Ok. I’m not sure why you felt the need to re-hash all of that. As I’ve said, I’ve never disputed that that is your perspective and I really don’t have a problem with it. What I have a problem with is your suggesting that you were too conservative for us (a point which you continue to refuse to address). Calling us the moveon.org of the Baptist blogosphere is like calling us the liberals. We may have a different perspective than some and we may approach our writing differently, but liberals we are not, and it is that accusation that you continue to refuse to acknowledge that is causing you problems.

If you want to write another long comment about your disdain for SBC Outpost that is your prerogative, but at some point it might help the conversation if you’d acknowledge the actual point I’ve been consistently making which you have not addressed, though I guess I’m ok even if you don’t. I think my point has been made and those who read this interaction can judge for themselves.

If you are now a contributor to SBC Today then I apologize if I have commented where I should not have. If I have offended the other contributors of SBC Today with my comments here then I will stand corrected by them and submit to whatever direction they choose to take regarding my commenting. If you are not a contributor to SBC Today then I would think that I have as much right as you do to comment here until told otherwise.

I need to change this statment…it reads like I’m challenging the character and motives of the SBC Outpost team which is not what I was attempting to say.

that should read:

“but the WAY in which the SBC Outpost wrote about men of God, QUESTIONING not just their judgment…but their character and motives…I challenged.

I’m not going to keep up with this. I clarified the situation in the very first comment. I’ve done so again. Let me try a third time and be done with it.

I was banned because I was vigorously challenging the methods and statements of Ben Cole. Had I be equally as vigorous with Dr. Patterson, Caner or a guy like Johnny Hunt I’m sure I would not have been banned. SO…I concluded that it was not simply that I had dash in the comment section…it was that my dash was not aimed at the SBC Outpost hit list…it was aimed mostly at Ben Cole. SBCO (Cole specifically) received my dynamism because of the outlandish way in which he attacked good men. As I said at SBC Outpost…I in many ways sympathize with the original concerns of the team…but the WAY in which the SBC Outpost wrote about men of God, questions not just their judgment…but their character and motives…I challenged.

So to be clear…I was banned not simply because I was perhaps (I really don’t know the correct term) my “on the right” than you all AND that I was vigorous in the comment section. That is what happened…had my energy been focused on challenging the SBC Outpost hit list then of course I would have been a welcomed commenter. It was not simply my punching that was the problem…it was the target.

And, again…SBC Outpost is the only place where I’ve been too much. I contend that I’m not the problem…SBC Outpost is the problem. The fact that you all would ban a guy who never used abusive language, stayed on the topic like a laser beam, raised relevant questions yet was challenging the attacks found in the entries is not, at this point, surprising.

None of you are (or were perhaps) interested in a the exchange of ideas and opinions.
Which is why your reputation is what it is.

Since you have your own little blog why not write about it there instead of here, ok?

Now that sounds more like what this was all about. You still haven’t substantiated your charge of being “too conservative.” We’ve already hashed and re-hashed your points here and I’m more than willing to agree to disagree with you on them. I am not, however, willing to let you get away with suggesting that you are or were somehow “too conservative” for SBC Outpost because that was and is a lie whether you want to admit to it or not.

It is rather ironic to me that in a comment where you quote your e-mails questioning our integrity you impugn your own by failing to tell the truth and by failing to own up to it. Let there be no mistake. There are plenty of people who are far more conservative than you who regularly comment at SBC Outpost. Your theology and ours has/had nothing to do with it.

I clarified in my comment that my banning boiled down to the fact that, “…I vigorously, yet I believe respectfully, took on Ben Cole”.

Let’s be honest…if my vigor was directed at Dr. Patterson, Johnny Hunt or Dr. Caner I would not have been banned. SBC Outpost wants (or wanted at the time, I don’t know…I’m banned, lol) to be able slam good men in public without being challenged in the public comment section for it. I’ve never been banned on Wade’s Blog, Tom Ascols Blog, Ed Stetzers blog or this blog and I’m the same guy. The difference is the character of the individuals administrating each blog. I believe that brother Tim here on this blog and I do not see eye to eye on all of these Baptist Identity issues…yet we’ve always been civil, respectful and constructive…because that is our aim. That is not (or was not) the aim at SBC Outpost. Paul…we all know it. Notice that no one who frequents this blog piped in to take up for you all…

SBC Outpost has a well established reputation…there is a reason why every respectable endorsers unceremoniously removed their endorsements.

It is the move on dot org of the SBC.

I’ll close with my last email that I sent you, after being asked to more or less lay off Ben Cole…

“you guys at sbcoutpost have a lot of nerve and not much class (since the change, Marty was and is fair). or perhaps, on second thought, you all don’t have much nerve…you have no problem hitting hard yet will censor a hard hitting comment. I can not believe, I am truly shocked, that my comments have been repeatedly taken down and now I’m not able to even view the site. I’ve not hit you guys any harder then you have hit your targets. censoring a vigorous challenger is very immature. my points were on target and relevant and in no way unChristlike. booting me was completely uncalled for…it’s very immature.

you all have lost your credibility and painted yourselves into a corner as malcontents.

congratulations.”

Let me reproduce the e-mail I sent in reply to you when I banned you from SBC Outpost:

Greg [should have been "Gary"],

I looked over your comments going back into August and they just all seem to be the same thing to me – a shot at us (much like this e-mail). Now, I don’t mind taking shots. But when that appears to be all a person does then they are contributing to the problem and offering no solution. It was you who wrote the following in a comment: “I leave comments to humor myself.” If you want your every word to be a complaint about something at the Outpost then you have a blog. Write it there. If you want to make a positive contribution I’ll consider re-instating your privileges at the Outpost. Think of it as our home. When you are a guest in someone’s home you don’t sit around and criticize them all the time. If you don’t like what’s going on in their home you leave. If you constantly criticize them in their own home they will ask you to leave. If you can respect that, you are welcome to make the former choice. If you are not I will exercise my right to the latter.

Paul

Now, Gary, that’s a far cry from saying that you are “too far to the right.” Personally I would appreciate it if you would take more care with the ninth commandment.

I am thankful for the balance sbctoday brings and the perspective. I have been reading since its first posts.

I just think we should be as careful in whom we affirm in the same way we should take great care in who we renounce.

Ronk