In the span of a recent back-and-forth with Mr Thiessen of Theology Archaeology and Theoarch, he admitted that his refusal to link to my site or use my name is motivated by pettiness and cowardice. He has subsequently tried to argue otherwise, but his own words confirm what I suspected. The rest of his most recent post that calls me a liar, arrogant, and a distorter is merely himself indulging in such behaviour, but one paragraph caught my attention, because it shows how Mr Thiessen thinks, and how he has constructed an off-ramp for himself.
His good deed does not erase all the bad that he does toward us. Also, we do not have to repent to what he wants us to do. We only have to repent to God and change our ways to please him, not those humans who disagree with what we write.
How about that? This is a most-convienient means of self-permission to be as cruel and nasty as one likes, and then invoke asking God for forgiveness in order to feel better about one’s self, without having to issue a single apologetic line to the people wronged by hurtful and misleading comments. It is hardly a trait unique to Mr Thiessen either.
Across social media, hardcore Evangelicals (indeed, one could say diehard followers of most religions) behave in a vile manner toward others and indeed, each other. I have lost track of the numbe of times that supposedly pious worshippers of God have unleashed savage tirades on Twitter, or elsewhere, without any self-reflection and without any repentence. If Mr Thiessen’s words are any indication, the reason has presented itself.
It seems that as long as you can get repentence or forgiveness from God, you can do whatever you want, and if you hurt other human beings in the process, that’s too bad – for them. That may explain why the likes of Revival Fires has consistently trolled Bruce Gerencser for years, or why Mr Thiessen has remained unapologetic about mocking a grieving father. The human factor is irrelevant to them, and to other fanatics. They can turn around, say ‘God, please forgive me’, and then feel good about themselves.
It is a very cheap, lazy way form of conducting one’s self. It is also something I have seen throughout my dealings with fundamentalist religious types. They do not believe that rules and suggestions around reasonable conduct apply to them. They think society is unfair if they held accountable for their actions, since apparently only God can judge them. I wonder what God would make of the various awful commentary to come from the mouths of believers, and I wonder if these people realise how much they poison others against religion?
To summarise, if you’re going to make use of these cowardly off-ramps to escape accountability and avoid decent conduct, don’t be surprised if how you are treated reflects your stance. One of the oldest expressions in the world is found in the Bible, Luke 6:31: ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you’. Sadly, a lot of the fanatics seem to treat this as an optional idea, thanks to their off-ramps.
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