briar patch

[Robert]

I preach on this kind of thing once a month in a Mennonite church.

Got a link? I would enjoy listening.

[temporal1]

If you use the initials for Bootstrap, I think you have B. It's one word.
If someone continues to use BS after being asked not to, I assume that's intentional.

i really did not notice. any of it.
Max is not always sweet to you. Considering your extended unwelcome to him, what is your expectation?
i may have missed it, did you ever apologize, or reach out to reconcile?

i leave it to admin-mods to determine membership. including yours and mine.

[Bootstrap]

Max is not always sweet to you. Considering your extended unwelcome to him, what is your expectation?
i may have missed it, did you ever apologize, or reach out to reconcile?

In fact, I did reach out to reconcile, asking the moderators to help. We met with the moderators for an extended time back in the days of MennoDiscuss.

I don't know that dredging up ancient history is helpful here. I leave it to the moderators to decide whether they want to say anything about that.

[Bootstrap]

I preach on this kind of thing once a month in a Mennonite church.

Got a link? I would enjoy listening.

I can share it via email. I try to keep my identity off of MennoNet.

[temporal1]

o.my. ^^^ o.well. here goes.

.. The other forums I am on don't allow that,

Could this be an answer?
Not in this instance, alone, when members describe the far superior worlds they inhabit elsewhere (even everywhere else) one wonders why significant time is devoted here, in this lesser place?? (These sorts of complaints typically come from frequent posters.)

There really isn't another forum for Mennonites trying to figure out how to live out biblical Two Kingdom theology in modern America. Which is why I spend more time here than on other forums. ..

Max has posted NUMEROUS threads in Christian Theology that have 0 response.

[Bootstrap]

There really isn't another forum for Mennonites trying to figure out how to live out biblical Two Kingdom theology in modern America. Which is why I spend more time here than on other forums. ..

Max has posted NUMEROUS threads in Christian Theology that have 0 response.

Well, those threads may not be what other people want to talk about. That happens.

[temporal1]

Max is not always sweet to you. Considering your extended unwelcome to him, what is your expectation?
i may have missed it, did you ever apologize, or reach out to reconcile?

In fact, I did reach out to reconcile, asking the moderators to help. We met with the moderators for an extended time back in the days of MennoDiscuss.

I don't know that dredging up ancient history is helpful here. I leave it to the moderators to decide whether they want to say anything about that.

history, and ancient history, are of interest. this forum is only a few years old, so, not much history that way.
for new members, having some insights about various realities could prevent unnecessary twists/misunderstandings.
clearly, the problems are not old+resolved. so, new members will be affected.

i don’t blame you for not wanting to address it. but omission of facts is a form of deceit, too.
i don’t mind you pointing your finger at Max, he’s not always sweet to you. including some balance about why that might be would be honest. honesty is not always comfortable. imho.

i didn’t move your posts to the briar patch!

my failure is chiming in here. i admit it. i apologize, esp to mods. (who, in the long ago past, asked for restraint.)

[Sudsy]

Sudsy, I do not believe that nett, GaryK, Josh, Robert and others are bitter or fault-finding in this case. They are pointing out a pattern of behavior that repeats constantly in BSs posts: that of his accusation of others and when caught in his own double-standards, refusing to provide proof himself. His behavior has not changed in years. Case in point of this behavior: BS accused others of constantly bringing up Trump yet it is he who started the most threads on Trump.

Nett, Gary, Josh, et al are implementing the Biblical directive of correction of another. The fact that they have to do this so often with BS is indicative of BSs repetitive problematic behavior. It is not fault-finding on their part.

I didn't care for the 'foe' option available on this forum but I have found since using it, when someone's behavior causes me anxiousness, I now put them on my 'foe' list and at times check out their posts in read-only mode to see if their behavior has changed to take them off the list. We also have a personal, messaging facility to deal with each other privately. So, I think we have other means available to privately deal with behavior issues.

Anyway, that is the route I'm taking and I gave that text as a reminder for us all to consider the lengths we need to go to as Christ forgives us.

Sudsy, while admirable and certainly in line with the notion of "shaking the dust" Scripture, your post came across as a reprimand to the victims of BSs behaviors. On both MD and MN, BS has a very long history of these behaviors over the years. Quite a number of people on MD and MN have intervened off-list with BS. It has not helped and he continues in the behaviors. Instead, BS then complained to the moderators that he was being persecuted.

Everyone on MD and MN have, at one time or another, been victimised by BS. He has never apologised and yet demands apologies of others. The archives are replete with the evidence of his behaviors over the years. Most of BSs aggressive behaviors occurred in the politics forum which you avoid as you said. When others left the politics forum, BS brought those self-same behaviors over to other forums and continued. If you would, read this entire topic you will see an example.

I genuinely think there is a time to Biblically correct these behaviors as they occur and publicly (as indicated by Scriptures) when evidence over a number of years indicates no change to the said behaviors.

I guess we see this a bit different here but that is OK with me as I appreciate you and your contributions here in many ways. It is hard sometimes to word things and find out they were or could have been received differently as intended.

So, I will try to be more careful. My intention was not to chastise others but rather to suggest another way that I am taking using the 'foe' option. Regardless of whatever someone behaves like we have the option to not look at what they post. I didn't like this option at first but personally have found it useful.

When it comes to what scripture says about correcting a brother, my understanding is that this is still to be done within a church setting which imo, this is not. I don't understand correction of a brother's behaviour to be a 'public' thing outside a local church. I think we have to leave behaviour issues up to the moderators who can warn and if need be, remove us from the forum. My guess is that they would prefer we use these other options.

Seems the main tool is to stick our posts in the briar patch thread when we are not behaving well. I try not to be here but it happens. Too bad this can't be isolated to professing Christians only but I guess it does show to anyone reading that we believers are not perfect people. We, however, do serve a perfect God who is long-suffering with us as we battle with our flesh and other forces.

May God help us all to be more Christ like and good ambassadors of His Kingdom.

[temporal1]

There really isn't another forum for Mennonites trying to figure out how to live out biblical Two Kingdom theology in modern America. Which is why I spend more time here than on other forums. ..

Max has posted NUMEROUS threads in Christian Theology that have 0 response.

Well, those threads may not be what other people want to talk about. That happens.

To my knowledge, it hasn’t happened on this scale.
i was thinking specifically of you, you repeat the above about your interest in this forum. Max offers biblical topics.
(it seems) you ignore him unless he irritates you. you protest, not wanting to remember your (unresolved) starting place with him.

we all want to be faultless. we aren’t.

[Bootstrap]

i didn’t move your posts to the briar patch!

Neither did the moderators. None of my posts were moved to the Briar Patch. Some of Max's posts were moved to the Briar Patch.

Max is now talking as though he represents the moderators after his posts were moved here. If he did, I suspect that (1) the moderators would have chipped in to support him, (2) Max's posts would not have been moved to the Briar Patch, and (3) some of my posts would have been moved here.