Source: Fishing the Abyss
Comments: Another oft-misused set of scriptures by the Slice crowd is that of Jesus’ warnings of persecution. Using these, a number of Slice commenters sniff at any Christian figure (besides Johnny Mac) with all that much of a following of obviously ’selling out’, because they’re not being persecuted. In this post, Christ shreds this notion.

The comments on this particular post drag on for a good while, as Ken chose this thread to offer one of his ominous veiled ‘pastoral threats’ (for removing one of his favorite canards).

Memorable Quotes:

And thus, the implication is that people agree with Person A, and therefore he is a false prophet. Additionally, since Person A is not being persecuted, he is therefore not a servant of the Master. Game, set and match – no need for further discussion. Person B can declare victory and assume any further conversation on the topic is divisiveness, and that Person A is to be avoided (often citing Titus 3:10, just to complete the scriptural abuse trifecta).

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["Pastor" Ken Silva] I sincerely do pray that one day the Lord will help you to be able to see yourself more clearly that you might recognize what you are actually doing.

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[Zan, in response to Ken] Which one of your blindspots have you projected onto Chris?

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[Chris, to Ken] After today’s article on Rob Bell, you might want to re-read the definition of ’straw man’. You created enough of them to defend a small third world country, if only they could fight (but I guess that defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?)

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[Chris, to Ken]

At first blush, I counted 5 ’straw men’ before I got all that far into the article. So, you want data? Let’s just go to one of the first ones. You said:

Let me also say that Rob Bell does state he affirms “the historic Christian faith,” which he then defines vaguely. Bell postulates, “But if the whole faith falls apart when we reexamine and rethink one spring, then it wasn’t that strong in the first place, was it?” The problem we immediately confront is that in the postmodern mindset nothing can be stated absolutely which then rules out a priori something being strong in the first place.

Funny thing, you just put words in Bell’s mouth that were NEVER there, and then you proceeded to tear the words he never said apart. Classic logical ’straw man’ fallicy. I could go on, but your articles are so easy to deconstruct and show false that I don’t have to put any words in your mouth, since you do it yourself…

And Ken, you do “call” yourself a pastor-teacher, and perhaps you act in that capacity in the real world, but nobody made you the pastor-teacher of the internet. If that’s all it takes, then I could call myself one, as well, and I don’t even need a piece of paper on my wall… As your discussion this evening has shown, though, you’re just not able to answer anyone’s questions/criticisms with any level of aplom that one would expect from a ‘pastor-teacher’ – even one wet behind the ears and fresh out of school.

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