Thursday, August 8, 2013

Please, Brave Patriarchs -- Don't Be Afraid To Use Your Names!

You can scroll down through the comments that came in after my posts on the Trayvon Martin case and the astonishing acquittal of George Zimmerman, and if you do that, you'll notice that most of my critics choose not to give their names, even when referring to me as "the girl" or taking me to task for my criticism of Doug Wilson, whom they tend to see as a beleaguered servant of God constantly attacked by a frenzied harridan who just dislikes him for no particular reason. 

So let's be clear.  First, you make yourself into a coward if you criticize someone on a public forum without using your name.  That seems like Brave Patriarchy 101.  Second, if you follow Doug Wilson, and if you're not completely blinded by his charisma nor beholden to his corporations, you know perfectly well that he is a terrible representative of the Gospel -- and you should know that I will not submit to "assent by silence" by failing to call him out on his errors.  Why not engage with me on those, instead of expressing wonder and outrage that I criticize him at all?

My hope would be that if your parents paid lots of money for your classical Christian education, or if you're shelling out the big bucks for your child's, you might have learned something about rhetoric and debate, if not common civility.  Be brave.  Use your name, and stop instinctively defending your Boss Man by slamming his critics.  I'm a big girl.  How nice it would be to engage with Real Men.

1 comment:

David Douglas said...

Keely,


Looking back over the all of the comments (5 some of which are yours) regarding the subject you bravely stand against, I find 2 anonymous comments. One was not belligerent but disagreed with yours. Should s/he have identified s/herself? Probably. The other was belligerent. Should she have identified herself? Certainly. And for that you work yourself into a lather? Your call I guess. My take for, what it is worth is that it looks silly.

...As is your rebuke of acolytes showing up to mock you and your protest. Which you warned them not to do. And apparently they obeyed. Well done. That technique can be used to rebuke the high tide and tell it to begone for at least a dozen hours.

Generating arguments and actions to stuff into the mouths of indefinite pronouns and then bravely standing against them them is not really the same as engaging real people in real arguments. But then again, it's your blog.

Meanwhile Doug has posted 1-2 topical posts per day (not counting quotes). It would be interesting to me to see you engage all of them, of only to say you can't disagree with 80% of them. And if you can, then why post stuff like this? Again, however, it's your blog.

All the best,
David Douglas