Candice, if you are looking for someone to babysit or to chide, please look
somewhere else. I am not your puppy. I think John is free to defend himself
and doubt that he needs you to speak for him. If I see a need to accept a
belief, whether it belongs to anyone, then I will follow the course that I
deem fit. I do not need you to tell me what I can and can not do.
On Mon, 12 Feb 2001 12:12:05 -0500, Poetryetc provides a venue for a
dialogue relating to poetry and poetics wrote:
> Hi, Daniel--a couple of responses below--
>
>
> >> "There's a long tradition on Poetryetc of respecting each other's
views in
> >> the sense of _accepting_ them and exercising a basic courtesy and
> >> sensitivity toward them regardless of our own beliefs (religious or
> >> political, e.g.). Your remarks about veganism, anarchism, and
Christianity
> >> have all crossed that traditional line,"
> >
> > How will I ever learn to "accept" a belief if I don't ask for the
reasons
> > of undertaking such a belief?
>
> There's no need for you to accept the belief, but only to accept it
as
> _John's_ belief--and to respect it as such. He doesn't owe you any
> explanation or justification for it, any more than you owe him one for
your
> Christian beliefs--on which he has not "challenged" _you_, in that very
> spirit of mutual acceptance and respect.
> If you're genuinely interested in understanding those beliefs, you
could
> read John's work, for starters, then politely seek such "dialogue" with
him
> back-channel and offer him those "interesting criticisms" of yours, which
he
> would of course be free to decline. Insisting on and persisting with it
> front-channel is effectively to challenge the beliefs themselves and, in
> your case, on the grounds of a different system (religion) entirely.
> _That's_ what crossed the acceptance/respect line--the persistent
> displacement of the grounds for John's statement with your own.
>
> > (traditional line?--i recall LINGUISTIC DISOBEDIENCE)
>
> I don't recall using that term myself.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Candice
_______________________________________________________
Send a cool gift with your E-Card
http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/
|