IWO: Interactions with Others (2023)

Current IWO: Interactions with Others

Related link: Interactions with My Readers

On this page, I catalog interactions I have with people who are not my readers – at least not yet. I’m reaching out to them by commenting on the websites of others.

December 2023
  • Saturday, December 30, 2023 – Back in 2013, I answered an eBible question. I had forgotten this, but a recent notification from that site reminded me of it. All my activity on this site (which is not much) can be found by clicking on my name there or else clicking here.
  • Saturday, December 23, 2023 – Back in 2011, I was spending a lot of time engaging others – Christians and non-Christians – on their websites about the good news the Lord had shown me, such as The Biblical Case for Everyone Going to Heaven. One open-minded fellow, whose blog was called The Warfare Is Mental, decided to read and review that book. I never knew his name but he went by the lower-case initials “cl” on the site. He began writing a post on each chapter, but only got halfway through the book before he stopped blogging altogether. Fortunately, cl has kept his blog online for over ten years now. If you go to it and search on “Gantt,” you’ll find the posts he wrote about the book and the comments they generated.
  • Thursday, December 21, 2023 – On the Wintery Knight post titled “Church of England and Catholic Church offer blessings to same-sex couples,” I began this exchange with the site owner.
November 2023
  • Saturday, November 25, 2023 – On the post “Evangelical Christian college fires professor for taking Biblical position on homosexuality” at the Wintery Knight site, I made this comment in support of Aaron Edwards, Calvin Robinson, and Wintery Knight.
  • Saturday, November 25, 2023 – On the post “1 Peter: “Baptism…Now Saves You…’,” at Pre-Denominational Christianity, I posted this comment. An exchange between the site owner and me ensued. He abruptly closed the comments so that I was prevented from responding further. His message sounded cheery, but it was a passive-aggressive move on his part because he was censoring me in the process. Alas, being censored has been my experience with many websites over the years. Do you think I deserved to be silenced?
  • Friday, November 24, 2023 – I comment on Wintery Knight blog post “Paternity fraud case shows how pro-marriage conservatives see men as expendable.”
  • Wednesday, November 22, 2023 – I comment on Wintery Knight blog post “There are Roman Catholics in my family but I’m not one: why not?” Someone named “Theophilus” responded to my comment with this, to which I responded with this, which is “awaiting moderation” by the site owner. When, on the third day, my comment still had not been approved by the site owner, I posted this. [Update: By November 26, the blog owner at Wintery Knight had approved my comment (which included links to the two books).]
  • Wednesday, November 22, 2023 – I comment on Aaron Renn Substack essay “Thanksgiving Open Thread: Mysticism, Mystery and Re-enchantment.”
  • Sunday, November 19, 2023 – I publish a rebuttal to a Michael Shermer essay and title it “IWO: Michael Shermer’s Reasons for Rejecting Christianity” (7-min read). I make short reference to the rebuttal on this comment beneath his Substack article. The link to his essay “Why I Am Not a Christian” is here. (His essay was a rebuttal to Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s essay mentioned below on November 11 and 14.)
  • Sunday, November 19, 2023 – I respond to a commenter on a Wintery Knight blog post “Judge rules that man must pay $50,000 a month to ex-girlfriend for 10 years.”
  • Friday, November 17, 2023 – I comment on Jordan Schachtel’s Substack post “Shock Survey: 89% of Palestinians support terror groups known for suicide attacks, while 75% approve of October 7 massacre.” I don’t understand the point “Con Sider” is trying to make in his reply. I just want to find out if “75% of Palestinians” actually approve of the atrocities Hamas committed on October 7, or if Palestinians have been kept in the dark about the atrocities and have only been told that Hamas “struck back at the Israelis.” Getting people on either side of the conflict to speak precisely about what’s going on is proving difficult. Without clear knowledge, we cannot exercise good judgment. Therefore, having no opinion on a matter is better than having a poorly-informed one.
  • Wednesday, November 15, 2023 – Feminism seems to have taken deep root in American culture and it is hard to imagine hard-core feminists changing their minds. Yet it can happen, and I want to give you an example. Rosaria Butterfield, author and former tenured professor of English Literature at Syracuse University told her story (video – 36 min) at Liberty University last week. (Here’s a brief article about it in the student newspaper.) Her experience is of turning from being a lesbian who worked for LGBTQ+ rights to becoming a committed believer in Christ and wife to a minister. Her conversion took place over 20 years ago, so the genuineness of her faith has been proven. Her story is powerful, and it’s especially encouraging to hear of someone who had her perspective changed by reading the Bible.

    As is usual with churchgoers, you just have to mentally translate a few of her words to account for the coming of the kingdom of God – which she does not yet recognize. Specifically, when she says “church,” just think “family.” And when she says “hell” just think “on this earth, in this life,” not “after this life, somewhere else, forever and ever.”

    I’ve never read any of her books, but their titles seem to reflect the full length of her faith journey:
    • Crimes of Reading: Incest and Censorship in Mary Shelley’s Early Novels (Thesis, 1992)
    • The Politics of Survivorship: Incest, Women’s Literature, and Feminist Theory (1996)
    • The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into the Christian Faith (2012)
    • Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ (2015)
    • The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World (2018)
    • Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age (2023)
  • Tuesday, November 14, 2023 –
    • Bari Weiss re-publishes Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s November 11th statement of faith at The Free Press.
    • Weiss writes an interesting and supportive introduction to precede Ali’s statement,
    • but also, at the end of Ali’s statement, links to an atheistic rebuttal by Michael Shermer, strangely labeling it “Among the most thoughtful responses.”
    • Regarding Bari Weiss, consider Aaron Renn’s Substack post “Bari Weiss Is Not Your Friend,” but note that it was written about two years ago (subscription required, but you can get one for free).
  • Monday, November 13, 2023 –
    • Rod Dreher sympathetically relates Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s conversion to his own – A Christian of Convenience? – for The European Conservative.
    • Roger Kimball summarizes and extols Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s statement of faith – Why Atheism Is Insufficient – at The Epoch Times (limited access due to paywall).
  • Monday, November 13, 2023 – I comment on Wintery Knight‘s blog post “Report: Biden FBI Targeting Religious, Conservative, and Veteran Employees.”
  • Sunday, November 12, 2023 – I comment on Wintery Knight‘s blog post “Why Do So Many Atheist Historians Think That 1 Corinthians 15 Is Reliable History?“
  • Saturday, November 11, 2023 – Ayaan Hirsi Ali publishes a statement of faith – Why I Am Now a Christian – at Unherd. It created an immediate stir among intellectuals over the weekend. Her rationale for faith, and her understanding of the object of that faith, are understandably lacking in depth. That said, she’s a smart lady and sounds better grounded than, say, Kanye West was when he announced his conversion to Christianity in 2019. I have to wonder if Ali getting married in 2011 and having two children since had something to with why this globally-famous African-born Muslim who turned against Islam and toward atheism in the wake of 9/11 while in her early 30’s has now turned to Christianity in the wake of 10/7 while in her early 50’s. Some of us just have more distance to travel in getting from where we are to Jesus and the Bible.
  • Tuesday, November 7, 2023 – I comment on Wintery Knight‘s blog post “An Overview of No-Fault Divorce, and How One State Is Standing Against It.“
  • Monday, November 6, 2023 – I comment on Wintery Knight‘s blog post “William Lane Craig Lectures on Naturalism at the University of St. Andrews.” Several exchanges ensue.

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Although I’ve had innumerable interactions with innumerable blogs and websites over the last decade and a half, I didn’t begin keeping this page until November 2023.

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