Friday, April 18, 2008

Anonymous Reformers

My day is too full to write the post, so the graphic will have to do.



Thank you.

6 comments:

Turretinfan said...

Are you saying that Luther and Calvin wrote anonymously?

Anonymous said...

If they're anonymous, how do you know who they are?

Mark T. said...

TF,

In order, the images are Luther, Bucer, Knox, and my avatar. There is no image of Calvin. I took the Luther reference from a comment written by a fairly knowledgeable pastor on GB; I learned about Bucer from this post on Reformed Catholicism. Historians have established Knox’s anonymous work (I could find the reference if you’re interested), though Wilson ducked the subject in his biography of the saint.

Regarding Calvin, I have heard but never confirmed that he used pseudonyms when he traveled. The MO is consistent with other Reformers but I don’t know if it’s true.

Anon,

Yer funny.

Anonymous said...

speaking of the ninth commandment, didn't I read something about Pastor Wilson filing a police report regarding dirty underwear in his mailbox and implicating some of his Moscow critics without evidence or witnesses?

Mark T. said...

Yes, the Fearless Leader files police reports to falsely accuse members of the community who criticize him: “Anonymity Part III: The Great Protector” — I wonder why no one in the CREC gets up in arms about that.

Anonymous said...

I think the historical pattern from those reformers who wrote anonymously is that anonymity can be justified under such circumstances that *illegitimate* reprisal can be expected from the one being criticized. That is, non-ecclesiastical forms of retaliation. But I doubt that Mark T. or Knox are and were really worried about phone calls to their session (so to speak) for legitimate ecclesiastical discipline.

Hopefully Mark T. has found a sound church to worship in and be accountable to. If so, then he has no obligation to open himself to attacks from a "church" that is really a sect, and is not accountable to other churches because it is part of a congregationalist confederation, not a presbyterian system of government. Nor is he obligated to give his name to a pastor who has no real accountability himself, seeing as how it would take a unanimous vote from the fellow co-conspirators in his session to remove him from office.

If Mark T. has no accountability on account of his anonymity, then the fact that Wilson has no accountability on account of his institutional insulation is surely no better.