Outline of my interactions with Ember and Convallaria:
My first response to Ember (which was only asking for clarification)
Here.
1st example of Ember focusing on what she perceived as offensive, while ignoring the heart of what was said by another member,
Here.
This continued for a few posts, as the user (whom she was accusing) clarified his words. Meanwhile, she ignored my inquiry and lashed out at me,
Here.
At this point, Ember does not add to the conversation while many others do.
She eventually re-enters with this,
Here. (Basically stating that she thinks her shortness, her accusations, and her offensive remarks towards Vigilant_Warrior are warranted, because she has read enough of his posts to "knows enough about VW's thoughts" and thus, feels justified.
She continues this emotional rollercoaster of comments -- basically slandering VW,
Here.
She gave a brief attempt at actually being open to discussion,
Here. VW responds,
Here. Ember responds,
Here (briefly touches on her point and then immediately moves on the the emotional mumbo-jumbo. VW points out her error,
Here.
Meanwhile, my initial inquiry to her remains unanswered -- my impression of her at this point, is that she is not interested in opening up to actual biblical discussion, but has a vendetta for the "tough love" guys' choice of words.
Evidence that my motives are pure:
Here. (Not tooting my own horn, but I was able to clarify someone else's words -- good came of this.)
She continues to badger VW,
Here. (Still ignoring my inquiry.)
Her vendetta continues,
Here.
Not sure what to call this besides "continuing the drama",
Here.
At this point in the conversation, I am still defending Convallaria from what myself (and others) perceived as negative and offensive attitudes,
Here. It was only after some time, careful consideration, and re-reading of posts that I finally realized that VW, Roger, and others DID CLARIFY their statements (or were never directly offensive toward any single member). Once I realized this, I
apologized to those individuals and began to attempt to show Convallaria and Ember what I had learned. At this point, Convallaria began to ignore most of my following posts while Ember resorted to publicly attacking my character (as well as others).
Ember takes this cue to re-enter the conversation and makes it quite clear that she is actively judging and classifying people,
Here.
But she fails to heed her own advice and observations minutes later,
Here.
She continues her vendetta,
Here. (Would have been a really good point to actually debate Rogers words, instead she publicly dismisses them.)
More misunderstandings and destructive rants based on those misunderstandings,
Here.
Once again, 100-something posts later, Ember is still fixed on what she perceived as offensive in VW's post -- never once did I see her attempt to address his valid points,
Here.
She does the same with Roger,
Here.
Continuation of previous misunderstanding (thread has to be completely derailed by now -- it's sad, too, because several people attempted genuine discussion),
Here and
Here.
Her vendetta with Roger continues,
Here.
Each time she posts to this thread, I'm reminded of how she ignored my inquiry and refuses to discuss with anyone -- the only thing that is obviously in her interest, is accusing people of accusing people.
Here. I called her out for it,
Here. Meanwhile she does it to someone else,
Here. She clarifies,
Here. Says she's ending her vendetta with Roger,
Here.
Her friend, Convallaria, displays her understanding of Roger's words,
Here. But I think she fails to fully understand. He is explaining his motivation for participation, she is focusing on his choice of words and making character accusations.
Roger sums the entirety (almost) of this thread,
Here.
Not sure what Ember means by this post, but it is evident that she is weary and feels she is fighting something (probably that vendetta),
Here.
I show that I am guilty of that which I am now attempting to bring to Convallaria and Ember's attention,
Here. It's easy to misunderstand people or take their words out of context, it's not always easy to resolve this when it occurs. With Convallaria and Ember, it's next-to-impossible for a few reasons: They ignore early posts, but respond to latter posts -- often times much of this nonsense could have been avoided, if they would have just read the previous posts.
Convallaria calls others in the thread "heretics" and basically includes me in that group,
Here. Also, her assessment of me is inaccurate; she sees me as agreeing with those whom she is accusing of attacking her -- I was never necessarily agreeing with them, I simply understood what they said and meant. Furthermore, I tried to assist at eliminating misunderstandings in this thread, however, in time it became apparent that neither of these two are interested in gaining an understanding of another person's view(s) -- they're solely interested in eliminating attacks upon their view(s). (Might I add: If you don't want your opinion to be challenged, why post a thread about "tongue speaking" in a 'Bible Discussion' forum?)
