Hello Markdf10825! Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. If you decide that you need help, check out Wikipedia:Where to ask a question, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Below are some recommended guidelines to facilitate your involvement. Happy Editing! —Khoikhoi02:20, 26 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for your input on the emerging church movement article. I think I speak for all of the editors in welcoming you to the lively and sometimes intense discussion involved in putting the article together. You will find that we have an excessive amount of discussion archived. Reading through these will help you see how the article has taken the form it has. It is not perfect by any means, but I think we have hammered out a reasonable compromise over a long period of time after much debate. I believe I understand your concerns about the Moreland quote and I intend to answer them on the discussion page (give me a day or two since I am not feeling well at all at the moment). I hope you don't take my reference to "censoring" the article in my editing comment the wrong way. We'll talk more about that too if you like. Please know that I (and I am sure the other editors as well) welcome all well written iput. Writing quality has, unfortunately been an emotional issue among some editors -- as an ex English teacher I am a stickler for quality, but others don't seem to understand why an encyclopedia should not be a refuge for their poor edits. Still, given the controversial nature of the topic, if you are able to handle the sometimes forthright exchanges, PLEASE join us and help make this article a good one.Will393503:23, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Hey, it's me again, feeling a little better. I hope you do not feel intimidated or upset by my communicating on your user talk page. It is a common practice among Wikipedians but I had a new user take offense at my doing so when I meant no harm. I responded to your edit on the discussion page and am pasting it here only as a convenience to you. I hope you are not upset or discouraged that your first edit on this article has been challenged. We need your input. Anyway, see my response to your edit below:
Answer to Mark
My answer to the following edit:
23:54, 6 March 2007 Markdf10825 (Talk | contribs) (Deleted this quote because without more context it was more incendiary than informative; what is the battle Moreland is referring to, who are the barbarians, etc.)
Mark (I hope I can call you that for short) I do appreciate your concern here. First, let me assure you that by "barbarians" Moreland does not mean emergents. What Moreland is referring to is the ageless battle between truth and error, light and darkness. I know these are not postmodern categories, but that is exactly the point. The quotation summarizes "modern" concerns with EC and thus serves as an articulate expression of such concerns. It is not our place to either endorse or reject the reasoning in the quote for all we are doing is using the quote to summarize Evangelical concerns. Certainly one has the right to disagree with Moreland and even to feel his comments are incendiary. Nevertheless, Moreland does succinctly state what other Evangelicals have expressed. We do not have to agree with these Evangelicals or even approve of the way they express themselves, but in an encyclopedia we are duty bound to relate the facts as well as we can. The fact is that Evangelicals have criticized EC and Moreland's quote summarizes their criticisms well. We must resist any temptation to censor these facts from Wikipedia just because we do not like the tone in which the one quoted speaks. Hope this helps clear up the reason why I maintain the quote should stay in order to make the article as accurate and articulate as possible. I believe that censoring this quote only takes away from the overall quality of the article. Will3935 13:20, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
