Ah, this is the CARM we all know and love.
Zakuska (whom I’ve met in real life and know from years on LDS discussion forums) decided to post my article on theosis to the evangelical “Christian” cess pool that populates CARM’s Mormonism forum. The comedy is writing itself. Allow me to share with you a sampling of the insightful things the participants at CARM have deduced:
akaSeerone: If that is what he is teaching he ain’t no Christian.
Garry T: Amen Andy! He’s about as far away from Born Again Christianity as our buddy Smith was.
In the very first paragraph of my theosis article, I mention that my name is Bridget and I refer to having been pregnant, which would erase any doubts as to what gender I am for people of normal intelligence. To the extra-dumb denizens of CARM though? Apparently there are pregnant men out there named Bridget. Go figure.
Lessa4: I agree, just because she considers herself to be an “evangelical” doesn’t mean she’s actually a Christian, nor do I see anything here that suggests any legitimate study in Christian theology or Biblical studies,
What a keen observation. It’s not like my degree in classics and minor in Hebrew (which Lessa4 cites in the very next paragraph) shows that I know how to read Biblical languages, which would indicate that I have done Biblical studies. The standards at CARM for legitimate Biblical studies are very high indeed!
Lessa4: I do not see any evidence “Bridget” is a Christian
No, it’s not like I’ve posted my Christian testimony on this blog, which Lessa4 could have found when she1 clicked on my name at LDS & Evangelical Conversations. And I’m certainly not applying to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Multnomah Biblical Seminary or anything, and those probably aren’t “Christian” schools that conduct legitimate Christian theology and Bible studies by Lessa4’s standards anyways.
I also admire how Lessa4 keeps putting my name in quotation marks. Does she think that’s a fake name or something? You never know, I could just be an elaborate Internet Mormon sock puppet controlled by the Danites themselves!
Lessa4: This Briget appears to be a Mormon who is evangelizing Mormonism.
Ugh. I could never be Mormon. I like my current underwear too much, and my husband concurs!
Garry T: How about beware of Mormons in evangelical clothing. Some Mormon liar is getting a chuckle out of his “mastery” of falsehood!
I’m not sure whom Garry T is referring to, but right here there’s a pretty honest evangelical Christian woman getting a chuckle out of the “mastery” of stupidity coming from him and his ilk.
baptizedinChrist: Bill McKeever over at MRM.org already wrote on this subject. I suggest you read the article here.
Yup, I linked to that article in my original post and said that I basically agreed with it. I guess I shouldn’t have done that though since I’m just a Mormon in sheep’s clothing trying to evangelize Mormonism. (?)
When it’s pointed out to the folks from CARM that Aaron Shafovaloff from Mormonism Research Ministry was the first person to comment on my theosis article and that he agreed with me, and obviously they aren’t going to denounce him as non-Christian, the ever-omniscient Lessa4 tries to claim that my article on theosis “embraced polytheism.” Ah, now we’ve moved into the sacred realm of “making crap up.” CBS would be proud.
Don’t tell the folks from CARM, but I was even once a moderator of the Mormonism forum there, long ago. It might make their heads explode.
What’s the point of this post? Only that Gary Novak’s first rule of anti-Mormonism still holds true today: once you become an anti-Mormon, expect your IQ to drop at least 85 points.
1 I assume that Lessa4 is female because “Lessa” sounds feminine to me. I apologize in advance if I got the gender wrong. I make no apologies for thinking s/he’s as dumb as a bag of hammers.
Now then, Jack, let’s please be accurate: A bag of hammers is a bag of the tools of all great and lofty civilizations. The great cathedrals of Paris and the Great Wall were not built without them. One World Trade Center cannot be erected without a hammer.
The hammers of today are crafted (largely) from materials gathered from the four corners of the world, in supply chains and manufacturing processes that would make Charlemagne or the emperors of the Ming Dynasty swoon in wonder.
You do that bag of hammers no justice by equating it with a closed-minded, open-mouthed tribal-oriented forum troll. It is an insult to hammers, I say!
The metaphor *you’re* looking for is, “Box o’ rocks,” which is a suitable appellation for any mouth-breathing tribalist, or any consumer grade computer, for that matter.
HTH. HAND.
The loving discussion on the CARM forum makes me long for the fellowship of those true believing Christians.
I am sure you agree.
If only we could just stop thinking and simply condemn all that we don’t quite understand.
I’m pretty sure most of these morons did not even click on my article, let alone take the time to read it. Here’s biblos: “Your author here had done a quite nice bait and switch. claiming that western christianity runs away from a concept it has taught for over 2000 years, while at the same time claiming that mormon’s faithfully teach the real concept.”
Um, no, actually, I stated pretty clearly that what I advocate and what Christianity has historically taught is very different from what Mormons teach. See that big, bolded sub-heading on my article that says “Traditional Theosis v. Mormon Exaltation”?
And I never used C. S. Lewis to support what Mormons believe, I used him to support what I believe. I guess that’s a difficult distinction to understand when you’re dumb like a
bag of hammersbox o’ rocks and can’t read.EDIT: A moderator closed off the thread a few minutes ago citing Rule #10: “Please stick to the topic of the forum. Posters seeking to debate Evangelical Christians should take their discussions or questions to the appropriate forum.” Let’s hope that means somebody there was intelligent enough to see that I am in fact an evangelical Christian.
