BaptistBeliever said:
When I joined the board I picked a handle and it was accepted. I didn't know that there was a similar one. I've never received an email from Baptist Believer but perhaps they've been blocked by anti-spam software.
I sent a couple of PMs to you from the very first week or so you posted.
A better approach would be to create a message on the board.
I tried that too, but you seemed to miss or ignore those messages while continuing to post on the threads.
I'd be willing to change my handle but I don't believe the BB allows that.
I'm not sure about the situation now, but in the past (and definitely when I first attempted to discuss this matter with you) people changed their handles all the time.
By the way, I agree that I have dealt rather harshly with people who call me names because I haven't ever voted for Bush or insult my intelligence. I'd much rather have amicable discussions but that doesn't seem possible here if you have different views.
Certainly there are many people who don't know how to have a civil conversation, but that doesn't give you the right to act as badly as they do.
As for different views, in the 6.5 years I've been here, I've been blasted for all sorts of things. In some areas, I diverge quite widely from the commonly-held views and have taken a number of beatings over it, so I know what it's like. But that doesn't give your or me the right to act harshly toward others. I'm not perfect in that regard, but when I find myself getting ugly with people I tend to take a break from BaptistBoard and decompress.
The piranhas zoom in rather quickly and call you a communist, socialist, fascist, unchristian.
When I first got here I had a prominent person (who is now a moderator) repeatedly accuse me of being an atheist posing as a Christian. It took nearly a year of those accusations before that person finally got tired of attacking. There was another person who took every opportunity to accuse me of all sorts of theological and moral failures (most of them completely fabricated). He did that for about four years before he was finally banned. And there have been a number of others.
Fortunately, there are a number of people here of character and substance who know how to have a discussion without making it venomous. Even though I often disagree with them and they with me, they have the character and spiritual maturity to disagree in a loving and respectful manner. And those are the kinds of people I pay attention to.
How long would you refrain from answering in kind if that happened to you repeatedly?[/QUOTE]
We are supposed to refrain seventy-times-seven times.
Since I finally have your attention, why don't we figure out if we can alter your name in such a way that both of us can have a clear identity?