I've commented on the distinction of what is meant by "uconditional love" here:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/88921/1485813/post.ashx#1485813
Many thanks for your post. As usual we have more common ground together than not.
A pleasure, and I concur.
And this well illustrates why I believe it is unhealthy to take these boards too seriously or as Abaddon widely notes to invest more in them than is good for our emotional health.
I would agree. On the occasional times that I've had any concern that I was doing this, I took a break. Sometimes I've taken a break without this reason.
This is one person we are talking about here, but a wide variety of views on what this person is really like. How can we possibly attach more than a superficial weight to these boards and their personalities.
I take it that the "person" you are using as an example is yourself?
How much does "superficial" weigh?
As we invest time communicating with people, maybe online, maybe by phone, maybe by meeting, don't we grow an attachment? That seems to be a rather human preoccupation.
Maybe it's the result of inherited sin
I would have to ask you (rhetorically) how many people from the board you have met? Could this be one reason (maybe even a primary source) of your own disengagement? Another is very likely to do with our rearing and culture.
I'll take up again the example of Simon, if I may. I really like the guy. I've met him several times, and he's fun-loving and cute, though he's never invited me to join himself and Ang in a menage au trois. For that he's a b*st*rd! I know he'll blame it on not being able to get a babysitter, but I don't believe that for a minute....
...anyway, I digress... He's also got an unfortunate way of wording things on political subjects that really gets under some peoples' skin. It doesn't really affect me personally so much, as I'm not all that bothered by politics, though I know some are passionate about it. I personally visualise him chuckling away like Mutley, as another batch of Americans rise to the bait.
Then it all gets rather personal and distasteful, and everyone starts falling out. I see posters whom I have grown to appreciate the comments of, whom I have met and liked, dropping like flies (I know, an exaggeration, I confess). I find that irksome, and have PMed him about it on occasion. Sometimes I'm pissed with him, and sometimes he's pissed with me. Sometimes he's pissed with someone who he has no particular reason to like, and not suprisingly the axe falls.
Still we get on just fine both online and in person. Why is that?
Is it because LittleToe is a jolly good fellow /doesn't conflict in politics / knows when to drop it / isn't a "stirrer"/ is a reasonably congenial communicator / is consistant on and offline / knows how to play the game of life / hypnotises the opposition? I suspect some of the above are mutually exclusive, so they can't all apply.
I've challenged Simon and other mods on and offline, and have still succeeded in only being edited once over a jest (albeit some threads that I've contributed to have occasionally disappeard). Why is that? Because I don't do it very often and I do it in a "nice" way? Sheesh, what a great epitaph that would be - "Here lies little toe. He was... ... he was... ... "nice"
I don't really want to carry on on the subject of moderators, as that's sailing a little too close to the wind for my liking, but it illustrates the point that I'm trying to make. We build relationships with people based on communication, whether online or offline. That affects our actions, either positively or negatively. To expect otherwise would surely be to expect us to transcend our human nature? We might "mask" it for a while, but occasionally the mask will slip (knew I could bring this back on topic, if I tried hard enough!).
On the point of unconditional love, as a Christian I must ask whether you feel that God and Christ love unconditionally? For example, when Jesus said his followers would receive their full measure of his love *if* the listened to his message, surely he made friendship with him conditional.
That would depend on your theology, with some "Universalists" believing just that. Personally I have difficulty with the idea of Hitler in heaven and reconciling alleged records of him talking about a fiery hell and a bedarkened one.
But as you likely know, I generally don't like the pigeonhole of "Christianity" being applied to me for the sake of argument, as I am hardly orthodox.
I believe that God loves those whom He loves unconditionally, but that might be my bias towards Calvinistic "eternal salvation" shining through. As I stated on the other thread, that's different from unbounded unconditional love for ???? where do you set the bounds? humans, insects, vegetables, minerals, atoms???
I do know that I personally have "love" for some people that I don't particularly like. Perhaps we're then getting back ionto the realms of symantics, though.
