From: David John Marotta (djm5g@virginia.edu)
Date: Tue Jul 30 1996 - 16:47:20 EDT
>Well, the cat is out of the bag. Was I simply naive or did I misread the
>paragraph about the description of the list in the original welcome message?
Please put the cat back in. I hope that theses are not the only two
options available.
>Did I also misunderstand the consensus of our heated discussions of the past
>two weeks? Even the moderator, Professor Marrota, agreed that the posts
>about which some of us complained did not belong on the list as they did not
>stem from the text of the Hebrew Bible. He even explained that originally
>the list was called Old Testament he changed it to B-Hebrew for Bible-Hebrew.
> The term "Old Testament" is value laden whereas the term "Bible-Hebrew" is
>value neutral. Why this sudden shift?
You did not misunderstand either my concensus or my repeated policing
of the list. Even in the email which you are responding to I was telling
the list that yet another inappropriate poster was being asked not to
post on the list anymore. There is no sudden shift other than in
my personal stock value. (down)
It is a requirement that anyone helping to set policy on the list be
at least sympathetic toward Evangelicals. The opposite would be to
ask for those who are hostile or callous toward Evangelicals to help set
policy. I would think that would be a disaster, but perhaps several on the list
perfer it.
I did not think it necessary to add that those helping to set policy on
the list should be sympathetic toward women, Italians, or people who
should rely heavily on a spelling checker but don't simply because these groups
have not had repeated clashes with the list's goals and objectives.
I will however add one more criteria for helping out with the list:
Those volunteering to help should be sympathetic toward those on the list
which think that being sympathetic toward evangelicals is a stupid idea.
I don't want any volunteers coming just because of the hasty replies
to my original note.
>Yes, I understood from the welcome message that the list was sponsored by the
>Center for Christian Study, and I read the purposes of this Ministry.
> However, I assumed that the absence of any reference to Christian Education
>and Christian Study in the description of the list was not accidental.
You assumed correctly. I have never said otherwise. Having a list which
is sympathetic to evangelicals is to ensure that the list does not attempt
to exclude them in the coming crack down on content policing. To have
sympathy means, "the capacity for entering into and sharing the feelings
of another." If the fire in the last day or two mean anything they mean
that more sympathy is needed not less. The is the only great
doctrinal requirement for those who volunteer to help. Those who lack
a capacity for having sympathy toward others are still invited to post
and dialog on the list, but not be part of the board. I hope this number
is very small.
Please let the description of the list stand. Your revision will exclude
many of the perspectives I gain great wisdom from, as will a board which
is not sympathetic toward evangelicals will exclude many from the list
who can benefit from that wisdom.
>I hope that this note will encourage Professor Marrota to tell us what has
>changed and encourage other who think like me to express their views
I have posted several follow up posts to fully explain that nothing
substantial has changed on the list. Please re-read them, post to
me privately if you absolutely cannot contain yourself. But otherwise
let the issue drop until you see something more substantial than a
doctrine which says we should have sympathy toward well-intentioned
evangelicals who inappropriately post on the list when we are correcting them.
Thanks for bearing with these issues.
David John Marotta
List Owner for B-GREEK and B-HEBREW
Looking for a little sympathy :-)
David John Marotta, Medical Center Computing, Stacey Hall
Univ of Virginia (804) 982-3718 wrk INTERNET: djm5g@virginia.edu
Box 512 Med Cntr (804) 924-5261 msg PRODIGY: KCMR45A
C'ville VA 22908 (804) 296-7209 fax IBM US: usuvarg8
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