And you’re right. People who do that are scum. I’m thankful though that you’re out there fighting in your area of expertise.

I also wanted to thank you for what you said about the church not handling people with emotional problems well. As you know from our interactions at TheologyWeb, I am one diagnosed with autism/asperger’s and that makes me somewhat OCD as well. I have had anxiety attacks and depression as well.

When you speak about these issues, it is always a blessing to me as the church does not handle these things and frankly, I don’t like to share them at church. In my position, I just don’t normally trust people.

This also ties in with the empathy thing as for me, I don’t think my responses are what would be seen as normative to various situations. I often don’t know how to feel some things which I think sets me apart from a Christian society that relies on emotions and feelings. My Christian life is not lived with a great feeling of love for God. I tend to just stand in church during the songs as most music doesn’t move me. Ironically, I prefer listening to something like Final Fantasy Music Radio because most church music seems devoid of substance, but when I hear Final Fantasy, I recall adventures and battles and that gets me motivated. I’m not against all church music. I happen to like “Holy, Holy, Holy” and several of the great hymns and in CCM, I like Sean Groves’s “Welcome Home.”

But people don’t handle us well. I used to work in retail as you know and now I have a much better job. However, in retail, people would often think I was rude. Now if I came in in a wheelchair, no one would expect me to move as fast as everyone else can. The problem is that my problem is located in the mind and people can’t see that. They just assume that because I don’t talk or because I act quirky that I’m a rude jerk or something like that. It could even be I want to talk to you, but I can’t.

I’d also say I’m not confrontational. If someone says something about me, I might not know how to respond. However, if someone says something like, “The Trinity doctrine is a bunch of nonsense,” I will suddenly become confrontational.

The church needs to do much better. I am thankful for the friends who have understood me and taken time to help me learn to work past many conditions. I realize the oddness of much of my behavior. I do not try to justify things I ought not to do that I do nor things that I ought to do that I don’t do. I just ask that it be understood that it’s difficult for me to do the things everyone else takes for granted. The friends have been absolutely essential. Hearing people like you shows me I’m not alone and I think especially of my best friend in this world, the one I live with as I study at Seminary. He will have that position until I meet Mrs. Right I am sure.

It would be great if the church could do ministry for those of us in its ranks like this. My church does not know about my condition, but they are excellent for when I go to church, I believe I am respected and respect makes all the difference in the world. (It’s also a guy thing. Men need to be respected.) When the time comes, I know that they will understand. They’ve already proven it by already accepting me as is. One reason I might not say anything at the moment is there is some attention I don’t like to draw to myself. I like my name being in apologetics circles and being asked to speak. I enjoy the compliments. That kind, I do enjoy and it honestly humbles me every time. Talking about myself personally isn’t my best thing.

Basically though, I appreciate all you’ve done DDW and please, while you’re dealing with the hypers, I hope you’ll be pointing out also to the church the need to help those of us who are different.

Unfortunately the weave comes out tonight, it is getting a bit tattered. But the pictures after I take it out are even funnier. And yeah I am sure the funny pictures will be misused, but I have to release my inner geek And my inner geek is quite goofy.

Thanks for coming out swinging against these thugs. To keep with the tone of yo weave, “I got yor back!”

Thanks for helping us understand that Apple’s logo is an apple. hahahaha.

I am encouraged to read Michelle’s comments as well. Thanks Michelle.

One day these people are going to do this to the wrong person. During the days this was happening, I kept it secret from my father because I knew how he would react. You go around calling some hot-tempered Italian’s daughter a whore (and it is no secret that my father had spent jail time, I don’t keep that secret, as has my brother) and there will be hell to pay. He wouldn’t have let it slide. These things can get very dangerous. People don’t think about these things. My father has since passed away or no way would I have made this podcast.

Don’t ever say something so personal about a person that you would not say in front of their father, wife, husband, or whatever. If you wouldn’t call a women a whore in front of her male kin, you shouldn’t be doing it on the Internet. If you wouldn’t discuss the personal appearance and bust size of a woman in front of her male kin, you should not do that on the Internet.

I fail in this regard (though never like THAT) but I really try to say things on the Internet that I would say to a person’s face. And yes, I would say the strong words about hyperpreterism to their face. I even said it to my hyperpreterist friends. Heck, ask Roderick one day some of the things I said to him! And he responded by being harsh against my theology, never against my person in such a way. Roderick when he was a hyperpreterist knew all my personal information and only once posted it, and immediately he wrote me and repented. He even had my phone number. He never abused that. Neither has David Green (David doesn’t have my phone number, but I would trust him with it.)

I bet they are a bit disappointed now that the pictures are out. Besides my flamboyant dress, I am the typical American woman of my age. There is nothing that can be picked on without insulting their own wives. I really think they were hoping that I was particularly unattractive. I am just normal and perfectly happy with that.

This podcast was pretty timely for me since just this past fall I engaged in a conversation with an online friend who announced he had adopted hyper-preterism. Our discussion was friendly and respectful (although I notice that he uses different definitions for common words and tends to argue against suppositions that no one holds), however, when the reinforcements arrived, I noticed a definite scent of misogyny. At the time I found it laughable because those type of men seem to me to be stuck in early adolescence and are rather pitiful. It didn’t occur to me to ponder how destructive adolescent boys can be with access to the internet and seemingly tons of time on their hands. Thanks for sharing — it’s an important wake-up call for me. It amazes me those in possession of The Truth™ would need to discredit the opposition so dishonestly. Pretty ironic, isn’t it?