No Time for Stupid

Yesterday on the famous FFF (which I guess would make it the FFFF), SlapuPappy got busted, I mean, banned. He posted an avatar of a nude woman giving the viewer the finger. It lasted on his posts for an hour or less. But of course as soon as I saw it, I knew he was gone. It was offensive across the board.

Slap has always had a good profession of faith on the FFF, and he has been a clear reasoner, when he chooses. I'd given him credit for a lot more sense than many pastors who post there. I would never have expected him to do such a thing.

As soon as I saw the avatar, I thought why did he do this? My best guess is he got a kick out of offending the people he disliked. But then, he could have ably done that without posting a nude picture in an avatar. I mean, it's not like you have go very far to offend stiff-necked legalists. You certainly don't have to resort to anything that is truly offensive. Most of the fun is in offending them with harmless stuff and watching them go purple as they try (and fail) to condemn it from the Bible.

I think he was bitten by the Invincibility bug. He thought he could get away with it. The management of his pranks and writing shifted from reasoning and commenting on the failure of Fundamentalism to an outlook of "See how smart I am" or "See what I can get away with."

A similar thing happened a few weeks ago when the famous and able "DrD" was banned from the FFF. He was warned against profanity and used it anyway. And so he was banned. When that happened I wondered at his uncommon silliness in posting profanity after being warned. Do these people really think the webmaster has such a large genuine affection for them that he will not ban them when they defy even the nmost sensible of rules?

Anybody who has a good working knowledge of the Bible can reason from Scripture without resorting to anything else. And anybody who wants to prove himself smarter than a pack of white shirted, white walled, barely-educated men in a corrupt system can do so without resorting to gutter language or gutter iconography.

If you want to claim a victory over the ignorance and bad doctrine that goes unchecked in Fundamentalism at large, then this is no time for Stupid. It's no time for the invincibility syndrome. The rules of the game have been laid out, and the able players can easily win while observing the rules. You can be witty, resourceful, knowledgeable, and even sarcastic. You cannot be lewd or profane, and furthermore, you don't need to be.