Almost kicked off a messageboard
May. 12th, 2004 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nemorathwaldFor a couple of years I've been posting to the forums of the alumni of the private religious college I graduated from. (Here's an essay on what I think about the school.) Yesterday I ticked the moderators off even more than usual. Usually I slightly disguise my controversial opinions about religion to avoid being banned. Not that my affiliations are any secret, but the moderators specifically split off from the old messageboard in protest to the old moderator not keeping a leash on me. I got on a roll and posted more blasphemous logic and heretical free thought than probably any other single day. I'm laughing my butt off making a list of the charges against me:
1. I equated falling in love, religious conversion, listening to a stirring symphony and smoking dope. Kind of forgot myself and went overboard there. That comment got deleted by the moderators and I was told to take it to the Unorthodoxy section of the messageboard which was created for such statements.
2. I argued at length from personal experience that unconditional love is the kiss of death on a relationship. (Weird, I know, but true!)
3. In so doing I inadvertently undermined the plan of salvation in which marriage is a symbol of Christ's unconditional love for his church.
4. I pointed out a demonstrated example of how the doctrine of "everyone's sins are equal in the sight of ghod" is used to give evil a pass and unrealistically vilify the good.
5. When a guy said he was tempted to have an affair, I said the following: "Most of these have told you to run. You know yourself better than I do so maybe you should. But if it were me, I'd do something more clever than a rebuke and depending on what kind of sense of humor she has I might even salvage the work relationship from the awkwardness. You are the one in the situation, but if it were me here's what I would say. First I'd tell her I'm flattered, second I'd say that I know she's an honest person who would never lie to her husband. Third I'd say that therefore he must be as cool and modern as me and her. Fourth I'd suggest that therefore, she should ask him about it and if he gives permission, I'll agree to it. Of course if she gets shocked or even angered by this response, at least I'd have the satisfaction of seeing the look on her face." I got called twisted for that one. :)
6. I said swinging couples aren't cheating. At least I had the presence of mind to issue a disclaimer on that one, to say I was taking no public position for or against it. Just that if, IF, it was wrong, it was a different kind of wrong from deception. That was a close call.
7. I criticized someone for her idea that people can't release each other from their vows. She thinks vows have got nothing to do with benefit to the person being vowed to. In a moment of passion I called this abhorrent and stupid.
8. I advocated Unitarian Universalism.
9. And finally I went over the line in the comment that was the final straw. I told the moderator "Do you say to your loved ones, "you're worthless, but I'll sacrifice by putting up with you, just because I HAVE TO pay back God for doing the same." What that says about your marriage is frightening to contemplate." It was when I mentioned his marriage that he publicly denounced me as a hater of Christianity and the bible, and an enemy of "all they cherish and hold to be eternal." The cool thing is (and this is what I'm laughing about)-- I was prohibited by their rules from saying that myself and now he's said it for me! You can't buy that kind of publicity.
1. I equated falling in love, religious conversion, listening to a stirring symphony and smoking dope. Kind of forgot myself and went overboard there. That comment got deleted by the moderators and I was told to take it to the Unorthodoxy section of the messageboard which was created for such statements.
2. I argued at length from personal experience that unconditional love is the kiss of death on a relationship. (Weird, I know, but true!)
3. In so doing I inadvertently undermined the plan of salvation in which marriage is a symbol of Christ's unconditional love for his church.
4. I pointed out a demonstrated example of how the doctrine of "everyone's sins are equal in the sight of ghod" is used to give evil a pass and unrealistically vilify the good.
5. When a guy said he was tempted to have an affair, I said the following: "Most of these have told you to run. You know yourself better than I do so maybe you should. But if it were me, I'd do something more clever than a rebuke and depending on what kind of sense of humor she has I might even salvage the work relationship from the awkwardness. You are the one in the situation, but if it were me here's what I would say. First I'd tell her I'm flattered, second I'd say that I know she's an honest person who would never lie to her husband. Third I'd say that therefore he must be as cool and modern as me and her. Fourth I'd suggest that therefore, she should ask him about it and if he gives permission, I'll agree to it. Of course if she gets shocked or even angered by this response, at least I'd have the satisfaction of seeing the look on her face." I got called twisted for that one. :)
6. I said swinging couples aren't cheating. At least I had the presence of mind to issue a disclaimer on that one, to say I was taking no public position for or against it. Just that if, IF, it was wrong, it was a different kind of wrong from deception. That was a close call.
7. I criticized someone for her idea that people can't release each other from their vows. She thinks vows have got nothing to do with benefit to the person being vowed to. In a moment of passion I called this abhorrent and stupid.
8. I advocated Unitarian Universalism.
9. And finally I went over the line in the comment that was the final straw. I told the moderator "Do you say to your loved ones, "you're worthless, but I'll sacrifice by putting up with you, just because I HAVE TO pay back God for doing the same." What that says about your marriage is frightening to contemplate." It was when I mentioned his marriage that he publicly denounced me as a hater of Christianity and the bible, and an enemy of "all they cherish and hold to be eternal." The cool thing is (and this is what I'm laughing about)-- I was prohibited by their rules from saying that myself and now he's said it for me! You can't buy that kind of publicity.
