My apology

The BBQ Pit
1

Maybe this should be in anther forum, but…

I am a Christian. That is to say a follower of Christ. Trying to live a life that is Christ-like.

I have been considering what that means lately. I have recently read a book called Blue Like Jazz and it has had a profound effect on me.

I imagine God trying to reach His people, trying to get them to love Him and love each other. We just didn’t get it. We kept treating each other poorly, even cruelly, and we treated God as a fair weather friend at best and a blunt weapon to bash each other over the head with at worst.

So he became human in the form of Jesus. The life of Jesus is , in my opinion, God saying “Like this”. He lived as us and showed us how we are to love God and love each other.

So I imagine Jesus saying to me “Love each other like this. Do it as I showed you.” And I live my life as I do, and at some point turn to Jesus and ask, “Like this? Am I getting it right?” And I imagine the dissappointment on His face as He shakes His head.

You know arguing/debating here is fun. I guess it is more fun when the debate gets heated. But I have said some things I don’t really mean just to get the better of some of you in the debate. I have misrepredented my true self so that I could one-up you on this message board.

For the record, I think torture is detestable. I don’t think as a Christian I can advocate making another of God’s creation suffer for any reason. I don’t think He would do that.

I do agree with staying the course in Iraq because I think in the long run our success there means a safer and more quality of life for Iraqis.

As to the comments of Durbin, they are really a non-issue. Nothing a Senator, Democrat or Republican calls our activities changes them. I would like to see more responsible discussion of the issue from both sides. Durbin could have chosen his words more carefully and helped shine light on abuses at Gitmo. Instead he created a firestorm with him in the middle. I would also challenge more Republicans to address the abuses. I do not think that torture is institutional there, but I do think there are people who are guilty, from the bottom to who-knows-how-far up the chain. It deserves to be addressed seriously and not after incindiary remarks.

I know that many of you disagree with my stances on these issues. But I thik that we all share the common desire for the situation in Iraq be settled as wuickly as possible with as little human suffering as possible. I think that means staying fast, you may think that it means bringing everyone home. The fact of the matter is that none of us know the answer. But I think when we get into screaming, insult-fests it serves no other purpose but to lower our respect for each other as human beings. And I think THAT is not what He would want…at least from me. YMMV.

2

Maybe? maybe? maybe? maybe? MAYBE???
Hey tongued one, clean up aisle one!

3

come on g-man do your stuff, and quick.

4

Eh?
Oh, you want the guy with the prehensile tongue, not the sticky-tongued guy.

5

Sorry. I thought that since my offenses have been in The Pit I should post this here.

6

aw we’re screwed, both he and Veb are offline at the moment.
kid - yea, but if it’s sticky, too, that could be a bonus.

7

Apparently it hasn’t worked. Personally I could give a flying fuck if you have found jesus. It is mundane and pointless. Witnessing belongs in another thread.

Now if you wanted to Pit god, that might be OK.

8

For what it’s worth, I agree. The witnessing might qualify it for Great Debates, but it’s discussing the behavior of a Doper – yourself – with regard to behavior in the forum where the thread was posted. Responses could include further flaming from people who don’t accept the apology, or don’t think it goes far enough, which could provoke secondhand flaming in its turn.

Since this is the forum for hashing out problems with other Dopers, I think it’s just as correct to offer an olive branch as it is to wield the usual blunt instrument or acid-tipped stiletto.

9

It isn’t that people might think that they don’t feel like accepting your apology, or that they feel like tell you that &&((&%%(&%&&%((%&, it’s that I, personally, am not sure you fully realize that lying about your true feelings on an issue makes it hard to debate, and thus defeats the purpose of the board.

10

Christ, what to do with this thread? It’s mostly witnessing, with an admission of trolling, an apology and a bit of politics thrown in. Could be a Great Debate, except that there’s no real debate and I expect a far more Pit-like response than anything else.

I honestly have no idea. I’m going to leave it here for now and see what TVeblen thinks we should do with it.

However…

While I appreciate the apology, this is still a flat-out admission of trolling. Deliberately posting inflammatory things you don’t believe to try to heat up debate and get the better of people is 100% against the rules. If you want to keep arguing/debating here, newcrasher, don’t do it again. Consider yourself warned.

11

Man, you just kill me. I look forward to the day when you pit puppies. :stuck_out_tongue:

12

Once I leave a thread along for a day, in most cases, my anger tends to fade. Thus, I cannot remember the really angry stuff I wanted to tell him yesterday.

13

Agreed.

14

Oh fer crying out loud. I really did not realize I was doing ti when I did it. It was only upon reflection. If EVERYONE admitted to fannig the flames just to make apoint, how many would you “warn”.

And it was not meant to be witnessing. It was just exdplaining how I came to this point.

15

I often feel this is just the case with many members, who hold contrary positions to mine, but on further reflection, I believe that out of thousands of (recent) posters, the mods can probably post the real trolls on one, well actually, two hands.

P.S. I find your claim hard to believe. Care to admit to your crimes and say which ones you knowingly lied about?

16

I feel your bliss, as I too recently found Christ. Damnable bugger was behind my couch, and though I seized him by the wrist and insisted upon it, he simply would not lead me to his pot of gold!

17

Heat of the moment and all that. I think Giraffe took your statement a little too seriously, still more frequent pauses for reflection would be good for your soul, as well as the tone of the board.

18

The warning is as much based on your posts in the Gitmo threads as it is your admitted motivation for posting them. They already read like borderline trolling before you came here and stated that you were in fact misrepresenting your own opinions to get a rise out of people, so now it’s pretty much a no-brainer. You stated flat out that you were trolling in those threads. I can’t ignore that just because you were nice enough to admit it.

I appreciate your honesty, but honesty does not automatically confer absolution. It’s just a warning. Learn from it, debate more honestly from now on, and everyone wins.

19

Been there, done that, got a warning. The problem with hiring a bunch of Goody Two Shoes and Mr Spocks for mods is that they don’t understand getting a bit irrationally exuberant and how you can do it without realizing you are. It’s especially easy if you truly believe part of what you are saying and are too busy typing to reflect on where your beliefs end and your exuberance takes over. And then you’re so pumped that even if you can discern the border your post is so fucking brilliant! that you can’t bring yourself to edit it.

If you’re apologizing does that mean I have to apologize for attempting, in my limited fashion, to rip you a new asshole? I ask because I really, really enjoyed it and haven’t reached the point of feeling remorse yet.

20

So are you still claiming to be the most famous Doper?