Comments on: Wallbuilder's Rick Green defends comments about pediatrics associations

By: Warren

Warren — Wed, 30 May 2018 22:06:55 +0000

In reply to BobN.

BobN – I don’t think Liberty has a medical school. If they do, then I would be wrong in my statement because I feel sure they would use ACP’s material.

By: Warren

Warren — Wed, 30 May 2018 22:04:04 +0000

In reply to Kurtis. Kurtis - I agree it is easy. What is mystifying to me is that the fish seems to swim with a force field.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Wed, 30 May 2018 19:45:32 +0000

It is truly sad how they continue to peddle this tripe, and the ACP in general. It is my conviction that they deviously portrayed the ACP in such a manner so as to plant a seed in the minds of their audience. The listening audience in all likelihood would not bother to look this up themselves as they would take the word of David Barton as gospel, after all, he is a ‘Christian’. Their job well done would allow their audience to go forth and tell their neighbors, church friends, and so on.
Such deceit is beyond reproach, and is tantamount to lying in its most disgusting of forms.
Such mountebanking from a Christian no less.

By: ken

ken — Wed, 30 May 2018 19:45:32 +0000

William# ~ Aug 15, 2011 at 6:01 pm
“Using similar logic, the Jehovah’s Witnesses could no doubt call themselves the leading Christian denomination in the western world.”
And so could the Westboro Baptist Church.
Hey Bernie, did you (or Warren) invite Rick Green to post on this blog? (I have no illusions of Barton showing up on any forum where he doesn’t control the discussion).

By: StraightGrandmother

StraightGrandmother — Wed, 30 May 2018 19:45:32 +0000

Props to my peep Bernie!!!
Me ‘n Bernie get around 🙂
You done good Bernie <3

By: David Roberts

David Roberts — Wed, 30 May 2018 19:37:41 +0000

Timothy, I’m not entirely sure I agree that it applies to Green’s statements concerning the ACP, but I do concur with your observations in general. Further, this phenomenon seems to be growing, feeding on itself. Once you split from reality and justify the split with a faith that must take precedence over all, the schism widens exponentially.
The farther one moves from reality, the more one justifies that move by highlighting even more differences. In the end, many use this departure as a destination, taking literally the idea that Christians are aliens in this world, that we represent a higher TRUTH, etc. This enables all sorts of malevolent behavior in the service of the TRUTH.
Those who don’t make the jump are considered weak for compromising the TRUTH (Alan Chambers is using that meme all over the place right now). The comparison to mental illness is perhaps apt, but it feels more cult-like to me. Perhaps there is a thin line there.

By: David Roberts

David Roberts — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:24:04 +0000

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:34:08 +0000

Most of the comments here assume that Green knows that he was deceiving his listeners. Most assume that when he says that “leading” has a different meaning that he was just being defensive and knows better.
I disagree.
Green wasn’t lying or deceiving. Or, at least, not more than he was deceiving himself.
I am becoming more and more convinced that some segments of evangelical Christianity are suffering from mental illness. A voluntary mental illness.
Their reaction to what they see, hear, or otherwise experience is filtered through a screen of TRUTH and if it differs, it is discarded as false. A bizarre form of faith (one that is the opposite of real faith) demands that there is a separate TRUTH that comes from God which replaces whatever reality has to say.
It doesn’t matter if the Buddhist says that he’s at peace, TRUTH says that he is miserable without Christ. It doesn’t matter that their behavior towards gay people is experiences as spiteful and hateful and possesses no attributes listed in 2 Corinthians, what you see as cruelty is actually LOVE. It doesn’t matter that ACP is a tiny ban of malcontents, FAITH says they are leading.
And sure that is understandable in a Culture War kind of thinking in which you lead with your talking points.
But they believe it. And that is insane.

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:34:08 +0000

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 05:15:18 +0000

I don’t see how the ACP could be deemed a “leading” organization in any sense of the word. I checked out their website. As far as I can tell from the site, their activities from 2004 to 2011 consist largely of 1) issuing approximately two dozen short (one- or two-page) position statements and a comparable number of short press releases, most of which simply announce the issuance of the position statements, and; 2) sending one letter to school superintendents.
As for the first item, there is no evidence that anyone is reading these statements, let alone that they are having any impact on public health policy. The statements are so brief, so conclusiory, and cite so few authorities, it is difficult to imagine that they would or could have any meaningful impact on policy.
The second item, the ACP’s April 2010 letter to school superintendents, paradoxically left me both confused and enlightened. I was confused b/c the ACP claims to have sent this letter “to all 14,800 school district superintendents in the U.S.” (http://www.acpeds.org/College-Cautions-Educators-About-Sexual-Orientation-in-Youth.html). However, in August 2008, the ACP denounced a brochure on sexual orientation sent by the AAP, the NEA, and APA to “all 16,000 public school superintendents in the United States.” (http://www.acpeds.org/On-the-Promotion-of-Homosexuality-in-the-Schools.html)
One would hope that people who have the power to dispense prescriptions for children also possess a predilection for accuracy when using numbers. As I assume that must be the case with the members of the ACP, I am left to wonder what terrible fate befell 1,200 school superintendents during 2008 and 2009. I hope they are alright.
For what it’s worth, the AAP letter to the school superintendents did enlighten me about the group. You see, the subject that the AAP thought was so important as to warrant sending its one and only letter to school superintendents was, as you might have guessed, homosexuality. Not drug abuse, not school violence, not nutrition, not the stress of economic instability and unemployment, not even sexual issues generally. No, only homosexuality moved the ACP to action. Similarly, of the 5 position statements the ACP has issued on “Sexuality Issues,” 3 are addressed to homosexuality, and 1 is directed at “gender identity.” The ACP has issued a grand total of 1 position statement on an issue, sex education, which might impact the 96% of students who identify as heterosexual. Of the 9 position statements the ACP issued on “Parenting Issues,” 3 are concerned with homosexuality and 1 with traditional marriage.
I would suggest that these priorities do not reflect the actual health concerns regarding children in the United States, but rather reflect the same obsession with gays that we see in political organizations like in the American Family Association and the Family Research Council. Of course, the ACP can spend its time talking about whatever it likes. But it can hardly be considered a “leading” organization when it prioritizes its ideological neuroses over critical issues in pediatrics.