Among the opinions abroad is the assertion that my failure to reveal myself fully is pusillanimous. There are very good reasons for my not doing so, but even if I am a cowardly lion I alone will bear the shame. I don't charge visitors to the blog, and no one is being dragooned into reading my thoughts. I am saying what I feel needs to be said the way I wish to say it. If my method or content is objectionable, injured parties are free to take their offended sensibilities elsewhere or even engage in a spirited, substantive defense of their invested positions.
Cambridge concurs in my need to be circumspect, and I still have strong suspicions that some friendly-seeming Sanballats, Tobiahs, and Geshems would very much like to blandish Christian into a powwow in one of the villages in the plain of Ono. Phil Davis' (Manager, Committees on Publication) quiet shot across the bow in the March Journal is one little reminder that the official Keepers of the Flame do not appreciate being second-guessed. It may also be worth repeating for more recent readers of this blog that the author is not "Christian" as in exemplary paradigm for mankind, but "Christian" as in the leading character in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress.
To give what little biographical information can be wisely disclosed will probably prove more disappointing than saying nothing. These crumbs will seem like the pulling back of the curtain which concealed (in the movie) the Wizard of Oz. To give dates and places would only whet the appetite of some diligent triangulator. I was, as some suspected, an English major in college (BA, MA, plus a bit), but never taught it except as a graduate instructor of Freshman English. Served in the Army for 3+ years, then for over 20 years in training and education with the Federal Government. Most of my love of literature, music, and the arts was cultivated and deepened after college. I am class taught, a member of the MC, was a Reader, and have served as a Sunday School teacher, board member, and usher. Aren't you glad you asked?
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24 comments:
I love it! Absolutely brilliantly done, up to your usual standard. (I can just see the minds whirring now to try to ferret out who you are, with the bits you've given.)
Keep at it, my friend. There's no one else out here like you.
A lot of people are going to cheer at this plain-speaking, I assure you. You have said things that need to be said, and done so in a very talented way.
(You sound like a man, but then could be a woman. But doesn't matter. I for one don't need to know your identity to get a lot from your website.)
Very well done, blogger. Not only do you express humbleness and considerable talent, you have a fair degree of wisdom to boot. Good for you not falling for attempts to smoke you out.
God bless you,
With all due respect, I do believe you're having us on here. I've known many an English major and not one has the way with words that you have. There may be more to your bio than you've disclosed, but beyond that, do enjoy your blog, sir.
So expertly crafted. This is not a widely-read blog for nothing. So original and worth every moment spent reading it.
Keep doing what you are doing just the way you wish to do it!
I've read your latest 3 times now and I just marvel at the way you expressed this. You demolished any opposition and left no doubt that you are in charge of your own thoughts and means of getting them out to the Field.
Bravo!
You obviously can take care of yourself, with God's guidance.
Terrific rejoinder to critics as well as the merely curious for no good reason.
Writing at your best, blogger. Such a fresh way of saying what's on your mind.
This subject of whether or not to identify yourself couldn't have been handled more skillfully, I feel.
I think you are so wise to not reveal your name, as your website is blessing so many. It is God-directed, in my opinion (for what it's worth), and you don't want anything to mar the good you are doing.
Love to you, blogger.
I'm so grateful officialdom hasn't been able to shut you down this past year of wonderful essays. And with the wisdom and street-smarts you display, they're not going to.
Continue giving us great blog posts, will you?
Thank you for a way above average website on CS topics. You've been a real blessing to me, and I know to many others.
And may God bless and keep you.
Dear Sir,
I come to your blog in a round-about way. Saw another blog title, visited it, and saw a recommendation for your blog. I am impressed with the high-calibre writing I see, and I intend to visit you again.
Best regards,
Do you know what mystifies me? Why some members of our church are so afraid of honest opinions, heart-felt thoughts about things that are most important to a person striving to demonstrate CS. Why try to stifle genuine discourse, and encourage others to tune out?
Of course, it won't and hasn't worked, with God in control and guiding people.
Love your blog!
Picking up on what the previous commenter said, what's wrong a little transparency? If hands are clean, if compromises with paganism have not been made by those who should know better, why not say so, for heaven's sake?!
A very well written blog I have found over the months, one I wouldn't miss for the world. And this one is no disapointment. You've done it once again.
Congratulations on your very clear thinking.
I want to say this to you, keep going with your good work. You have the courage to speak up, the dedication to Christian Science to inspire, and marked abiility to put your thoughts into essays.
Well, I would say this blog post wrapped up. Notice you haven't had any "substantive" counters to what you've said. What can anyone say, after all? As you say, you don't charge admission and they can just take their disapproval elsewhere.
God bless, and thanks-
((Picking up on what the previous commenter said, what's wrong a little transparency? If hands are clean, if compromises with paganism have not been made by those who should know better, why not say so, for heaven's sake?!))
You're extremely naieve aren't you?
If Christian's true identity were revealed any old person who found his blog 'fishy' would call the snitch line on him.
A peculiar rejoinder to what I said a few comments back: I was talking about Boston officials being transparent--not the blogger identifying him or herself. (And you misspelled naive.)
It's fine with me a regular reader of this guy's (?) blog if he doesn't come out of the closet. But I think two things; the "bit" in education means a PhD from somewhere, and obviously a CSB who doesn't, indeed can't afford to, come into the clearing. Not in the Inquisition climate that abounds on high these days.
((A peculiar rejoinder to what I said a few comments back: I was talking about Boston officials being transparent--not the blogger identifying him or herself. (And you misspelled naive.)))
I apologize, I misunderstood. I thought you were accusing the host of not being transparent enough.
Apology accepted--gentleman or gentle lady.
Dear Whoever You Are:
You do serve up the most fascinating blog posts on CS and I always enjoy your writing.
Carry on!
"I think two things; the "bit" in education means a PhD from somewhere, and obviously a CSB who doesn't, indeed can't afford to, come into the clearing."
Hmmm... there's no doubt that this blogger is a skilled and educated rhetorician and a deep thinker who truly cares about CS and has strong opinions about how it can and should be practiced. I don't think either a PhD or a CSB would produce this kind of anonymous blog, though. A PhD has too many demands on his/her time (e.g. teaching and writing books and articles for publication) to focus this much time and energy on the anonymous evaluation of others' religious practices, and a CSB should be concentrating on working out his/her own salvation and resolving seeming conflicts with authorities through prayer rather than rallying support for a particular human perspective through rhetorical argumentation. More and more, though, I see this blogger focusing on the profound power and majesty which is encompassed in the effective living of CS, and for this I am grateful. His/her command of the English language allows him/her to do more in this vein than most, if not all, others.
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