Well I see your point but I also feel there is an entirely different side to that that INVOLVES honest discourse.... I have adopted just such a handle NOT in order to avoid honest discourse but rather to enable myself to ENGAGE in honest discourse. It is something that many noteworthy men have done in times past when they knew that to identify themselves at the time would pretty much result in their being silenced once and for all in one area or another. (Benjamin Franklin immediately springs to mind here.) The benefit of such posting might very well lie in the words being allowed to be judged on their OWN merit and ability to hold water rather than being influenced by WHO has said them.
It also allows people like myself who must weigh MANY things in the balance including their ability to reach out to the lost against a desire to speak out very clearly on the different subjects that stir them. For example another board does NOT allow such handles which pretty much garauntees that the men who are on that board keep their mouths shut out of fear of reprisal. Honest discourse there??? NOT ON YOUR LIFE!!!! I know these men and know that oftentimes what they say in the pulpit and what they post on the groups are NOT what they actually believe and will admit to when it is just one on one. In an ideal world such men should have the boldness to speak up, however when balanced against the loss of financial support if they are a missionary, organizational support if they are a pastor or an evangelist or even Pastoral rebuke if they are a saint. If the things they are saying are stuff and nonsense, certainly someone on the board can point that out.
I can tell you that MANY of us out here are deeply stirred about so many things and a yet reality has taught us that there are many vicious wolves in sheeps clothing out there just WAITING to pounce and destroy another mans ministry if they can. Which brings us to why let them KNOW who is on to them, just the ability to post some things and watch some of them go into paroxysms of rage and near apoplexy is in many ways its own delightful reward. Cowardly? Perhaps..Entertaining? Oh yeah!
This is why it's great to be independent!! You can say what's on your heart without fear of reprisal by man.
Well I see your point but I also feel there is an entirely different side to that that INVOLVES honest discourse.... I have adopted just such a handle NOT in order to avoid honest discourse but rather to enable myself to ENGAGE in honest discourse. It is something that many noteworthy men have done in times past when they knew that to identify themselves at the time would pretty much result in their being silenced once and for all in one area or another. (Benjamin Franklin immediately springs to mind here.) The benefit of such posting might very well lie in the words being allowed to be judged on their OWN merit and ability to hold water rather than being influenced by WHO has said them.
It also allows people like myself who must weigh MANY things in the balance including their ability to reach out to the lost against a desire to speak out very clearly on the different subjects that stir them. For example another board does NOT allow such handles which pretty much garauntees that the men who are on that board keep their mouths shut out of fear of reprisal. Honest discourse there??? NOT ON YOUR LIFE!!!! I know these men and know that oftentimes what they say in the pulpit and what they post on the groups are NOT what they actually believe and will admit to when it is just one on one. In an ideal world such men should have the boldness to speak up, however when balanced against the loss of financial support if they are a missionary, organizational support if they are a pastor or an evangelist or even Pastoral rebuke if they are a saint. If the things they are saying are stuff and nonsense, certainly someone on the board can point that out.
I can tell you that MANY of us out here are deeply stirred about so many things and a yet reality has taught us that there are many vicious wolves in sheeps clothing out there just WAITING to pounce and destroy another mans ministry if they can. Which brings us to why let them KNOW who is on to them, just the ability to post some things and watch some of them go into paroxysms of rage and near apoplexy is in many ways its own delightful reward. Cowardly? Perhaps..Entertaining? Oh yeah!
I appreciate this post. It expresses so many of the feelings I've stuggled with over the past two years. The only thing that needs to be added it is that your anonymity is never guaranteed on an internet forum. I repeat, never.
Weigh every word and dissention carefully before posting it. There is a reason why they call this the world wide web.
I lied. And feel awful about it. On the Age thread I said I will be 53 on my birthday. That is a bald faced lie. I will be 52. How could I have been so decieved?
Your face is bald?
Or is that
Bold faced liar?
__________________ Let it be understood that Apostolic Friends Forum is an Apostolic Forum.
Apostolic is defined on AFF as:
There is One God. This one God reveals Himself distinctly as Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
The Son is God himself in a human form or "God manifested in the flesh" (1Tim 3:16)
Every sinner must repent of their sins.
That Jesus name baptism is the only biblical mode of water baptism.
That the Holy Ghost is for today and is received by faith with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues.
The saint will go on to strive to live a holy life, pleasing to God.
I went out today to get some things and I went to Grizzly's restaurant... Then when I got home a couple of hours later, my husband had made plans with friends of ours to go out to eat and we went to.....Grizzly's! I never told him that I had been there earlier. but the thing was, is that earlier I ate the "BEER CAN CHILI"... yep, they put beer in the chili when they cooked it... but I think that's like eating bourbon chicken and stuff like that. I think I am ok... Was I wrong? Oh! I don't know anymore... What to do?...what to do?
Sorry yall....dat's alls I's gots! I confess that I have no secrets. There it's out, I have no secrets... Who I am, how old I am, what I've said or haven't said....it's not a secret....I just don't wanna tell ya! lol
__________________
I never met a chocolate I didn't like!
*sigh* I did nothing yesterday.... I wasn't finished so I did nothing again today!
I have had alter egos before, but have used them to post discussions I wanted to remain anonymous with.
Oh, and there was that one time......
Sis. with over 8,000 posts, you should not have left that sentence for the rest of the AFF crowd to fill in... I am sure some of them have something on ya!!!!!!!
__________________
I never met a chocolate I didn't like!
*sigh* I did nothing yesterday.... I wasn't finished so I did nothing again today!
Gee I almost went out to Toco Bell in shorts tonight, but with my luck every ultra con in '
SW Louisiana would have seen me. I might not have been able to sing Sunday morning in church. LOL!!!
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