Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxd!rlr From: rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Dr. Emmanuel Wu) Newsgroups: net.religion.christian Subject: Re: Arguments from Silence: Golden or just Yellow? Message-ID: <771@pyuxd.UUCP> Date: Tue, 26-Mar-85 12:44:27 EST Article-I.D.: pyuxd.771 Posted: Tue Mar 26 12:44:27 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 27-Mar-85 05:18:26 EST References: <1008@phs.UUCP> Organization: STRONGARM COLLECTION AGENCY: We have no slogan Lines: 81 > It seems that every six months or so we play a little game on > net.religion called "bait the Christians." Someone who claims to be a > Christian makes some outrageous statement, or some hideous act of > violence has associations with Christian individuals or institutions. > The call goes out: "Every Christian had better repudiate this person or > that institution, or the whole world will take your silence as agreement > with the condemned." I'ld like to take this opportunity to stick my neck > into the game long enough to make one comment: count me out! > > 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. [GILLETTE] EITHER Black is a confirmed Nazi (based on his own pronouncements about Jews' place in his new Christian society and his repudiation of personal freedoms) or he is just an asshole making outrageous statements. The notion that he might be some guy with "legitimate" questions (Remember, he's not ASKING "Did the holocause occur?", he's claiming it didn't.) would be repugnant to any thinking person. > By the way, this is the same assumption I have made > about Rich Rosen, and I can't say that I have found greater reason to > credit Rosen's sincerity than Black's. Given what you offer above about what Black might be, I'm deeply touched by this statement. > 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. Which of us? I will. Any examination of his source material (from known neo-fascist rightist publishing arms) makes it clear that 1) he has his "evidence", and 2) like those who provided him with that "evidence", he is not seeking proof, but setting up a no-win situation in which there cannot be proof because he wants people to believe his foregone conclusion. He has proven himself very plainly. (unless, of course, he's just a rabblerousing asshole) > 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. His link to Ernst Zundel, his reference to the Aryan Nations as "slightly far out" (from his perspective), both serve as admission of more than a "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. And don't waste your breath saying that Jeff > Gillette supports intolerance and prejudice because he hasn't denied it > loudly enough. I'm not interested in playing that game. Truth is God's > Truth, and Truth will win out with my comment or without it. This type > of argument from silence is not golden, it's yellow. And I have no > interest in cowering before it. I'd say you do. As do, apparently the vast majority of Christians on this net. It's funny that only Wingate and Brown, the ones who have actually been tarred with the label "anti-Semite" at times, have chosen to perhaps "cleanse" themselves by denouncing Black, but even then only mildly so. The evidence as presented seems rather clear, but you'd rather wait till his kind firebombs someone's house before accepting what it is he's putting forth. Don't get me wrong. I say let him speak. Let his own words show him for the bigoted fool that he is. It will happen soon enough. -- Otology recapitulates phonology. Rich Rosen ihnp4!pyuxd!rlr