Enuma Elish wrote:I understand and appreciate Trevor's concerns. For people like Trevor and I, these issues involving scholarship, questions, and spiritual belief are incredibly sensitive matters. Even more so when individuals that we care about have suffered as a consequence of these issues.
Thanks, David. I wish more people like you were willing to express such things. I have been truly heartened by some of my interactions on this board with Daniel, Blair, you, and others. In most of my interactions with higher-profile LDS scholars and apologists, I do not recall seeing the level of disrespect exhibited toward you and me on the MAD thread and this thread. I saw no provocation that I thought would warrant such disrespect.
Enuma Elish wrote:Still, I do not believe that Will's intent was as mean-spirited as I had assumed, and I am unfortunately responsible for unintentionally fueling the fire of this discussion.
Whether it was intended as mean-spirited or not, I maintain that it was poorly executed and ill advised. While I admire your good nature and conscientiousness in claiming partial responsibility for how all of this progressed, I thought your interpretation of Will's words was more than legitimate, it was correct. I have not seen the many sober, circumspect, and unprovocative things Will has written on these fora to those with whom he disagrees that would lead me to another conclusion.
Enuma Elish wrote:I would rather that we return to discussing issues pertaining to Mormonism as critics and believers rather than criticize one another.
While I regret tipping my hand about my real dislike for Will, and I can't very well pretend I didn't mean it at this point, I do think that rhetoric is as important as content in these disputes, and I will continue to voice my disagreement and disapproval, when I think that someone's rhetoric is counterproductive.
I have been a "board nanny" of that type since my early days at a.r.m., through ZLMB and FAIR, and on into MAD and MDB. I have criticized both critics and apologists over this nonsense, as others who have followed my posts can attest. I have criticized the tone of Daniel, Polygamy Porter, Kevin Graham, guy sajer, Scratch, Pahoran, and countless others on both sides. In short, I am not inconsistent in upholding this value (although I can't do it constantly for sure), and this is not purely personal where Will is concerned.
Most of all, it absolutely astounds me that people who openly and vociferously avow Christ as their Great Exemplar should persistently pursue put-downs, mean-spirited comments, and one-upmanship with apparent glee and almost no apparent self-reflection. Finally, if you think you misread Will's behavior toward you, what do you make of the comments he made about me above? What is the difference? Are you right about him not having been mean-spirited toward you, and also right about him blithely insulting me? He's the same guy in both instances, right? We're talking about the same chain of events, too, no?
I don't expect you to answer. You are probably doing the right thing in simply moving on.
“I was hooked from the start,” Snoop Dogg said. “We talked about the purpose of life, played Mousetrap, and ate brownies. The kids thought it was off the hook, for real.”