An argument occurred this week when someone felt slighted by an increasingly evangelistic old friend. It seems clear that the participants were arguing about very different things. Whereas one participant has an incipient need to see any and all expressions of his sect's beliefs as true and unquestionable with a capital T & U, the other insists on questioning every last statement down to its last debatable word.

Many ready-made metaphors were brought to the quarrel, as though illustrations proved anything. "It's like you are standing in front of a speeding 18 wheeler that you can't see. I shout to warn you, but you reject the message." That kind of thing.

"But the historical evidence proves David Barton and his pimp Glen Bleeeeeeeeech to be either ignorant & incompetent, or else lying." Etc.

"You are just bashing God."

Etc.

Now, to be fair, the above is an unfair representation of the actual conversation. The point of this post does not have to do with rallying folks for one of the sides above or the other, though.

The point is, one of the above is me, and the other is my friend, and I love my friend, and I fear for him and his family, given the intellectual road he appears to be on.

And this felt like the right kind of spot to mention such a thing.

H4.5