9a The Difficulties of a Conversation
Another of the recently discovered characteristics of Berean brethren is said to be this:
- RC's have a hard time hearing what you actually are saying because they are too busy looking for what they think you would be saying. Discussions with an RC may be difficult to impossible. In discussions with the 'outsider' they may see hostility and anger where none exists.
I really don't think it is that we have a hard time hearing what our Central "conservative" brother is saying, but rather that he can't say clearly what he believes, and so he has developed so many different subtleties to his belief on fellowship, that I'm not at all sure the Central "conservative" brother even knows what he is saying.
The Central "conservative" brethren cannot really make a clear argument against us. I have no doubt but that is why this attack is based on emotion and conjecture, rather than on Scriptural facts. When I say he "can't," I do not mean that he lacks capacity. Rather, I mean he can't do it because of the political turmoil in his own meeting. The instant the Central "conservative" brother makes the argument he wants to make against us, his Central "liberal" brother turns the argument right back upon him. Are we Bereans "hirelings" because we refuse to give the wolves standing amongst us? Yet there are Central "conservative" brethren who refuse admittance to their "liberal" counterparts. Does that make them a "hireling?" Make no mistake that Central "liberals" like George Booker and Harry Whittiaker use their same argument against them, to tell them they are.
So the only way they can deal with us is in this nebulous, vague, unscriptural manner, lest they give their "enemy" amunition.