{"id":86167,"date":"2020-06-27T00:16:12","date_gmt":"2020-06-27T06:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=86167"},"modified":"2020-06-27T00:16:12","modified_gmt":"2020-06-27T06:16:12","slug":"from-a-ridiculous-obnoxious-arrogant-lunatic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/06\/from-a-ridiculous-obnoxious-arrogant-lunatic.html","title":{"rendered":"From a ridiculous obnoxious arrogant lunatic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Cairo,<\/a>
A view of some mosques in Cairo, where my wife and I spent the first four years of our marriage\u00a0
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response to something that I posted about a year and a half ago regarding Joseph Smith, a belligerent new individual appeared on my blog quite irrelevantly denouncing the use of religion \u201cto demean, degrade, dismiss, demonize and dehumanize our fellow human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

When I suggested that there was nobody on my blog \u2014 certainly including myself \u2014 who favors\u00a0demeaning, degrading, dismissing, demonizing, and dehumanizing other human beings, he assured me that religious people do precisely that in the name of \u201cgodliness\u201d or \u201crighteousness\u201d and suggested that I would reveal myself to be just such a person if I were to share my\u00a0views on immigrants and Muslims.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I thought that was pretty funny. \u00a0I told him that he shouldn\u2019t assume that I\u2019m an anti-Muslim bigot, that I write about Islam pretty much every day on my blog, and that, within sixty seconds or less of browsing through it, he would have a very good idea of my position on the subject.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

He refused, and he became increasingly nasty. \u00a0Having demanded to know my \u201cviews\u201d regarding Muslims, he angrily told me that he wasn\u2019t really interested in my opinions. \u00a0He couldn\u2019t be bothered to look at the blog on which he was, at that very moment, commenting. \u00a0Then he again demanded to know my views on the subject, attempting to charm me into further discussion by calling me a \u201cridiculous lunatic,\u201d \u201ca ridiculous obnoxious arrogant lunatic,\u201d and an \u201cobnoxious arrogant cult worshipper.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

His attempts, though, were in vain. \u00a0Tempted though I was to spend an hour or two conversing with such a winsome new acquaintance, I simply didn\u2019t have the time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I get a huge kick out of people like this. \u00a0I wonder what they\u2019re like in everyday life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I also get an odd kick out of occasional suggestions that I\u2019m an anti-Islamic bigot. \u00a0I was, in fact, actually once disinvited from speaking at an Australian university on the grounds that my remarks would be divisive, hostile to Islam, and bigoted. \u00a0That was a genuinely weird experience. \u00a0I guess that my creation of the Islamic Translation Series<\/a>, my book titled Abraham Divided<\/em><\/a>, and my biography Muhammad: Prophet of God<\/em><\/a> weren\u2019t enough to overcome the completely nonexistent evidence that I\u2019m a zealous anti-Muslim polemicist.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

P.S. \u00a0Had my new online friend been even remotely curious, I might have eventually pointed to a clue that might have helped him to understand my attitude toward refugees, on which he also requested my views while assuring me that he wasn\u2019t interested in my opinions.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I was among the signers of the document to which this article refers:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAmici Curiae Brief by Scholars of Mormonism<\/a> Opposed to Trump\u2019s Refugee and Immigrant Ban\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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