The Apostle Paul visits the PuritanBoard
Apostle Paul: "Gentleman, gentlewomen, greetings."
Moderator X: "Fix your signature per the rules. Thank you."
Apostle Paul: "Um, yes. Modern technology. There, think I've got it."
--- Apostle Paul ignored for six days because they sense there's something strange about him. ---
Apostle Paul: "So, I see there's some dispute about the Epistle to the Hebrews..."
Long Time Member 1: "So? What's the question? You could google that there's a dispute."
Long Time Member 2: "What do you mean by 'dispute'? Are you saying it's not canonic?"
Long Time Member 3: "Paul, we must be very careful here. Many people read this forum who aren't members. We really need to recognize that if we don't have the understanding of the Bible and doctrine that the seminary graduates here have we should probably adopt a posture of learning and not make statements based on things we have little or no understanding of."
--- Meeting of Moderators behind the scenes concerning whether new member Apostle Paul is to be allowed to stay on the forum. Rules state that said member will be warned before being banned, but in unusual cases - people who they sense are 'strange' - the tactic agreed upon to be adopted is the old standby to hold the new member to a standard designed to get them to 'ban themselves.' The Apostle Paul is now 'in the dock.' ---
Apostle Paul: "I may be able to provide some insight on the subject of the Epistle to the Hebrews..."
Long Time Member 1: "New insight? You get this 'new insight' via some type of New Age psychic activity?"
Long Time Member 2: "Psychic Hotline."
Long Time Member 3: "LOL!! That's why I love this forum!!"
Moderator with 'Reverend' in Front of His Name: "OK, guys, I'm locking this thread. Paul, you have a private message waiting for you. I would strongly advise you to read it forthwith. This thread is now CLOSED."
--- The Apostle Paul never heard from again at the PuritanBoard ---
6 Comments:
I've lurked the Puritanboard for years.
They seem to have a few long term members that have posts in the thousands.
One poster, Joshua Hicks, makes many attempts at humor that I sometimes think are offensive.
They seem to have many many people come and go.
Some will go abruptly after hundreds or thousand of posts.
Examples:
Adam from PA
Ivan from IL
Lawrence from VA
Etexas
Scott Bushey from FL
Have you any insight into this?
This site is quite interesting but I have major concerns:
- read the New York Times article on C. Matthew McManhon
- the people on the site love mocking Benny Hinn, etc. (I am not a Hinn supporter, but mocking isn't useful. Patient correction is useful.)
Were the real Puritans anything like the people on the PB?
Just saw your comment. One thing about the Puritanboard that goes unspoken is many of the moderators are former (and former might have to be in quote marks for some of them) Theonomists. This makes them very hostile in a passive-aggressive way with many things. Passive-aggressive because Theonomy is a by-gone thing now, yet they still hold their old allegiances.
The site is indeed interesting and useful in many ways, especially now that is is several years old. You can do searches on subjects and books and get pretty good takes from the members there.
As to the people who leave. One long time member left with the comment that the forum was being run like a church rather than a forum. I.e. everything was disciplined and locked down and interesting threads were shut down quickly and so on.
Scott Bushey was an administrator if I remember correctly and he seemed to have had a bit of a breakdown and didn't want to have to ban people anymore, so he voluntarily left.
eTexas I seem to recall changed churches or something and was asked to leave because of it.
The most baffling to me is VirginaHuguenot. He posted some of the most interesting stuff day to day and didn't seem to have a problem with anybody, but suddenly he was gone.
Adam, or Houseparent, or something like that I don't know about.
Don't want to make too much about an internet forum, but such a big one like Puritanboard could definitely be run much better, be more lively, more interesting. All the current members are afraid and obsequious (they fear man and not God) to the moderators, so you get a lot of shallow topics.
You see it in New Age environments where there are groups. The group usually descends to the level of understanding of the least developed members, and the leadership is usually taken over by the individuals who are least qualified to be in leadership positions. Then you have all the usual cult dynamics which play out even if the group isn't a full-fledged cult.
VirginaHuguenot was an interesting poster.
I never recall him being nasty or juvenile.
He seemed helpful to me.
He had an incredible post count. It was something like 24,000 over five years.
In cases like his, I wonder if he was using his time well.
The internet can be a real blessing. It has allowed me to research many Christian topics.
Internet forums, however, can be a waste of time.
Because of Blogger's new software I see your comment quickly.
You bring up a scary point. Time wasted on internet scribbling (what I'm doing right now, ha ha). One scary thing I do sometimes is stumble across a comment on some blog I made years back. For some reason I guess seeing how fast time, years, roll by is what is scary.
I know what you're saying about VirginiaHuguenot.
There's something hellish about unvisited, forgotten archives.
At least I'm listening Celibidache conducting Bruckner's 6th right now as I write...
The only useful thing on the PB now is watching this guy in a viking helmet go BALLISTIC over anyone who disagrees with him.
Then the admin comes in and cleans up the tons of effluvia he has again left on the carpet.
Be quick though, the haz-mat admin moves very quickly to keep enabling this guy.
He did it again yesterday.
I know what you're saying regarding the Viking helmet gentleman. He seems like a nice, good guy, but...
I liked the recent thread over there on sanctification (started by Rich L.). That is a subject I've hit on myself over and over and now some are catching on who in the past couldn't seem to.
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