Your comments have continued to get worse and worse and you have been very derogatory and belittling towards me. I have had others comment to me about this.
I encourage you to examine why you are so negative and like to put me down. How does this fit into a biblical perspective? I don't mind a bit of sarcasm now and then but u have crossed the line.
I wish u the best in your future endeavours.
That is the body of an email I found in my inbox this morning.
Concerned about what offense I caused the offended, I read back through a month of this writer's posts, and found comments from only three people: myself, the writer's life partner, and the writer's brother. The only person who commented that I was negative was the writer's life partner. The brother made the following comment after the life partner complained again:
[life partner of my brother], I guess if Mr. Lewis can repeat negative comments ad nauseum on this blog, then [my brother] can be let go for repeating something inspirational just once. :)
The blog writer and I have known each other for about 12 years. It is nothing new for the writer to be offended by me. The writer is, in my opinion, extremely conservative and hypersensitive. I cannot even recount the number of times the writer has hung up the phone in the middle of a conversation, walked away or out of the room, or tuned me out, merely because of frustration with me or offence by me. And I say, hang up tune out shut up walk out, all with NO explanation ever.
I cannot change the past, nor do I wish to. Statistically, there will always be someone somewhere who will be offended by anyone or everyone or anything or everything either some of the time or all the time. I can handle people being offended. I don't mind, and I don't care. It's basically a difference of opinion. Such that my policies are this: I respect honesty in the highest, I both expect to receive it, and I give it. I really see no point in continuing in relationship or communication with a person who is not willing to be honest.
Yes, I may at times have neglected to check the tact-o-meter. And that too is combined directly or indirectly with relevance, necessity, timing, and delivery. I make no pretense of being perfect.
And to the neoconservative-fundamentalist-hypersensitive-christian I now respond:
- My comments continue to get "worse and worse", yet you give no example or explanation. I have read through all the recent comments, and in my perspective, there is nothing worse, or nothing that progresses from bad to worse.
- Derogatory and belittling, eh?
derogatory
adjective
showing a critical or disrespectful attitude
This is true, I am derogatory, to the ideologies represented on your blog which are a result of the neoconservative-fundamental-hypersensitive-christianity which you embrace! I am not critical or disrespectful of you personally.belittle
verb [ trans. ]
make (someone or something) seem unimportant
This is a poor choice of word with which to make an accusation against me. If I was trying to make you or your blog unimportant, then I wouldn't comment on it. It is impossible to uphold the argument that I have belittled you by the fact that reading and commenting on your blog makes it important to me. - The 'others' who have commented are your similar minded life partner and your brother. Your brother's comment, quoted above, was not so much to attract attention to the perceived negative comments, but rather that your frequent inspirational posts are balanced by your life partner's claims of yet another negative comment from Lewis. And he was being sarcastic! So really, the 'others' is in truth merely one other, and that other is your life partner, and therefore doesn't really count as unique apart from you.
- You encourage me? No you don't. With this email, and with past communications, you use basic christianese to tell me to fuck off. That is not encouragement.
encourage
verb [ trans. ]- give support, confidence, or hope to (someone)
- give support and advice to (someone) so that they will do or continue to do something
- help or stimulate (an activity, state, or view) to develop
- I am critical; to the neoconservative-fundamentalist-hypersensitive-christian this is often confused with and mistaken for negativity. I do not enjoy putting anyone down, anyone including you.
- Which biblical perspective do you speak of? The neoconservative-fundamentalist-hypersensitive-christian biblical perspective? No one aside from other neoconservative-fundamentalist-hypersensitive-christians can be accepted into that perspective. There is no room in your theology, bible, churches, or heaven for anyone who doesn't completely agree with you on everything; basically anyone who offends you in any way is not a christian.
- The God of the Bible that I read is first and foremost extremely critical. Secondly, It is gracious. And once accepted by It, demands nothing less than grace be extended from the one accepted to all others, regardless of acceptability. You have never (perhaps rarely) been gracious to me in all the years we have known each other, and yet I continue to forgive you for showing me none of the grace which your God has given you, and has asked you to pass on to others, including me.
It seems bitterly ironic and rather fitting that as I have rejected the religious establishment of the church: the groups of whitewashed tombs, I have actually become one of what its members fail to be: an altruistic Christian; a person that best represents Jesus. Though horribly flawed and full of error, I express grace, love, and tolerance based in grace and love for those that choose not to express grace and love.
Until the church figures out that it is not the only source of Truth, then its neoconservative-fundamentalist-hypersensitive members will always be offended when confronted by Truth which has its source outside of their bubble of influenced christianity.
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