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Paul,<br><br>I'd like to think I'm one of those people you might admire, except for my "clouded thinking" on this matter. So I'll jump in. <br><br>Your suggestion that the slippery slope of "what's next? Businesses owned by women? The disabled?" misses the point entirely. Women are women ontologically; I think that can be said also of the disabled. To engage in a boycott against someone because of their very being would be bigoted. However, Christ Church members and supporters are not <span style="font-style: italic;">ontologically </span>Kirkers. They choose to be. They choose assent to a set of ideas that many people find offensive; they choose assent to a man who is offensive not because he's a man, but because he's a divisive, mean-spirited, disingenuous, bigoted man. It's not his "religious views," in terms of basic Christian orthodoxy -- it's his ancillary views, what some might call "secondary doctrines," and his behavior in living them that requires that I do more than just not support them, but actively condemn them. You'll remember that I'm a devout Trinitarian who holds a high view of the Scriptures. So are Baptists, Methodists, Bridge Bible Church members, Presbyterians, and Gospel Temple Pentecostals. <br><br>It must not be his Christianity that offends me, then. It must be his arrogant and blatant misrepresentation of the faith and its Author that offends me. Thank God no one is "born that way," although a devout Calvinist might disagree with me. But I'm not any kind of Calvinist, so I'm free to believe that as Doug Wilson chooses to act badly, and his followers choose to proclaim allegiance to him, I'm free to not offer a dime in support.<br><br>On a quick note, I don't believe "their worldview" casts them as people "deluded by some of those in power" in the church. They believe they ARE the church, waiting to establish full dominion in Christ; any suffering they've experienced, any disenfranchisement, is to them the chastening of a Sovereign God for their failure to live out that dominion. Again we disagree. I think their "suffering" is simply the consequence of really bad behavior and indefensible beliefs rejected by the marketplace of ideas. And rightly so.<br><br>keely<br><br><br><br><br>> Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2007 06:37:43 -0800<br>> From: godshatter@yahoo.com<br>> To: thansen@moscow.com<br>> CC: vision2020@moscow.com<br>> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Prediction/pin drop<br>> <br>> I believe I mentioned that people have the right to do business with <br>> whom they wish. I'm not calling the authorities on these people. I'm <br>> merely explaining how I hate this kind of thing. Of course people are <br>> free to target a religious group with their boycott merely because they <br>> disagree with them. And I'm free to stand up and tell them how bigoted <br>> they are being.<br>> <br>> Yes, freedom is great.<br>> <br>> What's next? Women-owned businesses? Businesses owned by the disabled? <br>> <br>> The ironic thing is that their fight is not with these people. In their <br>> world view, they are some of the masses that have been deluded by those <br>> in power in that church. So why hurt them specifically with this boycot?<br>> <br>> Paul<br>> <br>> Why do people I normally respect cloud their thinking so much on this <br>> one issue?<br>> <br>> Tom Hansen wrote:<br>> > Paul Rumelhart stated:<br>> ><br>> > "Freedom of religion means that even the people you don't like get to<br>> > worship as they wish."<br>> ><br>> > Yes. I agree.<br>> ><br>> > And free enterprise (coupled with capitalism) means that people are free to<br>> > spend their money where they wish and NOT spend money where they do not wish<br>> > to spend it.<br>> ><br>> > Isn't freedom GREAT!<br>> ><br>> > Seeya at the polls, Moscow.<br>> ><br>> > Tom Hansen<br>> > Moscow, Idaho<br>> ><br>> > "We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college<br>> > students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."<br>> ><br>> > - Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)<br>> ><br>> ><br>> ><br>> ><br>> > <br>> <br>> =======================================================<br>> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br>> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br>> http://www.fsr.net <br>> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>> =======================================================<br><br /><hr />Climb to the top of the charts! Play Star Shuffle: the word scramble challenge with star power. <a href='http://club.live.com/star_shuffle.aspx?icid=starshuffle_wlmailtextlink_oct' target='_new'>Play Now!</a></body>
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