No Weatherman and Me

The garbage on Vision 2020 from No Weatherman (as well as from No Weathermann and No Weathermen, who purport to not be him but likely are, as if making sense of this were at all possible) continues, and much of it is very personally and hatefully directed at me. I won't repeat it here; it's nasty, vicious, and way beyond "too much," some of it obscene. But I want to take a moment to explain why I don't defend myself against his attacks, many of which have come from my defending others he's bullied and insulted.

The guy doing this -- or guys, which I think is the case -- has problems far greater than I can hope to address, correct, or influence his healing therefrom. He hates me, he hates Vision 2020, he hates many of my friends, and he isn't at all shy about it. And yes, he does treat one other woman and me with far more vulgarity and viciousness than he does the men who take him to task, but it seems unreasonable to expect gender equality from someone as unhinged as No Weatherman, who has posted more than 500 times, all anonymously and almost always nastily, in a little over a month on Moscow's community chat forum.

I believe that it would be wrong for me to not defend people I know when he unfairly maligns them, and I do. On the other hand, I won't defend myself. Defending people he considers unbelievers is consistent with how I live out my Christian faith; working myself into a frenzy trying to defend myself isn't. No Weatherman knows that I'm not a liar, hypocrite, or sick witch (or any of the other even uglier things he's said). I trust that people who know me, or even who simply read me on Vision 2020, know it, too. Above all, I know that while I have a number of faults, hypocritical lying and frigid-sick witchiness aren't among them. Another fault I don't have is naive optimism that I can somehow make an impression on him, as if a plea from his target would penetrate his hard heart and cause a genuine change in behavior. I don't require affirmation from anonymous, cowardly Internet posters, and I don't seek vindication from them, either. What No Weatherman says about me is the very least of his problems. Trust me.

I have attempted to offer pastoral counsel and admonishment to him -- not in response to anything he's said about me, but to see if the Holy Spirit might use me to nudge him toward repentance. Again, any success in this area would be from the Spirit of God, not from the Tongue of Keely, and thus far he's not chosen to reflect on anything I've had to say to him.

That's not my responsibility, though. Mine is to be faithful. Whatever other body parts I lack that set me apart from male pastors, I do have a pastor's heart, and because of that, I fear for the state of his very soul. I believe in a God, unlike our Calvinist friends, who takes no pleasure in the eternal loss of any soul, and I pray for his. I will respond to him as appropriate, and I promise that while it won't always look "nice" -- my faith requires that I be kind and truthful, not always "nice" -- it will be in truth and from genuine pastoral concern. My conscience in dealing with No Weatherman, in writing on Vision 2020 for the past five years, and in engaging with allies and adversaries alike on this blog and in person is entirely clear; I'm not aware of anything for which I should repent that I haven't already. Publicly, immediately, and specifically.

I don't like the attacks, obviously, and I wonder what kind of person would react so angrily and irrationally to another person in a community chat forum, although clinging to Skylarking Covenant Anonymity would probably make it a lot easier. And yes, I'm archiving every single one of them, just in case I ever need to review them. But I'm not afraid for myself.

I'm very afraid for him, though, and ask my readers to pray faithfully for him, with loving concern and steadfast hope that the Savior of our souls will break through and rescue his from flames kindled by fear, bigotry, and rage.