I got a takedown request the other day. On the one hand, I know the importance of not needlessly offending an endless conga line of random people. On the other hand, I do not respond well to veiled threats of false accusations.
Mr. Gunner Q,
I discovered my church and myself are the subject of one of your recent blog posts.
https://gunnerq.androsphere.net/2020/03/14/the-endgame-of-christian-convergence/
Your blog, however, contains an inaccurate statement about the ministries of the congregation, remarks which I deem defamatory and slanderous to my personal and professional character, and a quote without attribution, making it misleading.
I kindly request that you remove my photo, your defamatory remarks against me and your inaccurate statements about the congregation’s ministries.
R/S,
Eddie McCoven
Communication & Media Specialist
Clairemont Lutheran Church / Iglesia Luterana
I would be sympathetic to setting the record straight but alas, Eddie didn’t mention what exactly I was wrong about. I am not sympathetic to “shut up because you’re wrong”.
Who is Eddie, anyway? I can’t recall offhand.
From the above link:
…
One prominent example is the Clairemont Lutheran Church in San Diego, which has been trying to include an affordable housing component to the redevelopment of a dilapidated fellowship hall on its property since 2015. Their plans required building over existing spaces in the church’s underutilized parking lot, and that ran afoul of a city code that ties parking requirements for churches to the square inches of pew space that they have.
I looked them up and they’re an unremarkable church. No female/vibrant pastor. No LGBT flag draped over the Cross. Most of the officers are female and child care is all the church does besides the weekly sermon. Seems every church is like that.
.Two weeks of the year that parking lot is utilized to the full extent. 50 weeks of the year it’s not,. says Eddie McCoven, a spokesperson for the Clairemont Lutheran Church.
.We drove all the men away and now can’t afford to stay open. We could repent of female empowerment but instead, we’ll let militant atheists house illegal immigrants on our land. Section 8 housing forced upon our neighbors is how God loves humanity!.
Eddie McCoven. Half-problem glasses, neckbeard and a career journalist. The physiognomy interpretation of neckbeards is that they outline the jaw & chin. Occam’s razor: neckbeards don’t want to look like the chinless fat kid that they probably are. But it might also be cultural. Facial hair goes in and out of style. Eddie doesn’t look like a lumbersexual, however.
…
I’m surprised that Eddie has issues with what I’ve written. Did I slander Eddie by suspecting that he WASN’T a lumbersexual or that he chose his grooming to appear more respectable? Should I assume he has six-pack abs like no neckbeard or photographer I’ve ever met?
Did I slander his church for thinking they DON’T fly the rainbow freak flag? I honestly don’t knew because he didn’t say.
I kindly request that you remove my photo, your defamatory remarks against me and your inaccurate statements about the congregation’s ministries.
No, no and blasphemy.
No, Eddie, I will not remove your photo. You do not get to put a selfie in the public domain while prohibiting people from looking at it and sharing potentially unflattering conclusions. I used it, unaltered, according to Fair Use laws for my research in physiognomy. Had you read my blog for longer than it took to get offended, you would know that such brief critiques are how I treat everybody I come across in the headlines.
Had you simply requested a removal then I would have done so because it wasn’t important to the post. Because you “deemed” that my sharing one publicly available picture and writing one paragraph musing about your facial hair and choice of glasses was tantamount to a campaign of slander and defamation, however, doing so could be construed as an admission of guilt. My best defense from your slanderous suspicions is refusing to act as if I have anything to hide.
TL;DR The next time you ask somebody to kindly do something for you, don’t talk as if you’re planning a lawsuit against them.
No, I will not remove the public statements you made to news media about the political activities of your church. Neither will I remove the opinions that as both a California taxpayer and a Christian, I am fully entitled to.
Lastly, your church is reported-by-you-Eddie to be housing homeless in its facilities in partnership with California’s anti-Christian state government. The problem of homelessness is not a lack of housing. Most homeless are either crazy or drug addicts. The temporary homeless, the guys living in his car until the first couple paychecks add up to a housing deposit? Those guys don’t even appear in your Social Justice system because they have self-respect and want to rejoin society faster than it takes to process the paperwork.
Your church helps Sacramento in its efforts to introduce druggies, crazies and trash-spewers into previously safe neighborhoods. Furthermore, your church’s efforts are being made in defiance of local government that is tasked with providing utilities and emergency services to its residents. That is betrayal of your neighbors, not hospitality to your neighbors, and is therefore blasphemy against Christ when you do it in His name.
State Senator Scott Wiener, the government official heading this housing-for-homeless program, is possibly the most active, most unrepentant and most outspoken homosexual activist in all of North America. Christ does not permit us to associate with the unrepentant and degenerate! And yet, your church follows Scott’s direction? Again, blasphemy!
If I’m wrong about any of this then you are welcome to correct me… but you are not welcome to SILENCE me.
You have three options now, Eddie. One, you can follow Christ’s advice to turn the other cheek. Just shrug and ignore that unpleasant fellow and move along with your life. I’ll go back to forgetting you exist and you’ll be a better human being for demonstrating patience.
Two, you can criticize me right back. It’s the Protestant way of settling disputes, after all. I don’t mind but use your own social media.
Three, you can disobey Christ AGAIN by involving secular third parties in a dispute between believers over matters of conscience.
Your choice. Have a kindly day.
Good for you, Gunner Q. Thanks for standing up to the hireling. The libel was probably when you outed him as being a Lutheran. LOL
Most defamatory words about him, in my opinion, were:
Occam.s razor: neckbeards don.t want to look like the chinless fat kid that they probably are. But it might also be cultural. Facial hair goes in and out of style
But you were pretty clear that you were guessing, not making judgements.
Maybe he found “career journalist” insulting. I could see someone possibly being offended at being included in the group “career journalist”, given the dishonesty on display at the MSM outlets.
Move on….
I was offended by the term “parking spaces”, which clearly is an anti- Anglo Saxon slur.
Damned Right!
Now, um… What is a lumbersexual?
Whatever he said goes double from me. Fat boy.
Eddie McCoven. Apt surname for a church that’s apparently dominated by women, even if its titular head is not one.
Then again, aren’t they all?
“Now, um. What is a lumbersexual?”
Typically a resident of Northern California or Oregon, they’re men who adopt external indicators of masculinity–plaid shirts & leather work aprons, impressive beards, outdoor hobbies and often enough exercise to be fit if not muscled–but don’t adopt internal aspects of masculinity such as outcome independence or assertiveness.
It’s not an insulting term. They try harder than many other men to be masculine. Some stereotypes are just fun to play with. No ill will intended until the Karens come along.
In fact, it’s become a subculture of its own, world-renowned for its craft beers. Hence this parody:
https://babylonbee.com/news/popular-new-craft-ipa-just-bottle-of-pine-sol
Mc = Son. So we get Son of Coven.
Sometimes God makes it easy.