From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Jul 30 1996 - 07:25:39 EDT
At 9:28 AM -0400 7/29/96, David John Marotta wrote:
>
>As a further note. The BIBLE list has undergone some changes recently in
>attempts to keep the discussion civil and elevate a voice of reason over
>the general discussion. Many have faulted our efforts and many more have
>praised them. All in all I as List Owner am very pleased with the changes.
I can only chime in with the chorus of praise.
>2. Should be able to call yourself an Evangelical Christian, or be
>very sympathetic to Evangelical Christians. There is no assumption of
>religious faith on the B-GREEK list. But the list has a lot of evangelical
>Christians who come looking for a list to help them study the Greek
>testament better. There are scholars who can handle these budding
>armchair scholars with grace and encourage them in their endevors and there
>are those who cannot. I want only those who can as part of the B-GREEK
>board. Those who cannot will benefit from the board's work anyway.
>(Hence if you view being on the Board as an opportunity to blast away
>all those who post inappropriately, you shouldn't apply) There is no
>creedal assumptions I have in mind. And the litmus test toward Evangelicals
>is only because they are a majority of the non-Professors on the list.
>I would expect the same grace to be applied to other non-scholars.
I feel somewhat awkward in commenting on this, as I am certainly not at
Evangelical Christian although I am a committed believer. And the list
owner is in his rights in setting forward whatever criteria he prefers. I
would agree that it is imperative that respect be shown to Evangelical
Christians, but I would think it is equally imperative that respect be
shown to those who are not--and in fact that is what the final sentence
cited above states clearly. I have been guilty of some loose commentary
myself over the course of years I've been contributing to B-Greek and have
written some things that I regret deeply. But I think inflammatory comments
have come from all segments of the spectrum from time to time (I've
occasionally been on the receiving end of evangelical flames), and I'm a
bit puzzled why Evangelical Christians as such should be better able to
keep the peace and keep the discussion civil than others.
All in all, I welcome the proposed suggestions of our list-owner.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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