Ah Jack, you make me smile.
Dude, that thread ROCKS! Nothing makes me happier than inappropriate use of quotation marks.
Did you know that zakuska in Bulgarian means breakfast? I don’t know, Jack, but I think you just had her for lunch. Oh snap!
That link is awesome, Katie.
Zakuska is a guy and he’s LDS. I met him at a Sunstone gathering in Salt Lake City along with a bunch of other Zion’s Lighthouse Message Board regulars years ago. I’ve never been too into his posts though, and I’m not entirely pleased with how my article was thrown out there on CARM. He was fishing for a knee-jerk reaction from stupid children, and he knew it, and he got it.
It is a poignant lesson in the evangelical anti-Mormon mentality though. ANYONE who says ANYTHING these people disagree with is immediately branded “non-Christian.” Not one of those people tried coming over to my blog and actually learning something about me; not one of them even read and considered my post or else they would have seen that their pal Aaron agreed with it. They saw something that challenged their way of thinking so they looked for the fastest way to dismiss me as a Mormon plant and they took it.
And people wonder why I’m so hard on the counter-cult ministry. Oh well. I love being right.
This is why we like you Jack.
Fight the retards,
Rock on.
I’d compliment the post. But we all know that having a Mormon compliment or agree with you is pretty-much the Mark of the Beast over at CARM.
Best not to jinx you, I suppose.
I dunno. I think it’d be pretty cool if I got upgraded from “non-Christian Mormon wolf in evangelical sheep’s clothing” to “anti-Christ.”
Zakuska is a guy and he’s LDS.
Oh, oops. My bad. I thought it was an Evangelical trying to make you look bad or something. With a name like Zakuska, I seriously wonder if he served a mission to the BG. That would be weird if I knew him…
Thanks for the “link,” “Jack.” It was “awesome.”
THIS post is a classic. Love it. (And it’s even more clear now than before what exactly “we’re” up against.) Bless their hearts.
I’m a little disappointed that the CARMites apparently never found out about this post. I was hoping they would come over here and say even more idiotically entertaining stuff for us.
Oh well.
I disagree with Perkins. I think the proper comparison is “bag o’ dirt.” And for the record, I like your underwear just the way it is too (oops, you told me not to tell anyone about that! Sorry).
Bite your tongue, MCQ! My husband reads most of the comments on this blog.
You’re gonna get in twouble… He has a black belt in shoto-kan… and lots of swords…
Your problem Bridget Jack Meyer, is that you have consistently broke rule number one of Evangelical Christians: Never show respect and talk with (unless condemning outright) Mormons. For that matter with anyone who is not Evangelical Christian. In order to properly be saved, you have to condemn everyone else.
!!!
You married a swordsman!
My daughter is learning the effete art of fencing, to the point now where I cannot beat her at plastic Jedi Lightsaber battles. This makes her happier than she could have ever imagined.
Jettboy: Actually, rule #1 for Evangelical Christians is to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, and strength and rule #2 is to love your neighbor. It’s been my frequent and repeated experience that Evangelical Christians act this way toward me and others.
It’s sad that you don’t see that; I’m not sure if that’s because you don’t want to see it (i.e., you relish seeing the bad in those who don’t agree with you), or if you just have very little experience with Evangelicals outside of limited blog conversations—which undoubtedly attract a peculiar subset of the population. Either way, you’re ironically wrong and should apologize.
I dunno, BrianJ, I actually took it as a kind of ironic sarcasm…
I was not sure whether to take Jettboy’s comment as hyperbole or not. Some Mormons honestly do seem to believe that most evangelicals spend all of their time hating other religions, though most people know that isn’t the case. CARM really is an anomaly of bad evangelical behavior.
I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, so I’ll assume Jettboy’s comment was hyperbolic and he doesn’t really think evangelicals are altogether hateful and mean and I’m some kind of rare exception. The gesture is appreciated though, Brian.
TBH, Jack, being treated as a weird devil worshiping heterodox hellhound was a pretty common experience for Mormons in the Northwest, where and when I was growing up.
People are much more tolerant today, but as we saw from the Huckabee campaign, there are Evangelicals who still use those old canards to keep the Mormons marginalized.
Not that I would have voted for Mitt past the primaries anyway (wrong stance on immigration, IMO) but there you are.
Isn’t CARMITE that disgusting stuff the Brits or Australians eat?
No way, man, that’s Vegemite. Nasty, nasty stuff.
Jack, you know that I give people the benefit of the doubt too. Jettboy has been on the Web long enough to know that humor doesn’t blog well; use a smiley or an “emote /” if you’re being hyperbolic. If it was sarcasm, as Rob thinks, then it is unhelpful and unwarranted. I stand by my scathing (
/hyperbole) rebuke.
Fair enough, BFF.
I just discovered the hilarity that is the CARM forum rules.
I know. I like how they only allow people to link to official LDS web sites. God forbid people find out all the arguments at CARM have already been addressed and picked over by Jeff Lindsay and FAIR.
[...] would like to read an “insiders” perspective on the goings-on at CARM, read here and here.) Within the context of that discussion I briefly mentioned the CARM discussion forums. These [...]