Mr. Enloe just commented on the article I noted yesterday, and in so doing, demonstrated that I completely, and utterly, wasted my time in the recent discussion (well—at least as far as communicating with rC’s, anyway). When someone has decided that they know what you believe, despite your repeated corrections, there really is nothing more you can do. Here is just one paragraph of the longest portion:
Dr. White lives in a world completely defined on all sides, pro and con, by theological extremism. As such he is an extremist and cannot help but present only extremist criticisms of everything that disagrees with his extremism. I agree with you: until he learns to tone his extremist rhetoric down and actually interact with what is being said, there’s no reason to spend any serious time trying to deflect his criticisms of this website. Though most of what he says assuredly plays very well on the fears and radicalisms of the Fundamentalist crowd he serves, he has yet to hit us with anything substantive. For instance, looking with deep suspicion at the word “Catholicism” being joined to the word “Reformed” is hardly an argument, especially when it comes from a man who is willing to chop the Reformation off at the historical roots and treat the Scriptures like they are a mere piece of technology controlled by the levers and buttons of a high degree of competence in manipulating Koine Greek slaved to a thoroughly radicalized vision of “onlies”. Mere self-testimonies about loving the truth and being unwilling to compromise simply don’t cut it in the world of respectful theological discourse. This is a lesson which Dr. White needs very much to learn and begin to practice in his dealings with others.
Ironically, his constant theme of denigrating both the preaching of the Word (earlier in the same commentary: “…which channels are not limited to standing in a pulpit thundering propositions about grace and contemplating “timeless truths”) and the exegesis of the Word (“like they are a mere piece of technology controlled by the levers and buttons of a high degree of competence in manipulating Koine Greek slaved to a thoroughly radicalized vision of ‘onlies'”–another straw-man of Enloe’s) lead to a Roman Catholic apologist patting him on the back. In his response to the Roman Catholic Enloe wrote,
Apolonio: Interestingly, it has been argued by some Reformed people that the radicalized Reformed Baptist worldview (which I think we see in Dr. White and many of his friends) is historically-linked to the pelagianizing movements of the later Middle Ages. See for example “The Baptist Failure”, which you can find here. Click on the “This Book in HTML” link, then go to page 167 for the article. I once pointed this article out to Dr. White, but like many other things I have pointed out to him, I received no responsible answer.
Enloe can ignore my published writings and misrepresent me as a result, but, if he ever links to an Internet article, I’m bound to read it. Isn’t it great? I guess that means he admits he’s offered no “responsible answer”?
Beware the rC’s.
