High pedestals give you a great view of everyone else's faults.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger      9 comments      link this post     


My first mistake was visiting Old Truth one more time. I always rather liked some of the things Jim Bublitz would write. He'd post things like Spurgeon links, posts on the stupidity and weirdness in modern church...I enjoyed attending Worldview Weekends and I found this whole bunch by clicking through things related to that. I should have known better. I gave up on one blog but I should have carried it further.

Did you know I have been running a nefarious campaign against a blog I'm no longer allowed to comment on? Did you know that? Did you know I've been spending much time finding other sites that are slamming this blog so that I might chime in? That I have nothing better to do in my busy real-life days than huddle over the computer and spread the infectious disease of malcontent?

I didn't realize it, either.

But Bublitz thinks so. He thinks I have a grudge. Of all the things I have to worry about and deal with in my real life, he believes I'm holding on to some kind of virtual blogging grudge and am actively nursing it online every chance I get.

Julie:
You were one of the people that I had in the back of my mind, when I wrote (above) about 'the banned' carrying grudges, and telling their story around the internet.

I've seen you on a number of sites, telling "your story" about how you were banned from Slice. I've also noticed your own banning policies being enforced on your own blog. So you can ban people, but Slice is committing an injustice if it bans you? It just seems rather odd to insist that you have "a right" to comment at other people's websites, and if that right gets violated - then you are going to launch a campaign to show the world how your rights were violated.

But . . . you do have a right to do that if you want, so by all means keep up the campaign:-)

Why do people sign off with a smiley face or a "God Bless You" when they are thinking anything but God's blessing upon you or their words communicate anything but kindness and smiles? That's lying. It is.

Anyway, it's my own fault. I left a comment which was not meant to antagonize on his site in response to a couple of comments and he, of course, responded. My response to Bublitz may or may not appear on his site, but I'll include it here. He's usually pretty good about putting up comments that disagree, for argumentative purposes, so I do think it should show up online later.

You have no idea what you're talking about when you summarize me, my writing or my blog in this manner.

I never once was inaccurate in discussing being blacklisted wherever I wrote about it; when a post talked about Slice blacklisting people, my addition to the discussion was on topic. There was no "campaign." You are ridiculous in thinking your blogs matter that much in the scope of my life, and also far too obsessed with reading what others are saying about Slice. On my own blog and in my email to Ingrid I was not angry over not being allowed to post and said that they had every right to not publish my comments - never once did I say I had a RIGHT to comment. You re-read everything you seem to suggest that you have read of mine in discussing this on my own site and elsewhere; never once did I claim my rights to post were violated because. I specifically say Slice has the right to moderate their comments.

You think you've got a "gotcha" on me because I moderate my own site. Do you now what comments I don't publish? Perverted ones, comments that are out of line or personal in nature such as things of "are you married" and garbage like that. Even the anonymous posters, those who my policies are stricter with because they do not put their name to what they write (which I do) I tend to publish.

My disappointment with Slice and now you is that you are willing to wield a mighty sharp sword and go on attack but are not able to take it back or visit the possibility you may be mistaken. You find a way to make anyone who calls you out or disagrees with you unbiblical or dark-hearted. The post in question that I tried to link to above dealt with you specifically, how you seemed to go against what you stand for by changing the rules for yourself. I was genuinely dismayed and confused at the time over what was a seemingly incongruent action by you but now this is what I see: you are proud. You are so sure God is using you in a pure way that you are blind to the possibility that you might be wrong in some things.

Don't you dare suggest that I've ever claimed a "right" to leave a comment because that is a purposeful twisting of my words. You know I've never, EVER said that and you are purposefully twisting my words to create an argument that does not exist. My problem has been inconsistency with Slice during a time when I was trying to figure some things out, not that my little toes were stepped on. Rest assured I won't look to anything you or other Slice writers have to say. It was clearly a mistake to visit this site and leave a comment here. And I'm not even going to end with a smiley face because I'm not smiling and not interested in putting on a literal
false face.

It's sure nice to know you had me in mind when you wrote part of this post. Why don't you write me off as one of the reasons the modern church is going to hell and get your followers to bobble their heads? You don't know anything about it or me. Your ivory tower is very high.

Not a lot of restraint, I know. Obviously I was irritated. No one likes to be summed up wrongly.

I don't know which spiritual gift it is that Bublitz has. Which of the spiritual gifts requires arguing people into the ground on a regular basis, or requires the collection of debating ammunition by spending time scouring the web for seeming inconsistencies with which to blast them with and sign off with a smiley face? We needn't be weak and spineless, but there ought to be control and thought on who and what we lash out against. Knowledge and discernment are one thing, but mixing that with pride and self-assuredness of being "right" creates what I like to call a pompous ass.

Yes, I used a naughty word. This will be taken as a sure sign that I am fallen, vile and vulgar, another symptom of the ills of the modern church that doesn't think; a person who settles for crass pragmatism, who only uses The Message for serious discussion; a person of no serious literate level with little knowledge, a classic example of why women should just shut up and wear a bonnet. Anyone who knows me, either through my own church or just via blogging or through the Nicaragua stuff or work or my own parents KNOWS - I am sure of this - that I am not such a person. And if they do not know this? Then I have surely failed and Bublitz, who knows me only via bits and bytes on a few blogs was able to, in all his "godly" knowledge and discernment, read me right. I don't think that's the case.

