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(Esteemed RM: I blew it in my first attempt tp post this. Could I ask you to delete the previous sanctimonious rant in favor of this one?)

Guys, please forgive me if I come across all sanctimonious and everything. And don't for a minute think that I am claiming any kind of moral superiority or even success in controlling myself on threads such as these.

But, with that apology and introduction, may I implore you not to descend to the level of abuse to which we have been subjected?

While it's not a view I hold, as I hope is evident, there is a persistent strand or trajectory among some Xtians that involves the solas and the sense of OSAS, and it's not on its face groundless.

Kierkegaard says that you can't fall out of Love, which is kind of a OSAS attitude, and one could be forgiven for getting that view from parts of, say, Romans 8, where we are told that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

And while certainly some people in this school SEEM to fulfill the ancient definition of:
A Christian is a man who feels
Repentance on a Sunday
For what he did on Saturday
And is gonna do on Monday,
Still my experience is that I can confess the same sin year after year after year and feel like I'm making no headway on it, but am Still confident that God is eager to work with me to unhook me from that particular set of chains. So I share their confidence that though my sins be scarlet, I can turn again and again back to a God of whose acceptance I am confident. So we're not THAT far apart, maybe.

I think the article on which this thread crystallized is ludicrous and embarrassing, but I see beauty in our separated brethren's insistence on the unmerited redeeming love of God in Christ Jesus, even if we have serious and grievous differences about a number of important issues.

So, as I say, forgive me and don't throw this in my face when I fall, as I almost certainly will, but, well, I'd like to ask you to be gentle.

Feel free to ignore me. I'll probably be my usual nasty self in a minute or two.