About
Slice of Laodicea, a blight in the Christian Blogosphere, had reached a point where, like The Onion, ignorant folks sometimes mistook it for having well-researched stories or news of substance. It was a home to writers who referred to leaders in churches they don’t like as ‘Spiritual Pedophiles’, ‘Anti-Christs’, or (sometimes) ‘the False Prophet of Revelation’, referring to these churches as ‘whorehouses’ or worse. (And this is when they’re being nice.)
Having had the blessed opportunity, many times, to correct mistaken ideas purveyed by Slice, it seems that as a follower of the God who wrote of Slice’s predecessors -
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. (Matthew 23:23)
In December 2006, a rather crude and sometimes vulgar parody site to Slice sprung up (with which we are IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH) several days before Sliced Laodicea opened. Soon after, Ingrid at Slice began making false accusations at people trying to ‘anonymously’ blog against her. When she was shown to be 1) incorrect in this assessment and 2) a hypocrite with a similar site mocking the Emergent Church, she may have cracked.
On January 5, 2007, Slice of Laodicea up and disappeared - taking with it all of the evidence of past malfesance (save for what can be found in the internet archive). In many ways, this was a blessing, as its pages were removed from where an innocent might fall into it, like a babe in the woods. In other ways, it seemed to be a curse, running away from its own record. On January 6, 2007, the christianresearchnetwork.com site was purchased as the home of a ‘new’ Slice, with a bland name and look that would be harder to parody.
It is our hope that this new site will be kinder and gentler than its predecessor. The new site decided not to allow comments (which was about 40-50% of the problem) which we view as fairly positive, though not as much as if they had allowed free (but decent) discussion. Free discussion, though, requires enough faith that the truth will win out in the end, even if you, the writer, are not always to be found in it.
In our original ‘about us’ page, we wrote:
It is our intent to gather articles from the blogosphere here which give background to Slice and its writers, refute its often false and malicious claims, to offer space for original post-length commentary by those who have been blocked from doing so on Slice, and to give space for those directly maligned by these modern-day Pharisees to defend themselves and to refute the pernicious lies spread about them.
Now, in interest of fairness, and as our error of not pointing out what good was done be Slice has been pointed out in a kind fashion, we would also intend to look at some of the larger issues brought out by the ‘new’ Slice, give our ‘take’ (be it in agreement or disagreement) and an opportunity for discussion.
In no way is this meant to compete or overlap with Emergent What?, which aggregated the Slice feed (and may aggregate CRN if they decide to in the future) and allows individuals to comment on the Slice stories without fear of being censored out for disagreeing. If you’re looking to provide a comment on a specific story on Slice, E-What? is your place to go. If you want to write a full rebuttal of a CRN story, contact us at slicedlaodicea@earthlink.net. Also, if you would like to become a writer here, contact us at the same address.
Additionally, this site is in no way affiliated with Patrick Lane’s parody sites, created in mockery of Slice. Our desire is not to mock, parody or satirize.
The Apostle John wrote about one of the first Slicer’s called out by name
I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.
Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. (3 John 1:9-11)
It is my intent to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and his disciples - loving what is good and opposing the Pharisees of the day who shut the door to the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces.
