[Vision2020] A Change in the Weather

[Paul Rumelhart]

Chasuk,

I'm a new member here, but I will be sad to see you go.  I, also, am 
tired of the bickering on both sides.  I'm an optimist; maybe someday it 
will improve.  I'd suggest checking back in a few months and see if 
we've managed to grow up or not.

Paul

Chasuk wrote:

>I like the community that is Vision2020, and I've come to consider
>many of you my friends.  However, I just can't take it any more.  The
>childish sniping and ridiculous accusations of the minority of you
>have polluted the forum, and polluted my soul, so it has come time to
>bid you all adieu.
>
>A few thoughts before I leave, for those who wish to read them.
>
>First, Doug Wilson isn't going away.  When an opponent is permanently
>ensconced (he isn't my opponent, but he is apparently the opponent of
>many of you), then the options are warfare, or a treaty.  I'm an
>ecumenical kind of guy.  I favor treaties over never-ending strife,
>even if I have fundamental disagreements with my fellow signatories.
>If Doug Wilson were Fred Phelps, or the late Richard Butler, I
>wouldn't advocate a treaty.  But Doug Wilson isn't Phelps or Butler,
>even if you want to paint him that way.
>
>If the opposition to Wilson were not so petulant, inane, and
>irrational, and if it were conducted civilly, then my heart wouldn't
>be so heavy.  I've been unkind and unproductively adversarial, which
>is part of the reason that I'm leaving.  When you start to become what
>you despise, it is time to disentangle.  I'm disentangling, with my
>apologies to everyone I've offended.
>
>Here is a quote from one of my favorite books that explains it better
>than I can:
>
>"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp,
>drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily
>pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every
>funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper
>hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me
>from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking
>people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon
>as I can."
>
>There's been a change in the weather.  I'm going to sea.
>
>When I say that I am ecumenical, I don't mean it in the sense of
>merely Christian unity, as I'm not a Christian.  I mean it in the
>broader sense of worldwide unity.  This starts with co-operation
>between groups, without unity necessarily being the goal.  Unity comes
>later, if at all.  Co-operation and understanding is a worthwhile goal
>in itself.
>
>I've conducted an interview with Douglas Wilson that I think is
>illuminating.  I'm not a Wilson fanboy, I haven't been ideologically
>seduced by him, but I am trying to do my part in hastening that
>treaty.   I'll visit Vision2020 one final time to post the URL where
>that interview can be read in its unexpurgated entirety.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Chas
>
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