After Steve posted his article “The ABCs of Calvinism,” several interesting statements were made in the comments section that I would like to highlight. We have first, the comment made by johnMark:
McCain’s questioning and assertions resemble how Schumer and Kennedy have beed attacking Alito showing their inability to listen and interact fairly. It is still a wonder to me as far as McCain is concerned is why he left a certain chatroom when James White popped in rather than chat. He had a change to interact in real time with a Calvinist.
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This caused Rev. McCain to comment as follows:
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Steve, thanks, your quick guide was very helpful and informative. I appreciaste it. As to the question raised by the other person, please know that on that evening Mr. White actually privately messaged me under a fake name and tossed off a few ad hominems and such and then, finally, when I said basically, “Who in the world are you?” admitted he was James White and in the same breath said I had no virtue.
Hmmm…at that point I realized there is little point in attempting conversation with such as White. I find this curious “groupie” phenonemon with White to be … unsettling. But, again, many thanks for the helpful quick primer on Calvinism’s various groups. John, if you feel the need to exercise your rhetorical ad hominem boxing gloves further, feel free, but I’m disinclined to further converse if that is how you wish to go. But, don’t let me spoil your fun. Knock yourself out.
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Rev. McCain has been rather dramatic when it comes to this issue. From what I have witnessed, McCain’s assessment of the situation is quite excessive (terminology such as “this curious ‘groupie’ phenomemon with White” makes this fact evident).
In any case, Dr. White chose to comment:
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Steve Hays asked if he could post my comment as a full post, so I offered to expand my comments to make it worthwhile. I appreciate the opportunity. I would like to correct, again, Paul McCain’s false statements regarding myself and in so doing expose the fact that it is Rev. McCain who is simply unwilling to engage in any kind of meaningful dialogue or debate.
Though this has all been explained to Rev. McCain, his memory seems…short. I have the logs of everything that took place that evening, of course. I began running an IRC chat channel in 1996 or so, and after a full decade of that activity, I have learned the value of documentation.
As was explained to him that night, by numerous people (including Lutherans!) in IRC you use “nicks.” Normally I am DrOakley in IRC chat, sometimes NA27, sometimes both if both of my systems are on line (I keep one system in channel, or attempt to do so, 24/7, as we keep “stats” about who is active in our little community: here’s proof. In any case, a small minority of folks use their real names. Otherwise, everyone is using nicks. In channel as I write this we have FlameArk, kletois, DeoVolente, Shamgar, Captain, cmonStart, brigand, and many others—none of which are actual given names. Indeed, one of our regulars is wonky…and that’s his nick! Another is mutato, our mutated spud. Some of our younger users enjoy nick permutations…last year slambammin (he’s a drummer) had over 2,500 permutations of his nick (see the above link).
I was told Paul McCain was on line, and that he was, in fact, going after me by name in another channel on the IRC network. Since we run one of the servers on this network, I am not only a CM (Channel Manager, i.e., I “own” our channel) but I am an IRCop as well (IRC Operator). So I have to be a little careful with reference to conflicts that could so easily erupt given the character of Rev. McCain’s writings of late. At any rate, at first I just tried to resist the temptation of contact him, even though I could see what he was saying about me personally in another channel. But it finally got so ridiculous that I pm’d (private messaged) him an invitation to join our chat channel. Since the message appeared as DrOakley, my nick, this is the basis of his accusation that I tried to “deceive” him. Anyone who has ever used IRC, AIM, etc., knows how utterly ridiculous this allegation is, and given that McCain was refuted on it that very evening, his repeating it is a vacuous excuse for the fact that when I went into the channel he was participating in, he could do nothing more than attack me personally, refused to respond to any substantive reply, and eventually just disappeared. Rev. McCain likes to preach, but he doesn’t like to listen. I hope someday he matures to the point of learning that art.
I do hope this will be the last time we see Rev. McCain proving nothing more than his own ignorance of IRC chat protocols and the use of “nicks” as a very flimsy excuse for his failure to interact with substantive critiques of his viewpoints.
James White
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ReplyDeleteDr.Oakley, NA27, Dr. White, Mr. White, Rev. White...whatever persons you choose to assume.
ReplyDeleteYou popped into a conversation you had nothing to do with and tried to "bait" me to come into some other chat room. You knew who I was. I did not know who you were. Is it unfair of me to assume that a man of your vast education might consider identifying himself when sending an unsolicited and uninvited private message? Perhaps common courtesy and decency might have offered some guidance here?
It may have gone something like this, "Hello, I'm James White. I hear you are saying things about me. Would you like to talk in an open channel with me? Let's have a talk!" Or something like that.
Instead, in spite of my asking you not to private message me uninvited after you did at least twice, which in any chat protocol I'm aware of is considered rather rude, you persisted. And...it was ONLY after somebody on the chat channel I was in exposed your identity did you 'fess up after I found out and responded to you and said something like, "Dr. White, I have no interest in arguing with you."
At that point, you launched into one of your typical self-denfensive rants and then you popped off with ad hominem nonsense, "You have no virtue" Then you came over into the open chat channel and tried to stir the pot there.
The simple reality, Dr. White, is that you intentionally were attempting to bait me into arguing with you. You sent me private messsages uninvited, several times, and never once identified yourself. That's just weird and more than a little creepy.
Uh...ok. I guess we need to get those channel logs...
ReplyDeleteFine by me, just make sure Mr. Oakley-NA27 makes available the private messages he sent to me. I've got nothing to hide.
ReplyDelete