Posted by Ed Brayton on June 22, 2006 Some time ago, I posted an essay showing why John Lofton, his website The American View, and the Constitution Party are dyed-in-the-wool theocrats bent on destroying our liberty. I posted it both here and at Positive Liberty. Today I got this comment from Lofton at PL:
Call me, please, Mr. Brayton, at 410-760-8885. Thank you. John Lofton.
How do I say this politely? “No”. If you have anything in my post to dispute, Mr. Lofton, please post it here where everyone can see it.
Do you really think the best response is to post the man’s phone number in your blog?
Oh, wait. He posted that himself on PL? Never mind!
Yeah, if that had been in a private email, I wouldn’t have posted it. But he posted it publicly as a comment himself.
But he can’t do it in the comments section of your blog! The old “is-your-refrigerator-running?” gag only works over the phone.
I did a very quick perusal of his blog and it looks like he posts but doesn’t participate in comments. I’d bet he wants you to call because he’s more comfortable talking to you “in-person” than through back-and-forth positings. To keep everything on the up-and-up, tell him you want to record the conversation and that you’re going to report on it on your blog. Encourage him to do the same.
Does he like his pizza with mushrooms?(from Dominos of course)
There is a cognitive dissonance on the religious right that is hard for any rational mind to fathom. Every part of their social agenda has the goal of restricting individual liberty, on issues such as marriage, adoption, contraception, abortion, medical practice, and even scientific research. There is no faction today that is more dangerous to American liberty.
Yet they are fond of the word. Do they have the slightest idea what it means?
I would have blocked his number out even though he did post it in the comments of PL. Posting his number on the internet was a pretty foolish thing for him to do (at least I think it is) so I’d have done him a favor and not repeated the mistake.
Mr. Brayton your piece is good, solid and correct. I regret that you did not take Mr. Lofton to task for his misstatement of the purpose of government. Jefferson noted in the Declaration of Independence that governments are established among humans to secure the blessings of liberty, and that just governments derive their authority from the consent of those people governed — not from God.
Lofton’s claims that governments owe a duty to God to persecute anyone is legally specious — and morally specious as well, I would argue.
What legitimate reason could he have for wanting to take the conversation to the telephone?
Ed –
It is a standard position of theocrats/creationists/etc to try to avoid written debate, especially in open settings. If it’s written down, it can be fact checked. Appeals to emotion, logical fallicies, even possibly direct or indirect threats all work far better in unrecorded voice form.
Radstock:
Quite right, which is why I insist on not letting them avoid such things.
Simple, call him up and tell him that you are recording the conversation. You could do it with Skype, your cell phone memo button, or something like that. Then just post the audio here. 
‘Course if you tried that, you’d hear a prompt *click.*
It’s a good thing too. I’ve seen Lofton debate publicly. He’s quite creepy. He has no bones about making it clear that he would execute homosexuals, adulterers, etc., in his first best government world.
I’m sure that a private phone conversation with him would be extremely bizarre to say the least.
June 22, 2006
June 22, 2006
June 22, 2006