CRN.Info and Analysis

Ingrid,

Welcome to SlicedLaodicea. It’s different from your blog because here we discuss the facts instead of attacking and maligning those who we disagree with. Please, read my article on what was done at the Saddleback Christmas Service. Please, feel free to disagree with my opinion that the historic Gospel message was clearly delivered.

Please, read my post on the “straw man” that Bob DeWaay sets up in trying to prove that Rick Warren has somehow left his evangelical faith for a New Age ideology. Please feel free to disagree with the specifics.

Nobody is hiding here, Ingrid, we’re not even hiding behind your comment to me when you banned me from your site and I quote:

“I have only my site and only a couple of helpers to screen comments. I do not have Rick Warren’s vast resources to spread his message. Surely, I am entitled this one blog without being required to post JohnD’s purpose driven dogma.”

Well, at this site Ingrid, we don’t even have one or two helpers to restrict the commenting so it’s come one come all. I wonder what would happen at your site if you allowed unrestricted comment for a day? You would probably get some garbage, but I’m guessing you would expose yourself to a lot of valid criticism. Who knows, we all might learn something in the dialog process.

By the way, the comment in question that angered you so much was two verses from 1 Peter. Here was the post:

Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will bless you for it.
1 Peter 3:8-9 (NLT)

I do like the fact that you called it “Purpose Driven dogma” because I’ve always believed that what we teach at Saddleback is the Bible.

Peace.

John Gilbert Draper

Source: The Todd Blog

Comments:

Todd documents his conversations with Ken Silva, revealing that a) Ken is as rude and condescending in private as he is in public; b) Ken’s an idiot when it comes to understanding the internet, IP addresses and proxies; and c) Ken doesn’t have the temperment to qualify for a position of a pastor/elder.

Basically, Todd tries to document an attempt at reasonable exchange with Mr. Silva - something many of us have tried (and failed at) doing, through no fault of Todd’s.

Memorable Quotes:

[Ken, in full sanctimonious mode] Your offense is between you and God because specifically based on your actions yesterday and today I have more than good reason to mark you according to Romans 16:17.

Scott Ragan’s comment:

Though his hypocrisy is evident to many, the depth and breadth of it is still astounding. Watching “Reverend” Ken and his whole operation (i.e. - his “missives,” his practice of linking to his own articles to support/prove statements that he is making in his other articles, his habit of quoting the words of the Lord and applying them to himself, his “dare not rebuke the Lord’s anointed” attitude, his affected way of writing to try and pull of a tone of learned 18th/19th century authority, etc) is like watching one of those huge accidents that they used to show on ChiPS…slow motion disasters that keep getting worse and worse by the second.

Over on Verum Serum we have an ongoing exchange with an atheist who comes by to take pot-shots, ridicule posts that we have put up, mock our faith, etc. I can handle all of this guy’s comments without a problem, but a couple times he has tried to lump “Reverend” Ken and me together and I have almost come unglued! At this point in my Christian walk, few things are more offensive to me than to be put in the same category with the good “Reverend” and his pal Ingrid.

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Source: While Rome Burns
Comments: Dan is banned, then unbanned (and probably banned again), and lives to tell the tale
Memorable Quotes:

Ken is an ordained minister in the Southern Baptist Convention, even while he decries the “emergent vipers” and “purpose driven madness of Rick Warren” that are “rapidly apostasizing” that denomination. Why he continues to hold his credentials in the SBC is a mystery to me. He tells me it’s because a denomination’s leadership doesn’t make it apostate. If you figure that one out, let me know.

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Source: The Todd Blog
Comments: Todd joinds the Slice-shunned Hall of Fame
Memorable Quotes:

Slice of Laodecia has given me my present early this year: no more frustrating conversations with close minded bloggers. Ho ho ho!

