February 10, 2006
Bob’s Blog Blurb
The end of the End of the Spear has not happened yet. (How many times will we have to endure the cutesy play on words and puns evoked by this title?). Steve Camp unleashes and uncorks with his stinging critique and call for repentence in his End of the Spear Doesn’t Pierce Hearts.. (See what I mean about the play on words?) Apparently, Steve doesn’t mind irritating people from time to time. But I think he is spot on. Chris Anderson starts discussing the discussion. I’ll focus on this more next week, Lord willing.
Dan Phillips (a contributor to the famed Pyromaniacs) questions C.J. Mahaney’s diatribe against emoticons. I secretly sympathize with Mahaney on this critical controversy, but I am inclined to enjoy Phillips blistering critique. The question of emoticons (C.J. asserts that real men don’t use smiley faces) is one of the imponderables that will never be satisfactorily resolved until we all get to heaven. The main lesson here, though, is that blogging is serious business and reputable leaders need to be very careful in this rough-and-tumble world of the blogosphere. I would put a smiley face here so that you all know that I’m joking, but I don’t want my manhood to be questioned and I certainly don’t want to lose my chances at any honorary doctorate that might be forthcoming.
My cousin, Matt Bixby, updates us on his ministry. My family now has a family blog. You are all welcome to look at it (and comment), but please be notified in advance that my family has a disturbing habit of referring to me as “Bobby.” This is very humbling, but I figure that if I can restrain from smiley faces in my writing, I might be able to overcome the humiliation of being called “Bobby.”
Posted by Bob Bixby at February 10, 2006 03:19 PM | eMail this entry! | 305 WordsThis entry was posted in the following categories: Bob’s Blog Blurb
sometimes it’s nice to be a woman :-)
smiley faces are expected from us, while serious wit surprises the manly bloggers. Word games with the “End of the Spear” title seem a bit too obvious, like excessive alliteration.
I think that good men can differ on emoticons. This was never an issue with fundamentalists in the 1920s, was it?
Personally, I am pro-emoticons (when used according to the principles laid out in Scripture), but I would still welcome a man who was anti-emoticons into my pulpit. I have a gentlemen’s agreement with my anti-emoticon friends in the ministry that I won’t preach on emoticons when I am in their churches and they do the same for me.
Michael,
I’m afraid you show yourself to be too much of a young fundamentalist in that you trivialize the importance of this issue. Just because emoticons are not one of the five fundamentals (or discussed in the volumes The Fundamentals), does not mean that this is an issue that does not call for separation. Anybody with a real sense of the heartbeat of the early fundamentalists knows that, had emoticons existed in their day, they would have certainly taken a strong stand against or for them. Your willingness to dialogue with emoticon users (or non-users)is distressing.
You will never, never, catch me taking a position for one and — gasp! — tolerating the other as you have done. That is why I, in the tradition of strong conviction, firmly take my stand for and against it.
Posted by: Bob at February 11, 2006 08:43 AMMichael,
I’m afraid you show yourself to be too much of a young fundamentalist in that you trivialize the importance of this issue. Just because emoticons are not one of the five fundamentals (or discussed in the volumes The Fundamentals), does not mean that this is an issue that does not call for separation. Anybody with a real sense of the heartbeat of the early fundamentalists knows that, had emoticons existed in their day, they would have certainly taken a strong stand against or for them. Your willingness to dialogue with emoticon users (or non-users)is distressing.
You will never, never, catch me taking a position for one and — gasp! — tolerating the other as you have done. That is why I, in the tradition of strong conviction, firmly take my stand for and against it.
Posted by: Bob at February 11, 2006 04:20 PM
