Beckhorn Affair

[Skimmel_98 at yahoo.com]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C887
From: Skimmel_98
Subject: Re: Beckhorn Affair
Reply To: [Yahoo! #886] Re: Beckhorn Affair
Date: 4/3/00 11:20 am  (ET)

We have an easy defense against an actual Mr. Beckhorn. The founder of
the club can kick people out of the club and ban them. There was a point
last week when I gave serious consideration to suggesting we do just that.

The issue of reasoning with these folks is interesting. The problem
is NOT that they are literalists. The problem is that they are highly
selective. The Bible verse you cite saying that you should tolerate books
about witches means nothing while their Bible verse saying 'anyone who
implies witches are ok will fry in hell forever' are the direct verbatim
word of God. You can't reason with that. (I did have an argument in
college with a "literalist" who insisted that Jesus have five disciples
who were named Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul. I gave up. God had
told him that directly. Bible verses to the contrary meant nothing.)

The people we can argue with and make some headway are the schoolboards
and librarians. We have to argue and persuasively. I'm not sure First
Ammendment arguements are enough. Which leaves the question: What sort
of arguments should we develope? I think our attempts to reason with
Mr. Beckhorn may have been a start.