| Author | Message | ||
| Ric_b Registered user Username: Ric_b Post Number: 2216 Registered: 7-2004  |
The current scrutiny of Ben Carson's stories has an eerily familiar feel to it. I'm not sure that I can adequately put this in words. There are some common themes: A person's "bad" behavior in the past must be highlighted and even exaggerated in order to make the "change" of their conversion experience even more remarkable. An exaggeration of poverty would also fit well into this theme of how much needed to be "overcome". Combine those themes with this inexplicable Adventist trait of being attracted to bizarre and/or paranoid explanations (like the pyramids being storehouses of grain), and I feel this weird sense of deja vu. | ||
| Resjudicata Registered user Username: Resjudicata Post Number: 646 Registered: 4-2014 |
The Adventist trait of "being attracted to bizarre and paranoid explanations" is not "inexplicable." Adventism is a multi-billion dollar business, founded on the proposition that Colossians 2 does not mean what it says and that something DID happen on October 22, 1844. The evidence against both of those propositions is simply mountainous. It's "bizarre and public explanations" are a cynical cash cow, pure and simple. | ||
| Lettlander Registered user Username: Lettlander Post Number: 15 Registered: 8-2015 |
The richest caveman, anyone? ;) | ||
| Ric_b Registered user Username: Ric_b Post Number: 2220 Registered: 7-2004 |
Same story, different verse | ||
| Butterfly_poette Registered user Username: Butterfly_poette Post Number: 423 Registered: 5-2011  |
The Richest Caveman must be fabricated, at least somewhat. The Terri Johnson story seems exaggerated to me. Completely. The guy was an honor guard for a few US presidents. He claimed he gave a tract to Snoop Dogg the rapper. He also claimed he had a sort of ministry where kids could have fun and play games together to get them off the streets. Two rival gangs, the Crips and the Bloods came there and actually started having fun together instead of beating each other up. I think it's all made up. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 15366 Registered: 12-2003  |
The Richest Caveman was both horrifying and telling. It failed, however, to mention that Doug wasn't in that cave basically alone. Some old videos on YouTube and a documentary telling the story of Lonnie Frisbee, one of the early preachers at the early Calvary Chapel and later of the Vineyard Church, shows frames of a young Doug Batchelor in the crowd of people listening to Lonnie Frisbee, who hung out in Tahquitz Canyon, performing a baptism at the beach. In 2001 a Los Angeles Times reporter did a feature article on Tahquitz Canyon. One of the people she interviewed and quotes is—you guessed it—Doug Batchelor. This paragraph is taken from the article:
There was a commune of young "hippies" who hung out in that cave where Doug Batchelor was. Doug was not alone there. You can read the whole article (which is very interesting and put "The Richest Caveman" in a particular perspective) here: http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jan/14/magazine/tm-12041/2 Colleen | ||
| Chris Registered user Username: Chris Post Number: 1856 Registered: 7-2003  |
One Christmas, I traveled with my wife and her extended family to her grandparents place in rural North Dakota. Her grandmother was depressed over some recent events and had uncharacteristically not prepared for Christmas, not even a tree. Out of share boredom, my B-I-L and I suited up and went out walking in the dark in gale force blizzard winds on Christmas Eve. Long story short, we found an already cut Christmas tree laying in the middle of a deserted street, brought it back to the house, decorated it, and Christmas cheer ensued. Great story. True story. My B-I-L wrote it up and submitted it to a SDA publication. I read his draft then read what was published. The story had been completely rewritten in someone else's voice and style with many narrative changes and embellishments. It bore his name, but definitely wasn't his piece anymore. It was kind of shocking to me and to him as well I believe. It is absolutely common and acceptable for editors to do rewrites to make a piece better. However, it is not acceptable to take someone else's story and write it in a completely different voice, different style, and change and embellish the narrative (particularly when it is supposed to be a true story). An editor's job, in my opinion, is to make a piece better, but retain the author's intent, style, and narrative or main points. I guarantee that Stephen King has extensive editorial input on his books, but they always sound like Stephen King and not someone else. His editors may rewrite sections of his books, but they're always careful to write like him and preserve his narratives. They probably also get input from him on major revisions. This isn't a problem, but what some SDA publications seem to do is an issue in my opinion. I just don't get what would give an editor license to take someone's true story told in the first person, create a fiction, and publish it under that person's name with no dialogue on the matter. It smacks of dishonesty to me, but maybe I'm being too tough on them. (Message edited by Chris on April 26, 2016) | ||
| Butterfly_poette Registered user Username: Butterfly_poette Post Number: 427 Registered: 5-2011 |
Chris, that is crazy that your story kept getting changed around. I have also heard many stories in SDA sermons and worship talks that I heard again and again that kept getting changed each time I heard them. Colleen, thank you for the link on The Richest Caveman. I used to hand out those books in Korea, they were in both Korean and English. I read one of them there. I also had to hand out Adventist World. blah. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 15371 Registered: 12-2003 |
Sigh. I agree, Chris...that's dishonest. Interesting to find these things out that way...by experience... Colleen | ||
| Freeatlast Registered user Username: Freeatlast Post Number: 940 Registered: 5-2002  |
Hmm... taking the written work of another author, rearranging it, giving it a new "voice", embellishing, adding and deleting details, while following the overall organization of the original... Are you sure Ellen G. White didn't edit your BIL's work? |
