HP & the Bible; Abanes Discussions

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 17580

Hi everyone --

Well, you get at least one more post from me before I disappear for
awhile ....

I've read through the posts from this morning & early afternoon.  I have
a few points to make:

1.  Mr. Abanes -- you just indicated that the tone of your posts was not
rude or sarcastic (you ascribed that to "someone named Doreen").  You
might want to take a look at the post titled Abanes Answers Witch
(#17550).  You were responding to John Walton's post, and indeed, your
response is arguably rude & sarcastic in tone at different points.  You
indicated yesterday evening that the forum is for *adults* and you asked
that we debate with you in a rational manner.  That is all well & good.
But, you should remember that typing in all CAPS is rude (common
netiquette rule).  It is considered the equivalent of screaming.

Remarks such as "You do have your head in the sand, don't you?"  and
"Ok, so now we suddenly know what divination is?" are unnecessarily rude
or sarcastic.  Remarks such as "pa-leese" also don't add to your case
for a rational debate.  In other words, you set the tone for messages
that followed that were perhaps not as polite to you as you might have
hoped.  But, you cannot expect that we will be polite & courteous to
you, while allowing you to speak in a sarcastic or rude manner to us.
In other words, please get the tone of the debates back on track by
employing a more politic manner yourself (you might want to review our
Netiquette Guidelines -- in the Files area).

2.  Please take note that this is a friendly but diverse group of
adults.  We are Christians, Jews, Muslims, pagans, Wiccans, no religion,
etc.  We span the globe.  The common denominator is that we are *fans*
of the HP books.  Someone has been asking you to please state your
objective in discussing your book with us, and you have thus far
declined to answer that question.  If your objective is to win converts
& have all of us suddenly "see the light" and renounce the evil HP
series, you have set yourself an impossible task.

3.  If your objective is to discuss your book with us, I would suggest
that you solicit an interested group of members to continue the
discussions off-list (or perhaps bring them back on-list).  At this
point, I don't believe anyone other than Dave has purchased or read a
copy of your book.  There might be a group of members who would be
interested in buying your book & debating the contents with you.  At
this point though, the debate is rather meaningless as none (or very
few) of us have read it.

You insinuated (quite strongly) in your message last night that *I* was
not being very intellectual in simply taking Dave's opinion of your book
at face value.  I would like to assure you that you mis-read my
message.  You might have missed my point that the brick & mortar
main-line bookstore chains in Houston do not appear to carry your book
in-stock.  Ahem. This means I went to the trouble of *asking* the
question of the bookstores.  I tried to find your book.  I checked the
HP section, religious section & New in Nonfiction sections at 3
different stores.  I asked the clerks -- none of the clerks queried had
any idea what I was talking about.  In each case, when they looked it
up, they said it was a title that they did not stock but could special
order for me.

I might still read your book as a point of intellectual curiosity.  I
would, however, have preferred to pick up a copy at my local B&N or
Borders & physically perused it first rather than ordering it sight
unseen from amazon.  Reason: The reviews on amazon.com (both those who
loved your book & gave it 5 stars & those who did not enjoy it so much),
now coupled with Dave's post, had made me leery that it's something that
I will find useful.  Now, I can add your posts to this group as yet
another reason that I might not be eager to buy it sight unseen.  This
doesn't mean I won't at some point -- but continued messages in a
sarcastic high-handed manner are likely to put me off a bit.

4.  You might also want to take note that the members of this group are
extraordinarily well-versed in the HP books.  Many of us can cite
chapters & quotes without even checking the books.  And, we do enjoy a
good debate.  We won't ban topics of discussion without good reason, but
if the posts regarding a particular topic become unnecessarily
contentious and tempers begin to flare, the Moderators may step in.

I won't be around much in the next few days or longer, but I trust that
the other Moderators are on top of this debate.

Penny