Online Apologetics and "Collateral Damage"

[_harmony]

When I suggest that, I'm not joking.

I think there is a very real possibility that Scartch is mentally or emotionally disturbed.

His obsessive hatred for me -- we've never met, to my knowledge, and I have literally no idea where his undying personal hostility comes from -- strikes me more and more as psychologically problematic.

Let me see if I have this right: you feel you know enough about Scratch, even though you've never met him and have no knowledge of him other than on internet bulletin boards, to think that there is a very real possibility that he is mentally or emotionally disturbed and to recommend counseling... yet when I say that your words on the same internet bulletin board allow me to say you don't live the basics of your religion, you tell me that I don't know you off the internet, so I have no grounds on which to judge that you aren't living your religion.

That seems kinda like... hypocritical. What you're saying is that it's okay for you to judge Scratch as mentally disturbed, but it's not okay for me to judge you as living a less than Christian life.

R-i-i-i-ight. I think I got it now.

[_Daniel Peterson]

I think, yes, that the grim humorlessness and never-ending obsessiveness of Scartch's on-line campaign of defamation -- at least two years old now, and going at least as strong as ever -- suggest that he might have psychological problems.

As for my living my religion, I think that can only be judged by watching me live. Watching me respond to obscene insults and allegations of unethical behavior day after day after day on a polemical message board might not be the best way of judging my overall mode of life -- though I have to say that, in my view, I've been relatively restrained. Being anonymously accused of harboring homocidal desires, seeing my wife obscenely mocked, being portrayed as a man who deliberately sets out to destroy other people's lives and livelihoods and who revels in cruelty and lies, week after week after week for months and even years, might have been met with less restraint and humor than, in fact, I've met it with.

[_LifeOnaPlate]

Oh, one more thing LoP. It's not Scratch or the critics you need to fear real-world acts of revenge from, especially threats involving discussions with your SP. As far as you know, given the amount of posting you've done, you could have a file at the SCMC. I would wager most of the apologists do, even and especially the key players who seem unshakeable. And that for the most part would simply be to have control over the situation, just in case future needs of the church require it.

I'd be most flattered!

Were you sincere on the supposed stalking thread when you crassly told him to "go get counseling." Note, this is one of the favorite "hardy har hars" of at least one of your guiding senior apologists.

I am utterly sincere in my suggestion. And I see absolutely nothing wrong with visiting a counselor. You seem to think it is being used as an insult, and undoubtedly some may use it that way. In my case, and from what DCP said above, we are not joking in that regard.

[_Yoda]

As for my living my religion, I think that can only be judged by watching me live. Watching me respond to obscene insults and allegations of unethical behavior day after day after day on a polemical message board might not be the best way of judging my overall mode of life -- though I have to say that, in my view, I've been relatively restrained. Being anonymously accused of harboring homocidal desires, seeing my wife obscenely mocked, being portrayed as a man who deliberately sets out to destroy other people's lives and livelihoods and who revels in cruelty and lies, week after week after week for months and even years, might have been met with less restraint and humor than, in fact, I've met it with.

You forgot about being accused of tax fraud. ;)

When was your wife insulted? I guess I missed that.

[_Gadianton]

Ah, I see. Yeah, don't think I'll buy it. But please continue to protest that you simultaneously fear Scratch's "stalking" and want to go to lunch with him at the same time.

[_Yoda]

Ah, I see. Yeah, don't think I'll buy it. But please continue to protest that you simultaneously fear Scratch's "stalking" and want to go to lunch with him at the same time.

I actually think that LifeOnAPlate and Scratch SHOULD go to lunch. I think it would do them well to clear the air.

Heck, I would sell tickets to see Scratch and DCP go to lunch!

Just make sure I'm invited.

LOL

[_Mister Scratch]

Ah, I see. Yeah, don't think I'll buy it. But please continue to protest that you simultaneously fear Scratch's "stalking" and want to go to lunch with him at the same time.

I actually think that LifeOnAPlate and Scratch SHOULD go to lunch. I think it would do them well to clear the air.

Heck, I would sell tickets to see Scratch and DCP go to lunch!

Just make sure I'm invited.

LOL

I am sorry, Liz, but DCP has stated on multiple occasions that he hates me so much, and wishes me so much ill, that he will not meet me for lunch under any circumstances whatsoever.

[_LifeOnaPlate]

Ah, I see. Yeah, don't think I'll buy it. But please continue to protest that you simultaneously fear Scratch's "stalking" and want to go to lunch with him at the same time.

Actually, the invitation stems partly from a hope that upon meeting Mister Scratch in person, he'll see I'm alright, and maybe I'll see he's alright too. As far as fear is concerned, it would seem at this point I am not the one suffering from it; scratch seems to be a little frozen with it though, given his declining a simple lunch invitation.

[_Daniel Peterson]

I am sorry, Liz, but DCP has stated on multiple occasions that he hates me so much, and wishes me so much ill, that he will not meet me for lunch under any circumstances whatsoever.

Run-of-the-mill Scartchian distortion.

I've said that your obsessive personal crusade against me has been so plainly malevolent that I have absolutely no interest in meeting you.

By suggesting that I'm the hater, rather than you, you attempt to turn the truth entirely upside down.

I don't start threads about you. I don't gather materials from a bizarre network of creepy anonymous "informants" in order to defame you. I haven't anonymously accused you of a whole host of unethical and even criminal actions for at least the past two years.

Who hates whom? Who wishes whom ill?

Who declares that he "exists" in order to oppose whom?

[_Mister Scratch]

I am still waiting to for DCP to confirm or deny Bill Hamblin's statement.