Okay. I take that all back. The whole thing about how I can’t write right now. Because I can write. At least I can write one of these things that is really just me having a fit on the keyboard. It isn’t artful or particularly insightful but it does harken back to the early days of this blog when I maintained this space as a forum for my vents.
Over at Mike Duran’s there was a conversation yesterday that I missed (using the term loosely) out on. Apparently the discussion was supposedly about the inherent Wrongness of “progressive Christianity” but devolved pretty quickly into discussions about whether or not Jesus was Gay and whether or not being gay is “just as bad as” having sex with animals.
It was like going to a VBS craft class where everyone made their own little straw men. “Tomorrow, kids, we’ll set them on fire!!”
People love to argue. They want to argue. And the greatest thing about the internet seems to be the fun of arguing with people who are not actually there to argue back for themselves. So we get these blog posts that are compilations of mischaracterisations and misunderstandings of another person’s position. After all, why show up for a real conversation with the people you’re deconstructing when it’s easier to just tear them apart at a choir meeting?
I left active politics because of this. You know, I still love Jesus. I still claim the Gospel of salvation and transformation. But I’m so very tired of this “following Jesus” being turned into “joining a club where you have to hold opinions X, Y, and Z to be a member in good standing.” None of this stuff looks like Jesus. All of it misuses Jesus’ name and sacrifice to create new and improved ingroups and outgroups. Ironically, though, Jesus and the apostles were the ORIGINAL outgroup. He was a firebrand who taught outside the conventions of the temple. His followers weren’t the learned, erudite intellectuals of the day. They were fishermen. Men who were strong and rugged and knew what it was to risk your life daily to get food to the table.
I want my faith experience to be more like that. More fishing, less sepulchure whitewashing.
Just Another Pretty Farce 
Gah, his entire post (before he even reached the bit about the “homosexual problem”) was a series of strawmen. I didn’t bother reading any of the comments as I barely made it through the post.
I haven’t read the post in question, but I will say that your skill in generating attention-grabbing metaphors* like this is one of the reasons I love this blog.
One quibble with ya: I think you can say that you think Jesus and the apostles were the original Christian outgroup, but there had been outgroups before them. Even religious outgroups.
*Yes, in this case it’s a simile. Same difference.
Slippery slope and straw man can easily resemble each other, and often you get a two-for-one deal. I’ve noticed that this two-for-one is popular in attempts at discrediting opposing political positions. Fun stuff. I was out of town over the weekend, as well, so missed this post. I was having way too much fun camping w/o my technology. 🙂
I didn’t see a straw man argument, and I think in accusing Mike of that, you effectively turned the conversation away from meaningful discussion. I saw a lot of very articulate, intelligent comments, but coming in and yelling, “Straw man, straw man!” was a bit juvenile, in my opinion. Disagree all you want, but back it up with a well-reasoned argument.