This is SUPPOSED to be a site of spiritual peers. I am expected to treat everyone here as an equal, both intellectually and spiritually. There's no objective standard for the latter, but as with anyone else i have my own standard which i apply. there are objective standards for intellectual status, but it's not always acceptable to some people when they are applied. Oh well.
Since joing this site late last year, i have had my eyes opened, and my perspectives corrected, on a number of points. I thank those who have, directly or otherwise, contributed to my better understanding of human nature, and the human realm of religion/spirituality. Some have shown me that i needed to open my mind further to acknowledge value in places i had not previously thought it could exist. Others have confirmed my previous perspective that some people have NOTHING of value to add to any conversation. It's been interesting.
As i've navigated the mine field of participation in the conversations on this ecumenically focused site, i have made both friends and enemies. The positive results speak for temselves, and are NOT the focus of this post. instead, i'd like to comment on a VERY negative situation of which i have been made aware. I don't SEEK negativity, but when it exists i also don't seek to ignore it or act as if it isn't there.
Some folks think that all interactions must be all sweetness and light, but i don't share that (IMO) naive view. I'm fine with the fact that there are people here who have decided that i'm a downer, and who do not wish to hear what i have to say. That's their right, and it's a right i reserve as well for myself. I'm even fine with the (apparent) fact that we have a small contingent of petty, narrow-minded people who have taken it upon themselves to declare 'war' upon myself and a few others with whom they disagree. I see that as a sign that i'm living EXACTLY the kind of life to which i aspire.
Any site which doesn't filter its membership is sure to attract at least some number of petty minded people, and this site is no exception. I have identified a few people who i think are spiritually bankrupt, a few who are control freaks, a few who are attention whores, and a few who are just plain human garbage. I have told these people OPENLY in public posts that i have no use for them and that their 'contributions' to this site are negative only. I don't claim that MY judgment there is universal truth, but i have stated it openly and directly.
Recently, i learned that a subset of the membership here is contacting new members as they join to 'warn them'about myself and a few other members of the site that the 'warners' feel are evil, or some similar label. Some of the new members who received these 'warnings 'have shared this with a few other members who are also on the black-list of the self-appointed watch-dogs. I've seen a recent case where a new member blocked me, apparently as a response to the warnings of our self-appointed guardians of righteousness. I don;t mind someone blocking me, as i use the featre liberally myself. Again, i don't even think it's my right to tell people what criteria to use to make that call. But SERIOUSLY, folks, i think an ADULT would wait until i do something they find reprehensible FIRST, and not just buy into whispers and back channel slander. After all, if the new member ISN'T a narrow-minded control freak, then regardless of what he/she believes, the odds are that he/she and i will get along just fine. OTOH, if he'she first that bill, its certain that he'she will soon enough have her/his OWN reason to choose to block my posts.
This is hypocrisy at a supreme level, and i can't help but note the IRONY of those who SCREAM about 'light' choosing to operate from the shadows. If you have a negative comment about me, you can post it away on the main board. I don't mind. I don't even mind if your cowardly nature requires you to only snipe at me anonymously, but if that is the case you should really stop claiming to be an agent of goodness and light, because you completely negate any right to that claim by this behavior.
I was told today that i'm not just ON the list, that i hold the coveted #1 position on it. I'd like to thank the petty, cowardly people who placed me in that position for such a prominent place on their enemies list. Knowing that people of such low character and integrity consider me their public enemy #1 re-assures me that MY ethics and spiritual behaviors are still operating at full capacity, because the scorn of miscreants is the best possible measure of the integrity of those to whom they direct that scorn.
I don't mind if the majority of new members hear only the input of these petty people. I don't mind if, having heard it, they choose to block or ignore my posts. Anyone who is willing to allow the unsubstantiated comments of a stranger to bias them from forming their own opinion based on facts is not someone whose opinion matters to me at all. I dont subscribe to the naive view, repeated all too often here but seldome actually practiced, that "all people have equal value", and since i don't pay lip service to that view, i also don't have to tiptoe around the true disdain i feel for some of the members here.
There's no denying that i go against the grain of many of the ministers here, but if the ULC stands for anything it stands for acknowledging and respecting that a diversity of view exists, and that each person is enttled to theirs. I agree with that 100%, or i wold have the integrity to cancel my status as a member of the ULC. Note the careful phrasing, however, because i didn't say that i think all beliefs are worthy fo respect, i said that everyone is entitled to believe as they wish. Those are NOT thr same positions, though the subtle distinction seems lost on many.
I don't respect every view here at the same level, and i actively SISRESPECt some of the views held here because of the behaviors that they engender. THIS position is fundamental to MY beliefs that people MUST judge who they allow in their life based on character and behavior towards others, not merely on their willingness to parrot lofty sounding but intrinsically meaningless phrases. I have GREAT respect for some people here who share much of my world view, but i ALSO have great repsect for some here who hold some views that i have found to MOSTLY lead to bad places, but which clearly lead to great good in their lives. I respect the right of all members to speak their mind, but i reject the idea that they may do so without accepting that others are in turn free to express a different view in return. Those who cannot handle dealing with a person who champions a view that makes them unconfortable are (IMO) spiritual children and NOT my peers. I will contnue to consider it a feature if they choose to avoid any interactions with me, or if they throw a temper tantrum and leave. Its a trivially understood concept of qrithmetic that the subtraction of a negative results in a positive change, and IMO the same applies in social networks. IMO, their departure or silence ENHANCES the true value fo THIS site.
