also understand the gospel of Jesus, while there is recognition of the tragedy of sin, there is also a call for repentance. One of the things that puzzles me is that while people are unhappy with the President's behavior and some argue for compassion, there's also no call for repentance. To me it seems that as long as Trump meets certain political expectations, then conservative Anabaptists and evangelical Christians will remain silent or accommodate his abusive personal behavior. This confuses me and it's one reason its hard to keep politics out of discussions regarding Trump. To me it seems that the grace extended Trump is also political.

[Bootstrap]

I'll wait for Szdfan to respond. I had the impression my post was talking about the same issue he was talking about in that thread. I could be wrong. His response will tell us if I was wrong.

Regardless, I want this thread to be about what I was responding to in his post. I thought the thread title suggested that. Yet you somehow made it about your and my posts in the other thread.

You started by quoting his response to something I said in the thread, his quote included a quote from me, I thought what we were saying in the quote from the original post was closely related.

Would you like me to start a new thread for you to answer my questions? Or wait to see if Szdfan's questions are the same as mine? Where is the best place to have that conversation?

I could be wrong, but I suspect that Szdfan would not have a problem with a consistent silence on all political matters and a consistent decision to not participate in any form of politics. I know that I don't.

[GaryK]

I'll wait for Szdfan to respond. I had the impression my post was talking about the same issue he was talking about in that thread. I could be wrong. His response will tell us if I was wrong.

Regardless, I want this thread to be about what I was responding to in his post. I thought the thread title suggested that. Yet you somehow made it about your and my posts in the other thread.

You started by quoting his response to something I said in the thread, his quote included a quote from me, I thought what we were saying in the quote from the original post was closely related.

Would you like me to start a new thread for you to answer my questions? Or wait to see if Szdfan's questions are the same as mine? Where is the best place to have that conversation?

You are welcome to start whatever thread you'd like. I think I've made it pretty clear what I'm focused on in this thread and if you don't want to discuss that, I'm fine with that. I just don't want this thread to get cluttered with issues outside the focus of this thread.

[GaryK]

Thanks moderators for moving these posts from the other thread. I was about to ask for that.