I cannot make the same judgment call on Bublitz that he regularly doles out on people who disagree in his blog's comments section, or like he doled out on me. I still believe he has good things to say and is very likely a good person in real life. The internet has a way of sharpening the edge of everyone because there isn't the reality of humanity in front of you that softens how we see and react to people. Like all of us, he can only assume and infer intentions from what people write by using past experience or stereotypes.

This post will be the last of this specific topic, the final balloon popped and the ugly reality of the mini-Inquisitions that go on still today very clear in my head. I am not interested in an internet flame war, but I do feel that I am supposed to say one thing, one thing that has been building in my mind as I read "Christian" blogs that reveal anything but Christ. And I will frame it through this experience with Bublitz as the way to do it.

I see something of a problem, based only upon what I am able to read online, with Bublitz: he is in a dangerous place of thinking he is very, very right.

This isn't a question of being right about Christ, but one of how he handles, judges and doles out words at other Christians. Because he is certain of his being of the elect, perhaps he has made the next jump in logic to assuming that whatever concepts he comes up with must then be correct. He has surrounded himself with like-minded people, participates in like-minded blogs, and feels very secure in what he believes is right. Anyone who agrees is perhaps seen as another confirmation of this, and anyone who disagrees, whether hesitantly or by other means, is seen as an attack on the Kingdom of God instead of an attack on Bublitz's own thoughts, which is much harder to take and maybe not so holy and Biblical to defend. When disagreement is conveniently framed as an attack on righteousness, it is easy, then, to excuse the misuse of a God-given ability for sharp debate as justifiable. It is even easier to cross the line in an attack. After all, it turns into a fight for God instead of a fight for a mere human being's thoughts on the matter. When the litmus tests for who is right and who isn't have become ingrained, the attacks on anyone questioning motives or concepts are launched without a second thought. It is rote behavior. There is no listening because the grooves have already been set and all the record can do is spin around and play the same song.

God gave me abilities in the areas of art, music, and writing. It is vitally important that I do not abuse them, though I am not always successful. I must constantly re-read James about controlling my tongue. In the same vein, I believe Bublitz is misusing his God-given abilities of knowledge and debate, and deluding himself as to why he's doing it when he does cross the line.

I fully expect to be argued into the ground over this, and perhaps Bublitz himself will logically defend himself and tear my argument apart. That is his strength. There will be the usual verses on why it is necessary to point out bad teaching of public preachers, perhaps even a quoting of Bob DeWaay's latest newsletter on the subject, which I have already read and taken notes on for personal use. There may be a listing of my own inconsistencies and wild writing to which I will respond that I have never put myself forward as without fault and completely right; I have always made it clear through my many posts on this blog that I am not perfect. I know all the usual methods when someone like me, with what I have said, is dismissed easily as the crowd of bobble heads nods on from the sidelines. I know that there is a natural human tendency to create boundaries based on what is human understanding of the divine and push some people outside of these lines and then point fingers at them for being there.

What this experience does teach me is that there are a lot of sincere and true believers out there, trying to work out their faith with fear and trembling, who are regularly lambasted (I've done it myself and now have some regrets) on such blogs, their thoughts now the foundation of some of the theories and inside "jokes" of what's wrong with the church. That sounds like a house of sand to me, or perhaps, more accurately, a house built on the fine powder of crushed bones and spirits of fellow believers. We must be as vigilant at avoiding friendly fire as we are about guarding the church against wrong doctrine. Don't mistake who your enemy really is.

Bublitz does not accurately understand who I am, but it isn't his fault. All we know of people online is through the words onscreen. But he is mistaken about me, my motives and my actions. I just wanted you to know that.

UPDATE: For those of you who seem to be doing Google searches to find this campaign Bublitz refers to me carrying out (yes, I do check my stats), here are the two blog posts in which I left a comment regarding being blacklisted at Slice. I believe these are the only two. You can judge for yourself if Bublitz accurately portrayed me as demanding my right to comment and if I was really on a campaign.

You'll have to scroll through the comments to find mine. I am not the first blogger to talk about this, mind you.

Smart Christian
You Can Know God

UPDATE 2: It appears Bublitz has deleted the post referenced in this entry, though others from that time frame are still available. Not sure why he did that. You can read the cached version here, for a short while.

UPDATE 3: I've add Old Truth back to my blogroll because frankly, there's some good stuff there. Particularly when Bublitz simply posts the works of other preachers instead of going off on a riff of his own.



tag: jim bublitz

Labels: religion, slice of laodicea

Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger  7/08/2006 08:31:00 AM   (9) comments   Links to this post    

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed.    Help support this site.   Facebook | Stumble It! | Del.icio.us | DiggIt! | Technorati | Blinklist | Furl | reddit | Newsvine

>> JOIN THIS SITE

WRITE ON THE WALL

Content, design and imagery © Julie R. Neidlinger. All rights reserved. Please read the blog End User License Agreement (EULA).
All work by Julie R. Neidlinger is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

HOME | CONTACT | HELP | SEARCH