tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post3205061679590031857..comments2024-03-22T17:35:52.045-04:00Comments on Extra Thoughts: Go to Dark GethsemaneLydia McGrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00423567323116960820noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-54403523639407966852010-03-31T21:37:26.980-04:002010-03-31T21:37:26.980-04:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.幸雨https://www.blogger.com/profile/17636597633464808247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-70699158377455385162010-03-29T16:22:45.383-04:002010-03-29T16:22:45.383-04:00That's the disturbing and sad thing about it, ...That's the disturbing and sad thing about it, Bill: It's definitely a non-Christian view. It is, in fact, almost exactly like Ivan Karamazov's view of suffering, only it's a strange attempt somehow to baptize that view and bring it within the Christian fold. At least Ivan knew that his view was contrary to Christianity.<br /><br />It's hard to know what to say _to_ a person like that, if one knows him. It would seem like a very delicate situation. For example, he talks earlier in the article in a way that implies that he speaks for a whole slew of people who are on the verge of losing their faith over doctrinal disputes and who were helped by this blogger (whom I haven't previously read) who is now dying of cancer, who kept them "talking, talking, talking" as one does with a would-be suicide. Obviously, if he's in that situation, I'm not sure my Scriptural brickbats would be a good idea _at all_, especially since he seems to have _some_ measure of equilibrium now, however theologically misguided he is.<br /><br />But I _do_ know how to respond to his ideas and how to respond to any attempt to "mainstream" such ideas about Christianity and suffering, and that was why I wrote this post and the slightly revised version at W4. There were several readers who really seemed to like his column and to think it was spot-on, and that's even more disturbing than the column itself. So I thought it would be good to find some other place to answer it.Lydia McGrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423567323116960820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20704380.post-31463451541040644402010-03-29T16:07:26.074-04:002010-03-29T16:07:26.074-04:00Seems to me the kind of know-nothingness he praise...Seems to me the kind of know-nothingness he praises ought to be anathema to the Christian. If his mother's suffering was "...forever ugly and pointless and cruel," then so was Christ's on the cross, the only thing that can give ours meaning.William Lusehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15928946919078483848noreply@blogger.com