[Vision2020] Doug or Douglas Farris? (Was: A few Sunday thoughts)

[rvrcowboy]

On July 3 Joan Opyr wrote:  "I suppose Doug is trying to annoy and/or insult me. I have said before that I don't care to be called Mary. My mother calls me Joan, and she has done so all of my life. In light of this, calling me Mary is a bit silly. No, wait -- it's juvenile. A marked lack of maturity is the problem I originally identified among Kirk men who post to this list."

Joan,

Well worded.  This is exactly how I feel about Tom Hansen's use of a lower case letter for my name.  I informed him about my feelings, as you indicate you have asked Doug not to call you Mary.  At least now you know how I feel about Tom... he is immature and a total dolt.

Dick S.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joan Opyr 
  To: Vision2020 Moscow 
  Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 12:17 PM
  Subject: [Vision2020] Doug or Douglas Farris? (Was: A few Sunday thoughts)


  On Jul 3, 2006, at 9:08 AM, Michael wrote:


    Doug,
     
    You misrepresent what Joan said.  First, she was speaking to Wilson’s practice of stirring up controversies and poking neighbors in the eye in order to get a publicizing response (a practice going back more than 15 years from what I know); she was not speaking of your “silent grace” of planting kingdom seeds.  Second, she said she did not care about the theological issues; but she noted those issues she did care about.  I appreciate your attempt to actually interact with what she said; this seems an improvement.  But perhaps your lack of success is in part due to your arrogant insults against her, someone who is clearly more educated and experienced with public writing than you. She is also the most enjoyable writer to post on V2020 (I’m sure others would agree).
     
    Michael


  Thank you, Michael. I appreciate not only your kind words but also your elegant attempt to get Doug Farris to address what I actually said. 

  I am puzzled as to why Doug insists on addressing me as Mary. That is indeed my first name, but only my great aunts have ever called me by it, and then only in tandem with my middle name, Joan. I'm originally from the South. Double-barreled names like Mary Joan, Joe Bob, and Richard Earl are commonplace. I suppose Doug is trying to annoy and/or insult me. I have said before that I don't care to be called Mary. My mother calls me Joan, and she has done so all of my life. In light of this, calling me Mary is a bit silly. No, wait -- it's juvenile. A marked lack of maturity is the problem I originally identified among Kirk men who post to this list. Indeed, it was the entire point of the first paragraph of my previous post, and here we see it fully illustrated. 

  [FYI: there was a kid in my elementary school who insisted on calling me Opyr-goat. That didn't bother me much, either, as it didn't make any sense. Opyr is the Ukrainian word for vampire. See if you can make something out of that.]

  As for your second point, you may not like it, Doug, but I am just as much a public figure as your minister. No amount of "get over yourself" will make this not so. I write; I publish; I have a reading audience. I exist well outside the bounds of Vision 2020. You know this, of course. You're just being obnoxious. If I were not a public figure, I might have some legal recourse when your friend, Dale Courtney, steals my photograph from New West Magazine and posts it to his website. I write regular columns for several journals, and my work is reprinted in many others. That may not make you happy, but it is a demonstrable fact. I'm not happy that Ann Coulter has a reading audience, but damn the McCarthy-loving fascist wing-nut, she does -- and a big one, too. I don't claim to have anything akin to Ann Coulter's reach, but my first novel is in bookstores and enjoying brisk sales, and a sequel is on the way. I don't expect that you've read Idaho Code, and I certainly don't recommend it to you. To judge from your posts, you wouldn't enjoy it. You'd like the sequel, From Hell to Breakfast, even less.

  If you're going to criticize me, Doug, please try focusing on the genuine rather than the imagined. Try concentrating on what I've actually said and not on your own wishful thinking. Ignore the straw (wo)man. You are talking to -- or, rather, at -- a real person with real ideas, and those real ideas have real consequences. I am not the bogeywoman of your fevered imaginings. Would that I were. I'd happily climb back into the closet just long enough to jump out at you and yell "boo!" And I'd be sure to bring my digital camera.

  A few real issues with which to begin? Try explaining your pastor's "serrated edge." Try telling us how your behavior on this list and on Dale's blog is exemplary of the true Christian spirit and furthers the spread of the gospel. Would Jesus call me as Mary knowing that I went by Joan? If so, would I be justified in calling him Chuck? I have said that Christ Church has far too many "future men" in its midst, men who evince a decided lack of maturity and who rely on juvenile insult rather than reasoned debate. Prove me wrong. Try being mature. If you don't want to answer me, then why not answer Michael, your brother in Christ? When you do so, see if you're able to refrain from calling him "Mike-Dogg," or any other such nonsense. Don't ask him if he has a fear of being naked. Try to act your age. Try not to make a fool of yourself.

  You've made much of being the father of nine, Doug. It's not fair to expect your wife to raise a man-child who's in his forties.

  Joan 


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