To Mr Scratch

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_Scratchopolis
_Emeritus
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:08 pm

To Mr Scratch

Post by _Scratchopolis »

I've read some of your "critiques" and some of your "correspondence" with apologists of the Church. I am a long-time ex-member and opponent of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I am absolutely embarassed that your brand of dialog about the Church is published on the internet, let alone in print. Your entire attack on my old faith appears to consist largely of making childish personal attacks and snide comments about apologists of the Church.

Here's a hint: be bigger than those who criticize you, and maybe someone will take you more seriously than they will the apologist. Be bigger, kinder, and more in control of the facts and your own argument than those who criticize you, and maybe you'll reveal the Church for what it is. As it is, your tactics are an embarrassment to those who left.

Please stop what you are doing. You will drive more people back to the Church of Jesus Christ than you will ever help leave it. Thank you.
_Scottie
_Emeritus
Posts: 4166
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 9:54 pm

Re: To Mr Scratch

Post by _Scottie »

Scratchopolis wrote:Please stop what you are doing. You will drive more people back to the Church of Jesus Christ than you will ever help leave it. Thank you.

I highly doubt this. I have yet to hear of a single person who returned to the church because Scratch drove them there.

Do you believe the apologists should be above criticism?
If there's one thing I've learned from this board, it's that consensual sex with multiple partners is okay unless God commands it. - Abman

I find this place to be hostile toward all brands of stupidity. That's why I like it. - Some Schmo
_Persephone
_Emeritus
Posts: 65
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:23 pm

Re: To Mr Scratch

Post by _Persephone »

Scottie wrote:
Scratchopolis wrote:Please stop what you are doing. You will drive more people back to the Church of Jesus Christ than you will ever help leave it. Thank you.

I highly doubt this. I have yet to hear of a single person who returned to the church because Scratch drove them there.

Do you believe the apologists should be above criticism?

I smell a TBM troll.
_The Nehor
_Emeritus
Posts: 11832
Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:05 am

Re: To Mr Scratch

Post by _The Nehor »

I am humbled by Scratchopolis's remarks. One wonders if his comments will be taken seriously.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics
"I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
_Rollo Tomasi
_Emeritus
Posts: 4085
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:27 pm

Re: To Mr Scratch

Post by _Rollo Tomasi »

Scratchopolis wrote:I've read some of your "critiques" and some of your "correspondence" with apologists of the Church. I am a long-time ex-member and opponent of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I am absolutely embarassed that your brand of dialog about the Church is published on the internet, let alone in print. Your entire attack on my old faith appears to consist largely of making childish personal attacks and snide comments about apologists of the Church.

Here's a hint: be bigger than those who criticize you, and maybe someone will take you more seriously than they will the apologist. Be bigger, kinder, and more in control of the facts and your own argument than those who criticize you, and maybe you'll reveal the Church for what it is. As it is, your tactics are an embarrassment to those who left.

Please stop what you are doing. You will drive more people back to the Church of Jesus Christ than you will ever help leave it. Thank you.

Well said, Bishop Dan.
"Moving beyond apologist persuasion, LDS polemicists furiously (and often fraudulently) attack any non-traditional view of Mormonism. They don't mince words -- they mince the truth."

-- Mike Quinn, writing of the FARMSboys, in "Early Mormonism and the Magic World View," p. x (Rev. ed. 1998)
_Rollo Tomasi
_Emeritus
Posts: 4085
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:27 pm

Re: To Mr Scratch

Post by _Rollo Tomasi »

The Nehor wrote:One wonders if his comments will be taken seriously.

No.
"Moving beyond apologist persuasion, LDS polemicists furiously (and often fraudulently) attack any non-traditional view of Mormonism. They don't mince words -- they mince the truth."

-- Mike Quinn, writing of the FARMSboys, in "Early Mormonism and the Magic World View," p. x (Rev. ed. 1998)
_Scottie
_Emeritus
Posts: 4166
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 9:54 pm

Re: To Mr Scratch

Post by _Scottie »

The Nehor wrote:I am humbled by Scratchopolis's remarks. One wonders if his comments will be taken seriously.

Probably as seriously as we take any of your comments, Nehor!! :smile:

But really Nehor, do you know of anyone who has gone back to church because of what Scratch said??
If there's one thing I've learned from this board, it's that consensual sex with multiple partners is okay unless God commands it. - Abman

I find this place to be hostile toward all brands of stupidity. That's why I like it. - Some Schmo
_The Nehor
_Emeritus
Posts: 11832
Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:05 am

Re: To Mr Scratch

Post by _The Nehor »

Scottie wrote:
The Nehor wrote:I am humbled by Scratchopolis's remarks. One wonders if his comments will be taken seriously.

Probably as seriously as we take any of your comments, Nehor!! :smile:

But really Nehor, do you know of anyone who has gone back to church because of what Scratch said??


No, but since this thread is an obvious parody of the Lehi Cranston thread I don't mind hyperbole here.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics
"I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
_Daniel Peterson
_Emeritus
Posts: 7173
Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2007 6:56 pm

Re: To Mr Scratch

Post by _Daniel Peterson »

Rollo Tomasi wrote:Well said, Bishop Dan.

Just on the off chance that any non-Scratch here is even slightly inclined to take Rollo Tomasi Scratch's suggestion seriously:

I've just now returned from spending the past four hours involved with the funeral and interment of a close friend who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at twenty-seven, suffered from it for sixteen years, and was bedridden for the past fourteen years. She has been a major focus of our life for more than a decade and a half.

The Scratch Game seems particularly puerile, petty, irrelevant, and mean-spirited to me at the moment, and no, I haven't been posting here today -- whether under my own name or, as the various Scratches do, under a pseudonym.
_Scottie
_Emeritus
Posts: 4166
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 9:54 pm

Re: To Mr Scratch

Post by _Scottie »

Daniel Peterson wrote:I've just now returned from spending the past four hours involved with the funeral and interment of a close friend who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at twenty-seven, suffered from it for sixteen years, and was bedridden for the past fourteen years. She has been a major focus of our life for more than a decade and a half.

The Scratch Game seems particularly puerile, petty, irrelevant, and mean-spirited to me at the moment, and no, I haven't been posting here today -- whether under my own name or, as the various Scratches do, under a pseudonym.

[Although I won't say who wrote this (as per my Mod oath), I feel it is important to also attest that it was NOT Dr. Peterson.]
If there's one thing I've learned from this board, it's that consensual sex with multiple partners is okay unless God commands it. - Abman

I find this place to be hostile toward all brands of stupidity. That's why I like it. - Some Schmo
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