Some time went by, I was unable to return to thread participation as quickly as I would have liked. A new person entered the thread, "RickyZ", who shared a personal story. Ricky displayed, to the users of the thread, that he had mostly read what others had posted -- he replied to several comments, before sharing his story. I'll admit, I took a chance (at creating misunderstandings) with my post,
Here. (Which is to Ricky, but I place it here in this timeline because this is the point where Ember says she is done with the thread, but later returns,
Here. Also, at this point, I am very frustrated with Convallaria because she continues to respond to new posts while leaving the previous situation unresolved.)
Theme of this story,
Here.
Another ignored point to Convallaria,
Here. (Note: At this point, we are at Post #300 and the unresolved issue between Vigilant_Warrior, Convallaria, Ember, and myself [and others?] is concerning Post #11)
Convallaria gives "advice" to me,
Here.
I tried to show her how her "advice" was received,
Here. (It seems to me, that Convallaria is advising me to ignore wise counsel, ignore my elders, ignore biblical commentary, ignore dictionaries -- and only rely on myself, my God, my Bible. I question this -- I question ignoring all of the tools God has given me [and others].)
Convallaria has the audacity to tell Gr8grace that he is in spiritual danger,
Here.
She addresses me again,
Here.
Gives definite answers which leave no room for debate,
Here. (Even though every source I have found agrees that this is a debatable topic.)
Says others' statements are not true -- but rarely (if ever) shows why [she thinks] they're not true,
Here.
***She continues to challenge my authenticity as a Christian,
Here. (She's attempting to teach me that there is a distinct difference between being "saved" and being "born again", to the point that elludes that my salvation is in question -- this goes against the teachings I learned as a child and continue to learn as an adult. Frankly, it's borderline heresy.) I responded,
Here. Her response,
Here (It's nice that she attempted to be positive, however, in light of the previous, this was received as continuing to ignore the heart of the matter!)
By now, it is obvious that Convallaria also has a vendetta with Roger,
Here.
Another member calls her out for it,
Here.
She dodges, and focuses on [corrupting] me,
Here.
Another who has shared a similar experience as me,
Here.
Yet another,
Here.
Moderator stepped in and reminded/warned her of plagiarism,
Here.
I knew I had a busy weekend planned, but Convallaria weighed heavy on my heart. I did not want her to continue to falsely assume that I was now "siding" with those who she accused of attacking her -- but I did [do?] hope that she would, one day, understand.
Here.
---begin weekend---
I returned to find that Ricky had posted some more in the thread, and
here is Convallaria's affirmation and reply to Ricky (which reveals that she "draws a line" and decides who is on her side and who is not -- furthermore, it reveals that she is not open, but set in her understanding....again, I wonder: Why does someone post in a "BIBLE DISCUSSION" forum, if they are not OPEN TO DISCUSSION?)
Roger shares the same frustration as myself (and others),
Here (with regards to placing value on emotion while dismissing biblical interpretation).
Ember enters again,
Here. She admits that she ignores Roger's words. She admits she has a vendetta with Vigilant_Warrior and calls him arrogant. She says she went back and read all the threads (but still missed my initial question to her??). She goes on to make a reference to my response to Ricky's story (simultaneously admitting that she did not actually read the conversation between Ricky and I). And finishes with a warning to me.
Convallaria responds with an affirmation to Ember,
Here.
More confessions,
Here.
Vigilant_Warrior's conclusion,
Here.
Ember's response to VW's conclusion,
Here notice she completely ignores anything of substance and only focuses on assumptions (border-line gossip, no?).
Similarly to Roger, Phil112 uses harsh words which, for the first time ever, I see Ember respond in kindness,
Here.
Ember continues her vendetta with Roger,
Here.
--Not complete; but this seems like a good time to post.
