[FoRK] God Of Love redux

[Dr. Ernie Prabhakar]

Hi Ian,

On Feb 19, 2008, at 9:32 AM, Ian Andrew Bell wrote:
> Well, I would argue there's a problem tagging Pastor Drake as simply  
> a random idiot who happens to be Christian, given that he's a duly- 
> appointed/anointed representative of the faith, presumably endorsed  
> all the way up to the Big Guy Himself.

Um, actually, no.  If he was a Catholic priest, then one could perhaps  
make the claim that ecclesiastic and apostolic tradition qualify as  
direct evidence of divine favor.

In the Protestant churches, preachers typically are ordained by (and  
speak on behalf of) their congregation.

At best, bishops are like the officers of the corporation, who have  
the to speak on behalf of the entire church.

> While he is clearly an idiot, he's an idiot speaking for the entire  
> faith.

No more so than I get to speak for all of physics just because I have  
a Ph.D. from Caltech.  Yeah, he's an embarrassment, but hardly a  
spokesperson.

Of course, if all you want to do is pick one random example and  
extrapolate that to slur thousands of other well-meaning individuals,  
then I guess he'll suffice.

-- Ernie P.