I don't know if you are deliberately seeking to pick a fight or that your interpretation of sentences in English differs from mine.
Pray tell, what do you expect people to think when you call a visit of the head of one state to the head of your own country? Here in the real world, that's known as a sate visit. But you refered to it as a "fiction."
But the real crux of the matter, as you well know, was your statement: "Why they agreed to this I don't know and
I certainly don't want this man or what he represents in my country; we have enough
religious fundamentalists as it is without adding or encouraging more."
What "that man" represents is 1) a sovereign nation, and 2) the religion of over 1,000,000,000 people. Your statement makes it clearthat you're a bigot when it comes to Catholicism. It also shows you don't have any actual idea what relgious fundamentalism entails.
I know that it is easy to grab the wrong end of the stick in Internet discourse and have seen it happen with posts of mine before now (those being the only cases in which I can say for certain that what was read was not what I meant).
No, I understood what you meant. Which was why I specifically askeoto provide information on what books of Benedict's you have read and where you found evidence of his so-called "fundamentalism" in them. You refused to do so every time I made my requst. People who have so much as cracked a book written by the person they're insulting usually don't go to such lengths to ignore a simple request. Unless they actualy have no idea what they're talking about and were caught in a lie, that is.
I produced a list of books by Benedict which I have read that were published over the course of his life (excluding official Church documents he either authored or oversaw when head of the CDF and his papal writings as including these would have made the list even longer). It had over a dozen works on it and it wasn't even the total of his corpus. Despite requests you produced ... well, nothing.
However, I happily do not have to fret about it as much as I do in the real world when I feel myself slipping into a spiral of despair at ever getting my point across un-skewed.
Yes, it is always the other guy. Or, alternately, when that other guy calls you out for 1) your bigotry, or 2) your glaringly obvious lie you have to deal with "a spiral of despair." It's a good thing you never exaggerate!
For the record, I do think, even in the cold light of morn, that it might be a good idea to moderate how you phrase things, Chris.
How I phrase things? Why, was I going on about not wanting what someone represents in my country? Or was I talking about having enough of a certian kind of people in my country? Or was I caught labelling someone with a derogatory term based not on what I ad read of his scholarly works but on my own bigotry? Or did I say I liked how a certain tyrannical king dealt with a certain group of people when they refused to go against their consciences and say he was the head of the Church?
Yes, if I had sid
any of those things I'd definitely think moderation in my posts was called for.
But I wasn't the one who posted any of that.
For misinterpretation is a two-edged sword and the content of what you have attempted to say to me is being lost in my reaction to what I see as personally directed remarks.
You have a question about what I mean, feel free to ask. I'll tell you. Like when I said "Man up and tell me what you've read by Benedict that qualifies you to call him a fundamentalist. If you have the stones to
honestly do so." By that I meant I think you haven't read one thing Benedict has read on your own and rely on the media for your biased idea of what he says. Additionally, I mean that I don't think you're man enough to admit that.
I think that's pretty clear but if you need further help let me know.
It is for the best if we part company I feel as I can see nothing constructive or pleasant coming out of any further exchanges.
:waves goodbye:
Well, I don't know about that. I think our interaction on this thread has been constructive in at least one way; it's demonstarted that you don't know what you're talking about and are simply bigottedwhen it comes to the Church.
Pax,
Chris