Internet Assassins
Carlos printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 01:31:59 PM EST
Vision Forum, a far right Christian organization, is trying to defend itself from critics. The critics of Vision Forum are not secularists, liberal Christians, nor even conservative Christians. The critics are fundamentalist Baptists who are concerned about the harsh reconstructionist ideas that appear to be at the theological center of Vision Forum.
These Baptists may not have a sizable budget like Vision Forum, but they are resourceful enough to spread their ideas through websites and blogs. They began their criticism over a year ago, but only now has Vision Forum decided to respond. Apparently they are feeling some economic stress. The head of Vision Forum, Doug Phillips, writes:

The twenty-first century world of the Internet, instant global communication, and theological pandemonium provides dishonorable men with numerous opportunities to skirt biblical requirements for conflict resolution, to cover their tracks -- or simply, to vent. In the past, dishonorable men would serve their family a dish of "roast pastor" at the Sunday brunch table (thus training their children to be embittered, ungrateful whiners), but modern complainers are techno-savvy. Now dissatisfied congregants can dishonorably vent disagreements with their leaders to the world over the Web. Some actually become Internet assassins -- men and women intent on destroying the character of the men with whom they disagree, and justifying their electronic "holy jihad" on the grounds that "the world must be warned."

What I take from this seemingly irrelevant and sordid affair is that small (and distant as one of the bloggers is from New Zealand) information outposts with strong ideas can have a great impact on larger organizations or wider movements like the religious right.

Another observation is that an organization is much more sensitive to criticism from within their own cultural and theological circles than from outside these circles. Vision Forum is apparently having a meltdown because they are very anxious they may not be able to continue selling their products to millions of fundamentalist Baptists in the US.




Display:
defensiveness from Vision Forum click here.

by Carlos on Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 01:37:56 PM EST

that their "Statements of Doctrine" are, in the following order:

    * Statement of Faith
    * The Tenets of Biblical Patriarchy
    * A Puritan Catechism
    * A Biblical Confession on Creation
    * A Biblical Confession on Hermeneutics
    * A Declaration of Life
    * A Biblical Confession for Uniting Church and Home

??????????


by anomalous4 on Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 04:33:02 PM EST

I think you are getting the picture here of their bizarre set of priorities.

Another example of a smallish blog-fueled group of people who pestered a large organization with some success is what happened this summer at the Southern Baptist Convention.

by Carlos on Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 05:20:55 PM EST
Parent



Related to this story is the fact that Doug Phillips has taken a special interest in the Ligonier Ministries lawsuit against blogger Frank Vance. Phillips has been writing about the law and bloggers and he's even made reference to a recent front page USA Today article in which his friends at Ligonier are mentioned. The Ligonier Ministries lawsuit debacle has proven to be a continual series of embarrassments for Ligonier and they were recently compelled by donor pressure to withdraw their suit. As a donor-funded organization what they've discovered is that many of their donors don't want to see their contributions squandered in legal fees suing bloggers. Apparently they've lost a huge amount of financial support as a result.

by John on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 07:04:40 PM EST

Carlos has written a good blog post about internet assassins here, and I appreciate this. There's no content about online marketing and seo services pricing Marketing 1on1 in Los Angeles here, which is a bit disappointing, but other than that, I am pleased.


by LayneMarvin on Sun Jan 19, 2020 at 02:27:04 AM EST


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