To those who dish it out, but can't take it

Pickle

I'm disappointed, Eugene, in your moving my reply to www.everythingimportant.org/viewtopic.php?t=390. You said in your email to me that it was "way off topic," but it most certainly was not.

If you look above, you will find that you posted the article, "ADVENTIST CHURCH LEADERS WARMLY RECEIVED BY GOVERNMENT MINISTERS." The subject you chose for that post was "Seventh-day Adventists fraternize with terrorists."

In my reply, I basically raised the questiuon of how else should they have tried to reach those folks for Christ.
I asked how Jesus would have treated them.
I suggested that if you have a problem with an SDA pastor having a visit with a CHRISTIAN member of the Sudanese government, that perhaps you needed to make sure you had a love for souls like you should have.

It's your forum, so you can do what you want. However, forums don't operate this way. Every post that disagrees with the administrator's position isn't supposed to get moved.

So this thread is about whether the Adventist Church has erred in its relationship to Sudan. And I cannot say that it has, based on that article you posted. I WISH I HAD BEEN THERE so I could have visited with the Sudanese officials too. And I would have tried to find a way to suggest to them that the situation needs to be improved.

But would the world have ever known about my efforts? Would I have put it in a press release? Not if it would have jeopardized the very goal I was seeking.

If you haven't enquired of ADRA personally to see why they have done what they have done, and to see if maybe they have done more than you think, then you have a Christian obligation to do so before you criticize. However, if you have no intention of doing so, and no intention of allowing this post to remain, than take me off your mailing list.

Eugene Shubert · Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2002 4:31 pm Post subject:

Pickle,

Praising mass-murderers for their righteousness is not a recognized means of evangelism. That would be like willingly accepting the mark of the beast in order to get closer to antichrist for the purpose of converting him.
Jesus would not be kissing the feet of terrorists.
The Islamic regime in Sudan has no Christian representatives. They have a few Christian-faced puppets they use for propaganda purposes.

The forum rules are listed in the user agreement. Additional clarification may be found in the Administrative forum. Click here and here.

Seventh-day Adventist forums cluster around two types of censorship. (For a general appraisal of SDA forums, click here). This forum doesn’t practice censorship. It operates by Christian principles. It also models civilized society. In a small way, it’s also supposed to resemble the universe.

The Midheaven forums are for the three angels’ messages and other Bible doctrines. Posters who are interested are expected to contribute to what’s taught there and to ask questions. Doesn’t that harmonize with the rules of conduct for Sabbath School in the Seventh-day Adventist church?

The High Mountain forums are for respectful dialogue. Those who at least respect this ministry have the right to promote their issues there and to be spoken to with all the respect usually given to ambassadors, presidents and papal dignitaries. This rule is strictly enforced. Protesters are encouraged to protest at the proper locations.

Some protesters are so misguided that they refuse to comprehend and obey the Scriptures that say all things must be done decently and in order. I make no apologies for using administrative authority. To those who think that I’m too authoritarian, please consider the imaginary nature of this virtual world. My only aim is to teach the truth in a memorable, provocative style. I do some things the Adventist way. For example: As a comparison to actual Seventh-day Adventism, I like to illustrate how the slightest misunderstanding or provocation could send a believer to jail or to the courtroom.

Everyone should expect to go the jail and to the courtroom if they break the forum rules. This is infinitely more just than the practice of all the SDA forums where they just send you to oblivion without the right to post a grievance.

This seven-layered universe welcomes meaningful disagreement. Take a look at this outline of the forums and notice the chiastic structure. The Plain of Megiddo forums are at the very center! I don’t want anyone to believe, even for a second, that I represent the fiendish zeal of those Seventh-day Adventists that has been manifested in excluding dissenters from the fellowship of the church, and passing upon them the sentence of excommunication by which the Roman Church asserted its power of excluding them from all possibility of entering heaven. I am simply exercising my right to define my ministry and to categorize those ideas that are antithetical to it.