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Source: To the Tune of Tim
Comments: Tim was (briefly) a great commenter on Slice, someone with excellent reasoning abilities and obvious compassion. As you can most likely guess, he didn’t last all that long before he was banned for disagreeing with Ken’s company line that Donald Miller is a unregenerate heretic. Tim has an incredibly well-written description of his being kicked out of the ‘lifeboat’ of Slice.
Memorable Quotes:

My most favorite song of his is called “Jesus is for Losers”. In an interview that I saw from the first ever Christian music video program, filmed in Pittsburgh, the host Tom Green (not the MTV guy) asked Steve Taylor how he came up with the song. Steve responded, as only Steve Taylor could, that he was sitting on the toilet reading a magazine about how a porn star became a Christian, and his initial reaction was “Great! That’s just who we need representing…” and he stopped himself realizing that if Jesus isn’t for the people who are living completely opposite of what God wants, and if Jesus isn’t for the people at the end of their rope, and if Jesus isn’t for the poor, the hungry, and so on, then who is Jesus for? He wouldn’t be for me because I have it altogether, right? Unless I recognize that I, too, am a loser (aka sinner).

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The responses were either labeling of me or further name-calling of Miller and the church community with whom he lives and worships. Pressing the point further did not motivate the author to return to the actually questions I ask, simply to walk away saying we wouldn’t agree so what? One commentor chastised me for being disrespectful, which was quickly refuted by another saying: “Tim has presented the most coherent, and I think respectful, critique of Ken Silva, a man who regularly disrespects and maligns “ordained pastors” himself, that I’ve seen on here in a while. Give him a break.“

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I did not receive notice that I have been banned, just that when I try to post, I get an error saying that I am not allowed to comment. So just as there is an avoidance to constructive challenges or dialog, there is also an avoidance now of any dialog.

My first reaction was short anger. This lasted approximately 2 seconds. My next reaction was laughter, not as in a joke, but in a realization of irony that something I said must have been too true. My third, and longest, reaction was contemplation, wondering what is was exactly that I said that got me kicked out of their lifeboat.

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Source: Fishing the Abyss

Comments: Chris documents his banning from Slice.
Memorable Quotes:

On Saturday, I came to a realization some of Ken’s readers had picked up on much faster than I had (props to Amy, whom Ken won’t even address, from a seeminly misogynistic standpoint - see http://www.verumserum.com/?p=529#comment-2821) - Ken so strongly believes he is on a “mission from God” to denounce Bell that he has taken upon himself the same autority as Jesus or Paul (see his use of John 7:24, Matthew 22:29 , I Cor 15:10, I Peter 2:23 in this thread).  In doing so, he has started to exhibit symptoms that some might correlate to a God complex.

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Source: Lone Prairie Art Works

Comments: Julie relates her banning from Slice…
Memorable Quotes:

Perhaps it my last post, regarding something I’d read on Slice that seemed a bit two-faced, was the final straw.

I’m not a true Christian, maybe, not enough points? I can’t goose step high enough? Not willing to take someone else’s word for it?

What was that about being a Berean?

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But now I’m not Christian enough because I took the time to disagree with them. Or maybe I wasn’t lady-like enough. Maybe there’s no room in some Christian discussion for going after a bothersome point or question full bore, no room for brashness, no room for someone in a discussion who doesn’t know all the polite code words, the right way to hold a tea cup…no room for a female Peter. I really don’t know.

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This lesson I’m very sure of: I don’t have to sort it all out. Sorting and ordering everything is not the point, though it’s a hard pill to swallow. I see that it is better to have the unsettled feeling of knowing things aren’t sorted rather than the comfort of never asking the questions. I don’t have to understand everything because frankly, that’s an impossibility. Anyone who indicates they know it all exactly no questions what-so-ever are exactly the man (or woman) you should not be following. Instead, I have to have faith that where I’m going, despite the confusing road signs along the way, is the right direction because the Map I’m using is the True Map, a map you gotta read every day. And that, I’m finding, is a very great lesson indeed. Even with such minor hurts as being blacklisted by a Christian web site.

Ah well. Another day. It’s kind of funny and ironic in a way; Slice regularly posts on Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Church plan calling for the removal of people who don’t fit his movement. I’ve just gotten a little taste of such removal from the pot; I’ve no desire to follow the black kettle, though.

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Source: Bob Blog

Comments: Bob documents the beginnings of the ‘good’ emergentno (as opposed to the bad one), and the addition of Slice to its RSS feed.

Here, Bob also documents a known flaw in Slice’s blacklisting protocol which blacklists thousands of people who have never even commented, but whose internet service is through a proxy server (in this case, Starbucks/T-Mobile).
Memorable Quotes:

I know that all of this is probably counter-productive in the long run (in the sense that we should probably just ignore critics who don’t have our best interest at heart and are unable to comment on anything positive in amongst all the finger pointing…), but…

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