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From: ellen@reed.UUCP (Ellen)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Arguments from Silence: Golden or just Yellow?
Message-ID: <1194@reed.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 28-Mar-85 23:19:35 EST
Article-I.D.: reed.1194
Posted: Thu Mar 28 23:19:35 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 31-Mar-85 02:49:23 EST
References: <1006@phs.UUCP>
Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon
Lines: 72

> Surely Don Black must have horns and a tail.  Does he beat his wife and 
> children?  I'll bet he hides a Nazi uniform under his bed!  Perhaps some 
> of his colleagues can testify to his mean spirit and insensitivity.  
> Unfortunately, *I* cannot verify any of these things.  In fact, I am 
> going to assume (until I feel I have solid evidence to the contrary) that 
> Mr. Black is a nice guy who has serious questions, and will listen to 
> sincere answers. 
> Does Don Black question the existence of Hitler's holocaust?  Which of 
> you doubt that when Black has fairly examined the evidence he will 
> realize that six million Jews - fellow men and women created by God - 
> perished in the cruelest act of violence in the recorded history of the 
> world.  Wait until he has proven himself to be intransigent and lacking 
> in the smallest amount of human compassion before pinning the swastika on 
> his coat.  Does Black want to associate himself with the Identity 
> movement?  I am not aware of any aspect of Identity theology with which I 
> concur, but I am not about to condemn all who quote from this theology on 
> the basis of an article in Time and Newsweek.  If Mr. Black wishes to 
> associate himself with the Aryan Nations, the KKK, or any similarly 
> reprehensible group which breeds on intolerance and fear, let him be 
> roundly denounced, BUT *I* will hold my condemnation until Black 
> *himself* admits the link. 
> 
> But, back to my original point.  If Don Black (or Rich Rosen, or anyone 
> else) ultimately shows himself/herself to be thoroughly narrowminded, 
> intolerant and bigoted, don't hold your breath waiting for me to make any 
> obligatory denunciations.
> 
>         Jeffrey William Gillette                duke!phs!lisa

*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***

I have to say first off that I am torn between admiring
Jeffrey's idealism and being outraged at what appears to me to
be cockeyed optimism.  While it is nice to know that people of
childlike faith still exist in the world, it hurts like hell to
see them waste their faith on a jerk like Black.

To quote someone, "It looks like a duck, acts like a duck,
waddles like a duck.  If it quacks, shoot it."  If Jeffrey isn't
convinced by now that Don ultimately *isn't* "thoroughly
narrowminded, ignorant, and bigoted," I suspect there is very
little anyone can say, including Black himself, to change his
mind.  I think that in the case of Don Black, Truth has already
won out in the minds of most people (or I hope it has):  the man
is a raving loonie, and his opinions are dangerous to boot.

In answer to at least one of Jeffrey's rhetorical questions, I
doubt that Don will ever *realize* that six million Jews
perished in Nazi death camps.  I doubt that Don will give up his
belief in Christ the man as a blue-eyed blond.  I do think,
judging from the sheer volume of the man's erroneous beliefs,
that he's got a whole separate philosophical/historical reality
built up in his head, and I doubt anything we argue will really
change his fundamental suppositions.

Don Black's litany of hate is fairly easy for me to refute and
go on peacefully, since it is so obvious.  Jeffrey's misdirected
idealism frightens me, since if he can believe that Black is
fundamentally a reasonable and rational man who has been
terribly misinformed, he can believe the same of Hitler, Genghis
Khan, Pieter Botha, Joseph McCarthy, Kramer and Sprengler, and
the peddlers of hate in every era.  And too many people believed
that Hitler was fundamentally reasonable for too long, the
United States and Britain especially.  Hate is very difficult to
stop with faith and reason.  Hate destroys.  I don't care to
leave Don Black's ravings unanswered and wait for God to decide.
Don can do too much damage in the meantime.  If Jeffrey is any
example, he already has.

Send me mail;  I love mail.

Ellen