Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Gary Hedrick" <GaryH AT cjfm.org>]

I hear you, Bill; but I wonder if you would be kind enough to allow me to
interject a different perspective here? I think one of the wonders of
B-Hebrew is that conservatives and liberals (and those in-between) have
managed, at least up until now, to coexist on a single list. Some of us are
Jewish, others are Christian, and still others I'm not sure about. The
moderators walk a fine line, obviously; but I think they do it admirably
well. There may be shrill voices at the extremes, at times, who would like
to silence opposing viewpoints. But we work our way through those occasional
heated exchanges. A few months ago, we even had a gentleman land on this
list briefly who was obviously mentally unbalanced. He was finally banned
from the list, but only after it became obvious that the poor guy had a
problem none of us would be able to help him with. Over all, the moderators
manage, it seems to me, to avoid unnecessary censorship and keep us on the
subject of biblical Hebrew and related textual issues.

I for one would be uncomfortable with a policy that censors submissions
because they are not "in accordance with accepted scholarly principles."
There's just too much latitude there for interpretation. Accepted by whom? A
majority of scholars? Is the majority always right? Whom shall we say is the
final authority? These are sticky questions. Let's not put our moderators in
such a position. I doubt that any of them is even close to the Pope's pay
grade.

So that's my two cents' worth. Regards to all and have a great week,

Gary Hedrick
San Antonio, Texas USA

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Bill Rea
Sent: Sunday, June 14, 2009 4:57 PM
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [b-hebrew] Calling it quits

B-Hebrews,

I've decided that this list is so dysfunctional that I'm going to
unsubscribe as soon as I've finished posting this. It largely a waste of
time trawling through vast amounts of mostly irrelevant posts for the
occasional gem. I think its sad that the list is unable to operate as it
should. Its supposed to work in accordance with accepted scholarly
principles but one of the most vocal, and often, vicious list members
renounces science and scholarship except for his private definitions of
these. He is not alone. The list will never function properly while this is
tolerated. While some have recently said that the list what you make it,
that is not the case. It cannot be what it should be while science and
scholarship is rejected over and over and over and over and over. It just
sickening to read this stuff year after year after year. I give up.

Good bye.


Bill Rea Ph.D., ICT Services, University of Canterbury   \_
E-Mail bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz                         </   New
Phone +64-3-364-2331, Fax  +64-3-364-2332               /)  Zealand
Unix Systems Administrator                             (/'

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