Bagworms and Blogs
Filed Under (Roderick's Posts, bluejays, cults/cultic, ethics, harassment, hyperpreterism, tactics, terminology) by Roderick_E on 07-05-2009
Tagged Under : bagworms, blogging
Besides theology, I enjoy a nice relaxing time doing gardening in my yard (see here). Many articles have been spawned as I take time to meditate & reflect while griming in the soil to plant or when plucking some weeds.
Last night I took some time to carefully remove bagworms from an evergreen/pine tree. Bagworms attach themselves to the host tree, looking very much like pine cones. A casual observer may think the bagworms belong to the tree when actually they are parasites that are destroying the tree one branch at a time. It starts with just one lone bag that eventually breaks open with over 1000 larvae in each bag. In time, an entire evergreen would be destroyed by what at first seemed innocent enough.
Heresies are like bagworms. They may look like they are part of the tree. Casual observers may even get upset to see someone removing bagworms from a tree, as if they suppose a person is pulling pine cones.
Which brings me to what goes on at PretBlog & between the hyperpreterist blogs. Sometimes, casual observes may think that what PretBlog does in exposing & interacting with hyperpreterists the way we do is a wrong approach. These people may rather think we should write lots of academic papers (& we have). But there is also a time to open the bag & show people that there is a bagworm inside. There is a time to educate people to show them this bagworm ISN’T part of the tree & is actually destructive to the tree. Doing that sometimes gets messy for people who aren’t prepared. As a matter of fact, if I cut open a bag of a bagworm, it would probably not only “offend” or turn off some people, but it would gross them out. (see inside a bagworm bag). In the same way, readers & participants at PretBlog need to know this isn’t a nice, little tidy exercise. (My wife wouldn’t help remove the bagworms even if she wore gloves) Sometimes, difficult & not so pleasing things will need to be done. In the past few weeks, as we interacted with a few hyperpreterists we have been able to show how tricky & untrustworthy they are in how they approach things & what processes they use to even conclude the most basic things — such as thinking a reference to a whale must mean we were making fun of their weight — the context had nothing to do with weight.
So, next time you see things get a bit yucky on PretBlog, think of pulling a bagworm from a tree. It isn’t glamorous work but it must be done to keep the Tree healthy.
Roderick:
First, nice looking back yard! Second, the bagworm was something I have never seen before. Third, it was an excellent analogy for your thesis. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed the garden. Thank God for His cosmological creation. The bagworm is even a better analogy than I could muster in the article. If you look at the picture, you will notice the bag is formed by taking bits of the tree and weaving it around the silken bag, making it look even more like it is part of the tree. Heresies do all they can to look like they are part of Christianity, all the while they suck the lifeblood out of anyone that dares let them dangle from their branches.
It is not “hateful” to remove these parasites from the Tree.
Larry’s comments will be deleted from any of my postings. I don’t consider him an honest participant as
To me, it just seems that Larry is trying to fit into the the movement any way he can. He first tried to be Don Preston’s right hand man. Then he wanted to hang out with the Sam & Jason pony-show & now he wants to be a hero to the Lavern & Shirley of hyperpreterism.
I have no interest in your on going, contradictions Larry. I wait for the day I receive an email in my inbox from you with the subject line — “I renounce hyperpreterism”. Until then, don’t bother.
I won’t be pulling any bagworms! Eww! We don’t have those in Florida, at least I don’t think so, but I had this lizard in my backyard that looked like it escaped from Jurassic park.
http://www.preteristsite.com/images/lizard.JPG
I kid you not. That thing could eat a small child.
You know I have a soft spot for Larry, but he has the peculiar behaviour pattern of a hyperpreterist where when I shut him down here, he just had to keep arguing for hyperpreterism by email, two times. I don’t get that kind of stuff. I highly oppose dispensationalism, but if one of my dispensationalist friends says cut it out, I cut it out. I don’t have the missionary zeal to force them to hear me at all costs.
Which to me is another evidence, as hyperpreterists themselves have admitted (at SGP, so of course I can’t give you the link) that hyperpreterism IS the Gospel. Even those who don’t say it, betray that belief by their actions.
It is also another mark of a cult/cultic movement.
With regards to the recent happenings, I am pretty much done over there, unless something that has real substance comes up.
Someone actually alleged it was a hypocrisy to tell Bowers that he couldn’t actively proselytize hyperpreterism here, and then later posting his deceptive questionaire for rebuttal. That kind of logic is just baffling, and there is no way you can even talk sense into that. And the fact that the two gals that I know have smarts don’t bother to point that out just solidifies it for me that it is a cheerleading pool. No offense Larry, I don’t think you would look good in a miniskirt and saddle shoes, so if I want to see cheerleading I will watch it on TV.
The obligatory death of a thousand disclaimers: The above was not intended to indicate that anyone is a cross-dresser or to impugn the sport of cheerleading. I am not suggesting that Larry wouldn’t look good in a skirt due to weight or any other reason other than he is a guy, and quite honestly, unless we are talking kilt, I don’t want to see any guy in a skirt, and unless we are talking golf, the saddle shoes can be left out too.
On another note, I don’t wear miniskirts as I find them immodest unless perhaps worn with leggings, it depends, but I love me some saddleshoes.
Wow Dee Dee,
What a lizard. Inquiring minds want to know - what did you do about him?
Rod,
I loved the bagworm comparison. I run into people all the time who think heresies are blatant and we will just recognize them because they are so different. The fact is, many of them are such a close resemblance that it takes a great deal of knowledge to recognize them.
It’s like your bagworm. I wouldn’t know that to be an enemy if I saw it. I don’t know a thing about them. It would take someone who does know to point it out. Left to my own devices, it would take time for me to observe and realize the bagworm is not a natural part of that tree. Your sharing would shorten my learning curve.
You know, I have collected depression glass for years. There are patterns that have been reproduced and are not that old and hold little value. If you don’t know which ones and the subtle differences between them, you can be deceived into buying a reproduction and pay a lot of money for a piece that isn’t legit. In reproduction, they are use the same mold as the originals but the recipe used to make glass has changed. Sometimes it can make the color slightly different. Since glass is seldom made with metals today, they won’t glow under a black light. In some cases, those who reproduced them do us a favor and input a recognizable sign. It doesn’t mean people won’t still be deceived, but at least the reproduction is applying some degree of integrity to their work by revealing this is something new.
Knowing the characteristics of reproductions and imitations versus the real thing takes knowledge and yes, character does matter.
Unfortunately, when I point out the characteristics of a piece of glassware revealing it to be a reproduction, those duped will sometimes get mad, want to argue it and nothing will convince them that what they hold is an imitation. But, there are a few who do come to grasp the differences and realize that while they suffered a loss it resulted in gain because they are the wiser for it.
I let the lizard go on his merry way. I wasn’t about to touch the thing. We get all kinds of interesting wildlife in our back yard because of the lake back there.
I love it when we great the Great Herons, those suckers are huge. They are almost as tall as I am.