With that, I am...

Peter

Looks I'm going to be on the run for a while. 

Check ya'll later!

With that, I am...

Peter

 I am not inclined to sign manifestos or petitions. But I signed The West Georgia Redneck Declaration. Indeed I am among the original signatories to that statement, which will be released to the public at the National Press Club tonight. Why?

I explain below...

There are several reasons, but they all come down to this — I believe West Georgia rednecks are facing an inevitable and culture-determining decision on issues centrally identified in this statement. I also believe that rednecks will experience a significant loss of freedom to carry shotguns in their pickups and be miserably halted in chewing tobacco at O'Charley's. 

There is every good reason to believe the freedom to conduct tractor-pulls at all county fairs is being subverted and denied before our eyes. I believe that the sanctity of the Confederate Flag and making mulberry wine (unfermented, of course) are very much in danger at this very moment.

The signatories to The West Georgia Redneck Declaration miraculously include evangelical leaders, as well as leaders from the Roman Catholic Church and the Willie Nelson Foundation. The full statement establishes the priority of the issues addressed:

I signed The West Georgia Redneck Declaration because I believe it is an historic statement of conviction and courage that is both timely and urgent.

I signed The West Georgia Redneck Declaration because I write a theological blog, serve as a yardman at a church, and am engaged in various festivities in the public square, including the well-known annual West Georgia Rebel-Yell Extravaganza.

I signed The West Georgia Redneck Declaration because it is a limited statement of basic conviction on these crucial issues, and not a wide-ranging document that subverts integrity.

My beliefs concerning yankees and Southern non-rednecks have not changed. Yankees teach doctrines I find abhorrent. But The West Georgia Redneck Declaration does not attempt to establish common ground on these matters. We remain who we are--West Georgia Rednecks!  And we concede no ground.

Finally, I signed The West Georgia Redneck Declaration because I want to put my name on its final pledge — that we West Georgia rednecks will not bend the knee to Yankee power. 

I want my name on that list. I surrendered no conviction or integrity to sign that statement.

My readers deserved to hear reasons why I signed The West Georgia Redneck Declaration.

With that, I am...

Peter

Migrating away from a comfortable environment is not the most pleasant thing for a non-cybertech guy such as myself.  It's doggone scary, in fact.  But fear is after all a legitimate motive. 

Anyways, I really wanted to state yet once again my policies on commenting.  I've had the same ones in place since my first attempt at blogging on the old blogspot.com (//link, //link).

And, no one more than I am aware that there have been some very heated exchanges on this site.  Hence, my policies were kinda like what we now reference as blue laws.

Those days are forever over.

And, they will remain so.

Period.

Again, out of what I viewed as a basic liberty for folks to express themselves, I reasoned those who made fools of themselves once or maybe twice, would learn from their mistakes and settle down.

Well, my reasoning was dead wrong. 

Enlightenment!

Hence, a moment of enlightenment finally squeezed through a tiny window into my teeny weeny brain---  

If I am footing the bill for this site, I'll be dogged if I'm going to allow uncontrollable people to emotionally discharge their I'm-having-a-very-bad-life-and-now-you-and-everybody-else-will-too nonsense here.

Or, perhaps a better way to say it is, commenting on someones site is not a right; it is a privilege.

Even more applicable to our faith community is this:  it's about grace not justice.

Who but the Inspired Apostle says it best:  "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ" (Eph. 4:15 ESV).

SBC Tomorrow:  Deceitful?

I say this because presently a fellow blogger took it upon himself/herself to disparage me over a comment he/she insists was "promptly deleted" because, in the blogger's view, "those things" in the comment I "promptly deleted" was going to "hurt [my] point." 

Indeed the blogger concludes me "dishonest," "dangerous," and even a  perpetual, sinful "liar" for allegedly this remains my personal standard:

"This is not the first time he [i.e. Peter] has done this either to me or others. He is not above manipulating facts to show himself right. That is dangerous and it is sin."

How utterly edifying!...I think...

No wait! 

On second thought, I think I was being condemned not encouraged.

What do you think? (LOL)

Our fellow family faith-member finally concludes his or her blog was written not to "hurt Peter Lumpkin’s [sic] reputation."  Instead the desire was to "set the facts straight on an otherwise nonfactual point."

Well, thank you very much!

Nevertheless...

There really are a few things left out of our fellow family-faith member's account, things which may color the picture pasted there in slightly different shadings. 

Allow me to quickly list them.

Just keepin er real!

A) No comment was deleted.  None.  Period.  I didn't even know there was a comment (see below).  As I've often said, I don't delete comments. Only fools delete comments. Every insult ever hurled at me (or I at another ;^) I have saved in cyberspace. Hence, no he said/she said allowed.  Those I judge unsuitable, I unpublish them.  There is a huge difference.

Even so,

B) The comment the blogger claims was "promptly deleted" is not unpublished either!  Why?  Because it never made it to the comment stream.  And, why's that?

Glad you asked...

C) The blogger in question has their IP flagged and any comment posted goes to the 'spam bucket'.

Flagging IPs is helpful but tricky.  Also, words may be flagged in a post.  For example, I could put "liar" to 'flag' and that would ban anyone on my site from calling another person a liar.  Nifty.  But it would also ban somebody from quoting Jesus (Jn.8.44). In addition, some who are aware of a few tricks can keep changing their IPs to keep commenting.  These people are the ones who wrongly think commenting on someone's site is a matter of free speech.  They are also very, very dissatisfied with life.

Plain bored is a good way to put it...

D) The blogger in question has repeatedly been warned on this site to stop the emotionally-driven outbursts, attacking rather than dealing with the ideas under dispute.  Just scanning the quotes above taken from their present post gives one the flavor of past comments here. Moreover, the commenter knows their IP has been flagged.

Hence, the comment I'm supposed to have "promptly deleted" did not make in onto the thread; instead I found it in the 'spam bucket' where, in my view, it should have gone.  Incidentally, I would not have known the comment was in the bucket (typepad rightly doesn't notify the adm. when spam is delivered) had I not seen the blogger's IP in my "referred" list of IPs on my dashboard. 

Sometimes I've found legitimate comments in the 'spam bucket'.  How they got there I do not know.  Friends have called me and asked jokingly, "Did you ban me?"  'Nope' is my reply. For some reason, typepad confidently decided to 'flag' one all by itself.  Heck, by going to the 'spam bucket' on this occasion, the very first comment listed was a legitimate one which I restored on the very post under question and subsequently offered my regret to the welcome commenter (//link). 

With this in mind, I'm very careful not to assume others 'delete me' or 'ban me' when a comment I logged doesn't show up the way I thought it should. Also, when all is said, it's down right arrogant to assume a comment I may have logged did not make it public because it definitively hurts somebody's point really bad.  Perhaps I just may be overly excited with myself or my ability. 

I've also learned careful writers who have their act together are rarely intimidated by either facts or alternate understanding of the facts in question.

Welcome!

So, who is welcome at SBC Tomorrow? 

Why you are, of course! 

But I warn you..

Don't think you can march right in, sit right down, and spray emotional bile all over my rug.

You will be 'flagged.'**  Period.

Grace to all today.

With that, I am...

Peter

With that, I am...

Peter