The Language of this Blog - The Sacred and The Profane

You may have noticed two gadgets on the right side of this blog, the Cuss-O-Meter and the Intelligence Meter. I have a Cuss-O-Meter Rating of Absolute Zero and a Genius Rating for my blog, both ratings I intend to keep.

I have been accused of ingorance because I do not use the Language of Calvinism, which I call Calvin's Cant. I do not usually use the words Mongerism, Prevenient, Reprobation, Supralapsarianism, or other words in the dictionary of Calvin's Cant. Granted, I could guarantee my Genius Rating by using these long words, but it there isn't sufficient cause to do so. To tell the Truth, it would be easier for me to cuss on this blog than to use Calvin's Cant, hence my use of the Cuss-O-Meter. I am certainly capable of understanding Calvin's Cant, just as I understand Profanity; however, neither is part of my Normal Vocabulary. Using Profanity makes me feel unclean, but using Calvin's Cant makes me feel even worse.

You may have noticed that my positions are extremely critical of Calvinsm, yet though I am among the Arminians, my arguments are not Armenian arguments. This is because I am outside both Arminian and Calvinist Religious Traditions. I do not take the Middle Ground between Arminianism and Calvinism, but rather consider Arminianism to be the Middle Ground between myself and the Calvinists. I am not even a Protestant, though I started life as a Protestant. Then I grew up. My earliest years were spent debating the issues of Free Will and Predestination. Then Desiridus Erasmus came my way. As my thoughts turned elsewhere, the following Erasmus quote became more relavant:

. . . philosophers in their long beards and short cloaks, who esteem themselves the only favourites of wisdom, and look upon the rest of mankind as the dirt and rubbish of the creation: yet these men’s happiness is only a frantic craziness of brain; they build castles in the air, and infinite worlds in a vacuum.

As I grew, I became Eastern Orthodox by degrees, where I learned that I was partaking in the wrong debates altogether. Granted, Arminians were usually my allies, but it was only because John Wesley heavily borrowed Eastern Orthodox arguments to debate the Calvinists. Eastern Orthodoxy is a Major Branch of Christianity; wheras, Calvinism is but a splinter group in a different Branch of Christianity.

It would also be a mistake to consider me an Arminian. I do not draw my lines down Arminian versus Calvinist lines. I draw them down Orthodox versus Gnostic lines. Though the Gnostics are officially defunct, there are plenty of Neo-Gnostics about. My problem is that the Calvinists are making the very compromises that legitimize the Neo-Gnostics. The line I draw puts most of the Arminians on my side of the line, at least nominally. While the line is not necessarily coincident with the line between Calvinism and Arminianism, it certainly goes through the Calvinist Camp, probably somewhere near the line between Calvinism and HyperCalvinism.

Once this is understood, the Issues of the Consequences of Biblical Integrity, you will be more attuned to this blog. Calvinism makes too many sacrifices of the Integrity of the Bible, and gets the brunt of my pen's wrath; however, I find that Arminians are often lukewarm on this issue, although far more receptive.

Back to my point about Profanity and Calvin's Cant, I find that the language you use, as well as the language you don't use, reflects those who use it. That's why I avoid both Vocabularies, even though I can use both, and often interchangeably. In fact, if anyone complains on this blog that I don't understand Hermeneutics, I plan to reciprocate by visiting said person's blog and complain that they don't understand Profanity, possibly giving some examples. I'll not be judged as Duns Scotus was, for the excessive dichotomization and superfluous discoursing for which he earned his Crown, the Dunce Cap.