[Vision2020] A Change in the Weather

[Chasuk]

I like the community that is Vision2020, and I've come to consider
many of you my friends.  However, I just can't take it any more.  The
childish sniping and ridiculous accusations of the minority of you
have polluted the forum, and polluted my soul, so it has come time to
bid you all adieu.

A few thoughts before I leave, for those who wish to read them.

First, Doug Wilson isn't going away.  When an opponent is permanently
ensconced (he isn't my opponent, but he is apparently the opponent of
many of you), then the options are warfare, or a treaty.  I'm an
ecumenical kind of guy.  I favor treaties over never-ending strife,
even if I have fundamental disagreements with my fellow signatories.
If Doug Wilson were Fred Phelps, or the late Richard Butler, I
wouldn't advocate a treaty.  But Doug Wilson isn't Phelps or Butler,
even if you want to paint him that way.

If the opposition to Wilson were not so petulant, inane, and
irrational, and if it were conducted civilly, then my heart wouldn't
be so heavy.  I've been unkind and unproductively adversarial, which
is part of the reason that I'm leaving.  When you start to become what
you despise, it is time to disentangle.  I'm disentangling, with my
apologies to everyone I've offended.

Here is a quote from one of my favorite books that explains it better
than I can:

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp,
drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily
pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every
funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper
hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me
from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking
people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon
as I can."

There's been a change in the weather.  I'm going to sea.

When I say that I am ecumenical, I don't mean it in the sense of
merely Christian unity, as I'm not a Christian.  I mean it in the
broader sense of worldwide unity.  This starts with co-operation
between groups, without unity necessarily being the goal.  Unity comes
later, if at all.  Co-operation and understanding is a worthwhile goal
in itself.

I've conducted an interview with Douglas Wilson that I think is
illuminating.  I'm not a Wilson fanboy, I haven't been ideologically
seduced by him, but I am trying to do my part in hastening that
treaty.   I'll visit Vision2020 one final time to post the URL where
that interview can be read in its unexpurgated entirety.

Cheers,

Chas