Thank you for honoring Badge's purpose

A reminder: "A Badge of Honor" was created so that people who have experienced unchristlike behavior at so-called Christian online groups and forums, may have a place to report this behavior. The intention is that two things may then happen: The person targeted by such behavior has the opportunity to tell the truth about what happened to him/her (since such venues often shroud their behavior in secrecy), and, through informing other Christians of what happens on these sites, positive change may be effected as members of such groups insist on more christlike behavior from their group leaders and one another.

The purpose of this site has been honored by those who have submitted stories and, for the most part, by those who have submitted comments to them. As always, comments are still welcome (with the exception of one non-story entry for which it is clearly posted that comments will not be accepted).

A number of "Badge" readers have been aware of one notable exception from an individual who blatantly attempted to divert discussion from the stories to grab for center stage for herself, demanding that I follow side issues, despite my statement that I will NOT do that. Again, I will NOT follow you elsewhere to discuss anything. IF you follow the same rules as anyone else, your own story can be posted and your comments will be accepted. IF your comments don't conform to the guidelines posted, they will not be accepted. It's really not difficult. I don't appreciate lies about Badge of Honor told elsewhere, but obviously I don't have any power to prevent people from lying. That's a matter for their own consciences. I really don't appreciate people targeting anyone who tells a Badge of Honor story for slander or ridicule. Again, however, it is beyond my power to prevent this kind of unchristlike, juvenile behavior. If you find yourself doing such things, the responsibility is entirely your own; I hope you find your conscience a tormenting companion until you repent and make amends. But whatever your reasons or lack thereof for this kind of misbehavior, remember that I will not permit you to engage in it here at Badge of Honor. That's not a matter of my "not accepting comments"; on the contrary, it is a matter of my enforcing some standards of Christian decency for comments at this venue.

As with nearly all entries, I will accept comments to this entry, so long as they conform to the posted guidelines. Please do not waste your time or mine by submitting comments that don't.

"Twerp's" Story

I am complementarian, and was also on the CCC board. I posted under the ID of twerp828. Some discussion -- I think it was whether women wearing slacks was biblical, or unbiblical, was getting pretty heated, and I simply said I would be not posting for a while, but reading. No one was attacking or flaming anybody or anything, as far as I can recall, including myself.

So Mike [McMillan], the list owner, kicked me off the list for saying that I would back away from the discussion underway.

I wrote to two complementarians about this, one is a man who is another moderater on the CCC list, and another man moderates another, much larger theologically oriented discussion forum.

The other moderator from the CCC discussion list wrote me off-list, and was not in the least supportive of Mike McMillan's decision, and the other man did not see the reason for kicking me off the list, either.

"Twerp" requested that we include this correction to the original story:

I just looked up the CCC moderator's comments to me. He actually wrote me BEFORE I was kicked off the list, and said it appeared that Mike was "pigeonholing" me unfairly, in his comments to me. I had said on the board that I would be asking some people to look at my posts and give me their assessments. This CCC moderator was one of the people I contacted. So he never said anything to me about disagreeing that I was kicked off the list, but he did seem to think Mike's comments to me during that particular discussion did not represent a fair assessment, it appeared to him. Just want to issue that correction.

I can understand quietly telling vocal egals that the list is for complementarian discussion only, and rejecting their posts, but the way I have seen both egals and comps kicked off that list, I mean the way the public e-mails are worded, is uncharitable, unchivalrous, and unChristlike.

Just my opinion.